THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals First Sunday in Lent 17 February 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

Our lives are never without temptations. The devils are always ready and waiting for the opportune moment to make us fall. If we ever perceive that we are not being tempted then we should truly begin to worry. The devils have no need to entice those who are already fallen and are not struggling to rise again. We do not say these things to lead us into despair or hopelessness, but rather to encourage us. Being tempted is a sign that we are doing something right or well; and that is very upsetting to the devils. The greater our love for God grows, the greater the assaults from Hell become.

We have not only the example of Jesus in today’s Gospel, but our Holy Mother the Church presents us with the lives of so many Saints. St. John Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, gives us a wonderful insight into the workings of the demons. The greater the assaults of the devils were against this humble priest the more he would rejoice. The demonic attacks meant to the Curé that he would soon recall a great sinner to the path of virtue. He would often tease the devils when their attacks became the most violent saying that he welcomed them knowing that he would soon catch a big fish (sinner).

The Desert Fathers speak of a vision a man had where he saw a single demon perched over the city, but there were swarms of devils all about the monastery. This vision was explained in that it only took one demon to keep all the people in the city on the path to Hell. In fact this one demon, more often than not, had absolutely nothing to do. On the other hand in the monastery where men were constantly seeking to please God and to increase their love for God there were never enough demons to deter them. The harder we strive and the closer we draw to God the greater become the attacks of the demons. The further we wander from God the less the demons tempt or attack. We can in a sense then, gauge our spiritual life by the temptations that we suffer. The greater and the more that we suffer the closer we are to God and the less that we suffer the further we are from Him.

There are three parts to the Mystical Body of Christ: the Church Triumphant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Militant. We belong to the last, the Church Militant. We are engaged in a constant warfare. The battle is for our souls; the love and affections of our hearts. God wants and demands all our love and the devils only need to get us to turn away from God in some little way. It does not matter to the demons if they get us to worship devils, men, ourselves or any other creature. They succeed if they can get us to put anything above God.

Our days here on this earth are numbered, so the demons only have a short window of opportunity to destroy us. Very often as our days on this earth are drawing to a close their attacks become the most vicious because, they hate the thought of another soul entering into the eternal happiness of Heaven. As our bodies grow old and become weaker all too often the demonic attacks increase. If we have spent our lives well, we have grown accustomed to subduing these assaults so that it becomes second nature to us, and there is little that the devils can do other than intensify their attacks. We can then say with St. Paul that we have fought the good fight. Sadly though, there are few that have spent their lives well, and so the assaults in these last moments often are more than they can or are willing to resist.

In this life long battle we must always fight. If we find that we have nothing to fight then we should really begin to question our love of God. Do we really love Him with all our heart, mind and soul? Temptations are one of the daily crosses that Jesus invites us to take up. He would have us fight this battle every day. We may find that we fall very often. Let us not grow weary or despondent, but rather look to Jesus when He fell on the way to Calvary, and get up and start all over again. It is only hopeless for those who are already in Hell. If we are not in Hell then we may still hope and we may still succeed. God is ever ready with His grace, if we will call upon Him and make use of the tools (sacraments, penances, prayers, etc.) that He has placed at our disposal.

This season of Lent let us; train, retrain, or strengthen ourselves for these battles. We must remind ourselves that we are in the greatest of all wars and we must be prepared to fight even to our dying breath. It is not all gloom and doom in this war, because if we fight for God, He is on our side. Who can oppose us or overcome us if we are with God?! Even if all the devils in Hell attack, they are helpless and are as nothing in the face of God. We must also remind ourselves that God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our strength. He always gives us the necessary grace and means to successfully fight off every single attack. We only need to call on Him and make use of the spiritual weapons He has given us.