This week’s Gospel recounts the temptation of Christ in the desert. The devil tempts Jesus to turn stones to bread, to command the angels to protect Him, and to gain the whole world by bowing down to Satan.
This is a fairly popular passage and many of us have heard it many times to understand that it teaches us not to purely seek out worldly or martial comfort. Or to use our talents in abusive ways and to worship false Gods.
However, the homilist reminds us that there are two other lessons at play here:
Firstly, the devil is real. His strategy in the modern world is to have himself disbelieved and to allow relativism, materialism and the culture of death using abortion, euthanasia to destroy our souls. Most people today, have written off the devil in their heads as mythology, or just a bogeyman. But the reality is that he exists, and he is going for our souls. The more we whitewash him away with science and technology and empirical evidence, the more he is happy and smiling as we walk ourselves down the path of destruction.
Secondly, the importance of scripture as the cornerstone of our lives. Many of us, even myself are not well versed in it. But even the devil can quote scripture, as can be seen in the passage. So we have no excuse, we should up our game to read and be inspired by it. But more importantly, to allow our lives to be led by it.
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