Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

Today we see the temptation of Christ in the desert. Let’s look this scenario.We see the devil using his form of reasoning to encourage Jesus into variousactions in obedience to Him. He not only tempts but gives his reason whyJesus should do what he wants him to do.

Jesus responds in each case using the word of God.

There are some powerful lessons in this.

The most important and it is central to this is the devil is cunning and smartand if we do not root ourselves in the wisdom of God, he can talk circlesaround us. He can convince us that up is down and down is up, unless weare properly grounded in truth. This is why a world without God will notbecome liberated but imprisoned because human wisdom is no match forthe wiles of the devil. The wisdom of Christ alone can defeat this.

Put it this way, all sin begins in the mind and then moves into action and itmoves into action because it made sense at the time. It sounded like a goodidea. When disaster strikes do we realize it was a bad idea.

Let us look more closely at the temptations: the three temptations beginwith these words: If you are the son of God. It is exactly the same temptationJesus experiences on the cross. If you are the son of God get yourself off thatcross and us as well.

It is one of the many signs of the demonic presence trying to get Jesus tofalter on the cross.

Turning rocks into bread: Nourishing the body without the soul. It is apowerful temptation and it is common in our time. That is the source ofcommunism.

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

Turning rocks into bread: Nourishing the body without the soul. It is apowerful temptation and it is common in our time. That is the source ofcommunism. The Church teaches that we do have to care for others, but wehave two sets of responses the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. It is justas valid a service to God to feed the poor physically as well as it is spiritually.Indeed, one of the curses in the Old Testament is that the people will have afamine of the bread of life which is the word of God.

The second is forcing the angels to catch him if he throws himself down offthe parapet. That is to �aunt his divinity, it is to glorify himself. We have amission to be humble. Once we fully acknowledge our humanness we canbetter comprehend the divine. God made us to be human, we have thetemptation to seek what we are not which is to be gods. In fact, that is the�rst temptation: you will be like gods. We need to embrace the fullness ofour humanity and in doing so, we will come to appreciate it and God’s actionin our lives. We cannot do that if we are always trying to be what we are not.

The third temptation has a fascinating element to it. The devil proclaims thatall worldly authority has been given over to him and Jesus does not deny it.Never forget that, especially in an election year. If we turn from God then wewill end up walking down a path that will lead us away from God personallyand as a nation. There is no middle ground.

One of the most fascinating things I learned in some of my reading comesfrom Chris Hedges in his book: When Atheism Becomes Religion: America’sNew Fundamentalists, (2009;Free Press) where he points out that at leastone of the world class atheists quoted often by the media believed in anuclear pre-emptive �rst strike against the Muslim nations to preventterrorism. Catholic doctrine rooted in the teaching of St. Augustine does notbelieve in a pre-emptive �rst strike of any type ever.

But if you reject the wisdom of God, your only response is to embrace thewisdom of the world and the devil himself teaches that this wisdom belongsto him.

When we are people of prayer and root ourselves in Christ then in God wehave the wisdom to see through the wiles of the devil.

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

That is the lesson we see here. We do not have the strength nor ability to�ght the wisdom of the devil on our own. We need to be rooted in Christthrough our prayer to understand the greater wisdom—the divine wisdom.If we do not root ourselves in prayer �rst then everything the devil says willmake sense.

We are watching it today. You literally see this play out on your news everynight when people say things and others listen and say: “That makes sense!”When in fact it does not.

The people most vulnerable to the wiles of the devil are those who are wisein their own eyes. Our role is to present another wisdom, the wisdom of Godso that people will learn the truth and be free of the crazy arguments of thedevil that trap people every day.

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

This Lent is a good time to decide to deepen our faith and come to knowChrist more and more as we live our faith. That way we grow in the wisdomof Christ and in doing so help others to see the deeper truth that theycannot see.

Do not assume that just because you are not ordained or do not have atheological education you cannot tap into that wisdom. Conversely do notassume that just because someone is ordained he has tapped into thatwisdom. We discover that wisdom through prayer, humility, bible study andthe quest for holiness.

Jesus demonstrates that we need to be rooted in the wisdom of God to�ght the temptation of the devil. This year more than any other might be atime to deepen our understanding of that teaching especially during anelection year because remember the devil said that all worldly politicalpower has been given to him and Jesus never refutes him.

Questions for discussion

at home or work:

1. Prayer is an essential element to knowing the wisdom of God and�ghting against evil. How do you pray?

2. Do you pray with scripture?

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St. Anthony Parish

43 Holton St.

Allston, MA

Mass times

in English

4:00pm Saturdays

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom

10:00am Sundays

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Sundays

8:00 AM

7:00PM

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Root Yourself in God's Strength and Wisdom