Homilies

February 10, 2008
First Sunday of Lent
Gen 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Rom 5:12-19; Matt 4:4-11
Abbot John Denburger, OCSO

I find something very curious in the Genesis story. As if it were the most normal thing, Eve responds to the “talking snake”; there is no shock, surprise, scream “Hey, Adam, get over here!” She chats with a snake and the master of lies has her. She is seduced and by continuing the dialogue, he has her hooked. He made his insinuations “Did God really say”? And so she obeyed the snake, the evil one, rather than God and then, led Adam into the same snare. Like the comedian, Flip Wilson, they might have said, “The devil made me do it!” Funny but not true - Satan invited and they chose!

The degree to which the evil one will try to seduce is so very clear in the Gospel. With arrogance, with diabolical madness Satan probes: “If you are the Son of God” then prove it. Throughout His public life, in many signs and wonders, Jesus will show His identity but such proof will never, in any way, be a testing of His Father’s providence. Jesus never performed a miracle or held a crowd spellbound for the sake of power or show. His ministry was never self-serving; in His own words “The Son of Man has come not to be served but to serve.” Jesus saw the cold eye, the darting tongue, the languid movement, the threat of the fangs but he would not allow Himself to be defiled. He returned the cold stare and fought him off with the power of God’s own word, a word of power: “The Lord , your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve! Get away,. Satan!

Evil desires evil, evil lives on evil, evil delights in evil, evil rejoices when it can seduce - sometimes grossly, sometimes in very subtle ways. If the evil one had no qualms about approaching this remarkable man, even though he was not sure of His identity, do you think he has any qualms about approaching you or me. To think he doesn’t is the height of foolishness. To think he won’t is to be unguarded; he is the father of lies and his desire is always to destroy our person, our humanness.

The evil one, Satan, has been at work since creation and will be at work until the end of this world. I speak for myself, perhaps, for some of you as well, there was a time after Vatican II when so much of our traditional doctrine was questioned and I really wondered if there were angels and devils or if these were personified ways of speaking of goodness and evil.

I no longer doubt and haven’t for a long time. The murders, massacres, terrorist bombings that are daily occurrences - events that are outrageously diabolical, grossly evil - can such things be attributed to people alone - I, for one, doubt it. There is a lust for cruelty, a lust for savagery, hatreds, retaliations that exceed comprehension. Basic, good, decent humanness is being destroyed by pornography, by abortion, by sexual license, by the reduction of people to things that can be and are exploited for money.

Jesus said, “Be careful of what you hear, how you hear.” His words are supreme wisdom in the light of the fact that none of us, not one of us, is exempt from the wiles of the evil one. I am not saying that sin is always due to Satan’s wiles - we have much answering to do for our own lives, our choices - but it is not always possible to discern the voice that tempted - my own or Satan’s. When we do sin in whatever way, do we, you/I, ever say, “I was just obedient to evil. I just nourished myself on filth.” Tell it for what it is!

Whether our temptations come from Satan or from our own darkness, any temptation places us in a position of choice: do we defy God and place ourselves as rivals to His Lordship or do we recognize that we are sons and daughters of God and desire to live this grace. Any temptation gives us the opportunity to choose for God and grow in His love. St. Augustine wrote: “Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself/herself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptation.”

Three days ago, we began the sacred journey of Lent. We are preparing to celebrate the greatest solemnity of all times - the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ - He triumphed over sin and death. He trampled death by His own death and rose to tell of it. The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans proclaims this.

By God’s incomprehensible mercy, we are Resurrection People. We are people of life not death. Jesus flung this statement at Satan; “The Lord , your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve!” - this wisdom is the foundation of our lives. Godliness is our life, nothing less. We may hear the insinuations of the evil one but, never for a moment forget that we bear within us the power of the Risen Christ. Satan will tempt but Christ will triumph because we can choose to hear Him. We can choose to live by His Spirit- or baptism means nothin ...

The good deeds of Lent - prayer, fasting, almsgiving - are to purify our hearts so that we live as sons, as daughters of God our Father in the Lord Jesus. The great foolishness is to think that Satan does not exist. The most wondrous wisdom is to know that God does live and desires me for Himself. St. Augustine put it beautifully: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”