Satan's most dangerous attack

Temptation and the Fall of Eve by William Blake

Homily: 10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B

          Although we’ve been back in “Ordinary Time” for a couple of weeks now, we’ve been occupied with the celebrations of Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi.  This weekend, we celebrate the first “ordinary” Sunday in Ordinary Time since February 11^th.  As we know, Ordinary Time is the time for us to focus on growing as disciples of Christ.  One of the ways that we do that is to identify and remove any obstacles to our discipleship.  Interesting, therefore, that our scriptures today speak a lot about the enemies of God and their influence in the world.  Perhaps, therefore, we can take a moment to talk about the ways that Satan attacks us.  In doing so, hopefully we’ll all be a little less fearful of these ways and, thus, strengthened to resist Satan and his influence as we strive to grow and live as disciples of Christ.

          Satan attacks us in many ways: some of them quite dramatic and frightening.  The rarest, yet most dramatic of these of is demonic possession.  This is where an evil spirit gains access to control a person’s body.  Almost always this occurs when someone gets involved with the occult, spiritsm, or witchcraft (Ouija boards included!).  There’s the old legend that a “vampire can’t enter your house unless you invite him.”  The invitation that one gives to an evil spirt isn’t always explicit, but when participating in these “dark arts” activities, the door is opened and a “Welcome” mat is laid out.

          One who has been possessed by an evil spirit will then begin to experience “crises”, in which the evil spirit temporarily takes control of the person’s body and can manifest certain phenomena, such as: extraordinary physical strength and speaking and understanding languages that the person never studied.  To free the person of this evil spirit, the Church offers exorcism.  Exorcism consists of a series of prayers and sacramentals performed by a priest who has been specially trained and designated by the bishop.  This ritual makes the demon suffer so much that, eventually (and if the person is cooperative) the demon will just give up and leave.  Although Hollywood tends to overdramatize the acting out of these rituals, they are, nonetheless, dramatic.  Thankfully, however, the need for such exorcisms is much rarer than Hollywood would like you to believe.

          Besides possession, there are also some other extra-ordinary ways that Satan attacks us.  Sometimes, Satan and his fallen angels cause frightening physical disturbances in certain places or even to our own bodies.  These can take the forms of loud or strange noises, slamming doors or windows, being moved around physically by an invisible force, or even more alarming effects.  When these physical disturbances are concentrated in certain places (a home or a room), they are called demonic infestation.  When they directly affect someone's body (not from within, as in possession, but from the outside) they are called demonic oppression.  When they bother someone's mind (filling it constantly with blasphemous thoughts), they are called demonic obsession.  Blessings, holy water, and other prayers and sacramentals are strong defenses against these kinds attacks.

          These extra-ordinary kinds of attacks are, of course, dramatic and frightening.  But they are much, much less frequent, and much, much less dangerous than the Satan’s favorite tactic for attacking us.  What is it?  Temptation.  While possession, infestation, oppression, and obsession can frighten us (and potentially cause us to lose faith in God), they usually lead us to exercise our faith in order to be rid of them.  Temptation, on the other hand, tries to lead us into sin; and sin is the only thing that separate us from God.  Thus, while much less frightening (in fact, it’s often quite the opposite!), temptation is much more dangerous.

          If we need an example of this, just look at Adam and Eve.  Satan did not possess them, he did not make the trees dance around inexplicably, he didn’t bully them (pushing them around or disturbing their sleep), and he didn’t assail them constantly with thoughts of cursing God.  Rather, he tempted them.  He tempted them to doubt God’s truthfulness and they took the bait.  Having no other reason to keep from eating the fruit of that tree than that God had said not to, Eve perceived no harm could come from it and so took the fruit and ate it; and Adam after her.  Their blindness then removed, however, they could see the truth of what had happened and so felt ashamed.  When God came looking for them, they hid not because they were naked (although that is the excuse Adam used), but because they didn’t want to face God, whose trust they had betrayed.

