First Sunday of Lent

“Support us, Lord, as with this Lenten fast we begin our Christian warfare, so that in doing battle against the spirit of evil we may be armed with the weapon of self-denial”. With this prayer on Ash Wednesday we began the holy season of Lent. Its military imagery is striking, and it is good to be reminded that we are all engaged in spiritual warfare. In fact, we are engaged in this every day of our Christian lives. The best tactic of the Enemy is to lull us into complacency so that we don’t even believe the war is on-going. But the Church stirs our souls, and strengthens us for battle during Lent, and she arms us with the weapons of prayer and self-denial.

The Enemy is not some vague notion of evil, or just our own weakness, or a psychological construct. Rather, the Devil is a real creature, his will fixed on evil and on thwarting God’s plan. As the Pope said in his Lenten Message this year, “the devil is at work and never tires – even today – of tempting whoever wishes to draw close to the Lord”. We can be sure that if he dares to tempt Christ that he will be even bolder in tempting us, but as the first reading says, Satan is “more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made”. So, we have to be vigilant. It’s also important to note that Satan is a creature, and therefore, subject to God. God allows us to be tempted – but never beyond our strength – so that we will be strengthened through temptation, and shame the Devil by showing him what victory grace can accomplish. In fact, Satan ordinarily only tempts us, and he can only succeed if we let him.

The first reading shows us how Satan works. He sows doubt about God’s command, making it seem unreasonable. He then lies, and directly contradicts God’s Word. Satan appeals to Man’s pride, and makes God appear to be oppressive to the human spirit, an obstacle to Man’s greater good. All this is a lie, and contrary to the truth of who God is, and what he desires for us – our final good and salvation. Man then falls for the lie because the Devil has exploited some weakness in us: our desire for power, carnal pleasure, creature comforts; or pride, sense of dignity, or what we think we’re entitled to; rights without duties. Satan’s temptation only works if it is parasitic on some good; it has to be attractive to us in itself, and the Devil perverts whatever good we perceive to his own end, which is that we should rebel against God just as he did. So, Eve actually saw the forbidden fruit to be desirable, and thus she was seduced into believing that her desires overrode the wisdom of God. She stopped trusting in Him. Often Man believes that he knows better than God what is truly good for him. And moreover, having sinned, Man then leads others to sin; Eve shares the fruit with Adam. And then, they blame the Devil for their sin. But we can’t do that. Because although the Devil tempts us, he does not make us sin. Only we can choose to follow our misplaced desires, so the blame falls on us, and the Devil then becomes our Accuser, as he’s called in the book of the Apocalypse.

But Christ does not leave us accused and guilty. His Spirit pleads for us, as our advocate, and his grace is poured into our hearts to protect and strengthen us. So Lent is called a joyful time as we take up the weapons of prayer and self-denial so that we can turn towards God, and so be liberated from guilt and sin.

But first we have to be awakened to see what is happening, and today’s readings spell it out. There is a battle for our souls, and the Devil wants us to believe his lies, and follow whatever we desire. “Just indulge yourself”, we’re told, and there are so many ways to rationalize and justify giving in to our emotions and desires. Jesus was hungry and exhausted by the time the Devil tempted him in the desert, but he set his will on obeying God to the end. And that meant denying himself even what was his due; sacrificing genuinely good things, and mastering the will for the love of God. By his grace – and only through a humble reliance on God’s grace – we too can shame the Devil, and mortify the desires of the flesh and our proud willfulness. Then, having died with Christ, we can be certain on Easter day that God will raise us up with him too.