          What happens next in the reading, however, leaves me feeling a bit jealous of Adam and Eve.  God’s punishment against the serpent was that there would be “enmity” between him and Eve: meaning that Eve would now be frightened to see the serpent, so that she would never trust him or his temptations ever again.  In other words, Adam and Eve would know their tempter and so be better equipped to resist the temptations.

          We are not so lucky.  When we are tempted, quite rarely is our tempter visible to us.  If he is, it is usually someone who seems rather friendly or trustworthy.  It would be so much easier if all our tempters were repulsive to us, right?, like the serpent was made repulsive to Eve.  Still more, because of our fallen nature, we suffer from a disordered desire for the things of this world (which our tradition calls “concupiscence”).  In this case, all we have is the forbidden fruit before our eyes, which looks “pleasing to the eyes”, and which, perhaps, has never been explicitly declared to be “forbidden”, and an urge to take it.  Adam and Eve had a lot more going for them and they still fell into sin.  Given our situation, then, our efforts to resist temptation might seem hopeless.

          For the Christian, however, it is not hopeless; and Jesus’ parables in the Gospel reading show us why.  In today’s reading, Jesus was accused of being possessed by the devil or being in “cahoots” with the devil himself.  Jesus condemns those calling him possessed: for in calling him “possessed by an evil spirit”, they were accusing the Holy Spirit of being evil (which is the unforgivable “sin against the Holy Spirit” about which he spoke).  Then he gives two parables to prove that he is not on Satan’s “team”, but rather stands against him.  The first using logic to say that a kingdom divided cannot stand; and so, if he is on Satan’s “team”, then don’t worry because Satan will soon fall.  The second to illustrate what he is actually doing:  Jesus is the one who has come to tie up the “strong man” (that is, Satan) so that he could “plunder his property” (that is, take back the souls of God’s children).

          This, then, is the reason for our hope: that when we can’t see the tempter working his wiles on us (either because he takes the form of someone seemingly trustworthy or because he introduces sinful thoughts), we nonetheless have the power of Christ available to us and his example of self-sacrifice to guide us to choose God’s will over our own, sinful inclinations.  Christ will bind the “strong man” once again when we call on him in temptation so that we might be liberated from his grasp.

          Still, we have to do our own work: that is, we must pray, frequent the sacraments (especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation), and we must practice virtue in our daily actions.  In doing these things, temptations will become increasingly repulsive to us, because we will be seeing the one who is tempting us, the serpent from the Garden, and we will be strengthened to overcome them.  This, my friends, is our “Ordinary Time” work: to make temptations repulsive so that we can stay focused on Jesus.  Let us take up this good work, then, trusting that God, who has begun this good work in us, will bring it to completion.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – June 9^th & 10^th, 2018

Christ crucified is essential

Homily: 5^th Sunday in Lent – Cycle B

          In the Gospel today, we encounter Christ in a liminal moment—that is, a transition… the proverbial “fork in the road”.  We know that he came for all people, but as he proclaimed multiple times throughout his public ministry, he came first for the Jews—the descendants of the ancient Israelites.  Nonetheless, his job was to fulfill the task that God had given to his chosen people from the beginning, which was to be a “light to all nations” so that all peoples would be drawn back to God.  Thus, in this reading, when the Greeks (that is, members of "the nations") come looking for Jesus, Jesus realizes that his "hour" had come (that is, the time for him to fulfill that for which he came).

          As he enters this moment he says a number of interesting things.  First, he reveals the utter fullness of his humanity and says, "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit."  Jesus sees that, while all that he had done so far has been good, he still must hand himself over to suffer and to die if he is to produce the fruit for which he came.  It's the kind of sober thing that you say when you realize that your “fate has been sealed”, so to speak.  Then he says "I am troubled now."  What human wouldn't be troubled knowing that immense suffering was coming their way?  He follows it with "But what else would I do?  This is why I came!"  In this we hear echoes of the letter to the Hebrews: "He learned obedience from what he suffered."  Then Jesus sets his sights clearly on the end: the cross.  "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself."

          While this last comment refers to the cross, it also refers to an image that any good first century Jew would have recognized; and it is something to which Jesus more specifically referenced earlier in the Gospel of John (we actually heard it read last week).  There, Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish religious court, who had come to Jesus trying to figure out who he was.  Jesus said to him: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  He is referring to the incident that occurred as the Israelites wandered through the desert on their exodus from Egypt, in which they complained one too many times against God for taking them from Egypt.  As a punishment, God sent poisonous serpents into their camp.  Many people were being bit by the serpents and were dying.  And so, they began to beg Moses to plead for relief from God, who instructed him to make a serpent out of bronze and mount it onto a pole so that it could be raised up and people could see it.  Anyone who had been bitten by a serpent, but who then looked at the bronze serpent with a repentant heart, was healed and lived.

          Jesus refers to this incident in order to make sense of his upcoming passion and death.  In the desert, the Israelites looked upon the image of the serpent, which was a sign of death to them and, thus, the image of the full weight of the punishment due to them.  In God’s paradoxical wisdom, however, the image of the punishment became the source of repentance and healing.  Jesus, in being crucified, takes this sign and brings it to fulfillment.  You see, when Jesus is crucified, the fullness of the punishment due to mankind is effected.  Therefore, the image lifted up is no longer a thing of fear, as the serpent was in the desert, which reminded the people of the punishment due to them, but rather it is a sign of hope, tinged with sorrow: hope, because those who acknowledge their sinfulness see in it one who has given himself over to pay the full debt of punishment due for their sins, and sorrow, because those same persons realize the pure innocence of the one who was sacrificed and that he truly did not deserve to suffer. 

          This image, the innocent one who suffered for our sake, and the reaction, sorrow for our sinfulness that caused him to suffer and die, yet with hope that our punishment has been fulfilled, has become the source of salvation for everyone.  Thus, the image of Jesus crucified fulfills what he said, that “when he is lifted up from the earth, he will draw everyone to himself”.  Anyone, therefore, who recognizes their own wretchedness has only one source of consolation: Jesus Christ crucified.

          This, my friends, is why we keep the image of the crucified Christ on our crosses.  Certainly, we honor the cross itself as the instrument on which our salvation was won for us, but it is Christ, who was crucified on the cross, that gives the cross its meaning.  Our non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters criticize us for keeping the image of the dead Christ on our crosses, saying that “Christ is no longer dead!  So we shouldn’t show him as if he is!”  But without the image of Christ’s dead body on the cross, the image of the cross loses the power that Christ intended it to have to draw all men and women to himself.  This is because the image of Christ crucified on the cross says to the one who recognizes his or her sinfulness and who sees no way out of it: “Look at the punishment due to your sins and take hope in me, because I have been punished for you!”

          And this, in a sense, is what we have been called to do during this Lent: to acknowledge our sinfulness and to look upon Christ, crucified on the cross, and, thus, to see the horrible punishment due to us because of our sins; and then to repent from them, knowing that Christ has been punished for our sake, and so putting our hope fully in him once again (or for the first time) so that we may not lose the everlasting life that we have in him, through baptism.

          If you, therefore, do not have a crucifix somewhere in your home then you must get one!  Then (or if you already have one), spend time over these next two weeks looking at the image of Christ crucified and meditate on the punishment that he suffered for you.  Thank him for not saying “Father, save me from this hour!”, but rather that he said “Father, glorify your name”.  Then, commit yourself to rooting out sin in your life and to enduring whatever suffering may come your way in this world so as to console his heart, which opens the floodgates of his merciful love for us.  My friends, if you can do this, you will not only prepare yourself well to celebrate Easter, but you will become saints.

          May his merciful love, poured out most perfectly for us here in this Eucharist, bring this good work to completion in you.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – March 18^th, 2018