The Heart of Temptation

First Sunday of Lent Year A

It’s Lent again, time to double or triple our efforts to get holy. Strangely enough, this is the time of the year, when temptation doesn’t get any sweeter or more alluring. The more we wish to grow in intimacy with God, the greater would be Satan’s effort to frustrate that goal. At the beginning of his pontificate, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who is fond of speaking about the devil as a real being rather than just some impersonal concept, had this to say about temptation: “Temptation is a normal part of life's struggle, and anyone who claims to be immune from it is either a little angel visiting from heaven or "a bit of an idiot.”” He added that the biggest problem in the world isn't temptation or sin, rather it is people deluding themselves into believing that they're not sinners and losing all sense of sin.  That is why the Church begins this First Sunday in Lent with a meditation of the temptation of Christ. Yes, it is both challenging and comforting to acknowledge that no one is immune to temptation. Not even a hero. Not even a nobody. Not even people like you and me. And certainly not even Christ, the sinless One, the Son of God.

From the waters of the Jordan, the Spirit leads our Lord into the harsh wilderness to be tempted by Satan. The gospel presents this ordeal as an escalating series of three temptations. The first temptation is most subtle, seems harmless, innocent and even rationally necessary. The second is less so, but yet the lure of an audience could be interpreted as giving glory to God for a wondrous miracle. But the third temptation is the most blatant and audacious. All three are attempts by the Enemy to divert our Lord from the path of human suffering, the way of the cross, and ultimately from the obedience to the Father’s plan that His mission entails.

The first temptation runs: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.” What seems apparent to most people is that the devil wishes for our Lord to perform a miracle to relieve the suffering of His physical needs – to do something for His own personal benefit. Nothing wrong with that. But the real focus of this temptation is on the identity and power of Jesus. What was declared in public by the Father at the baptism, “This is my beloved Son”, is now tested in private. The temptation is not really about food but about turning our Lord away from the path chosen for Him by the Father. His mission is not to serve Himself by exploiting His divine prerogatives but to serve others by a life of heroic sacrifice. And that is why our Lord answers, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” God’s Word, God’s will for us, and our obedience to Him takes priority.

The second temptation brings our Lord to the holy city of Jerusalem where the devil perches Him high on the parapet of the Temple and utters these words, “If you are the Son of God ... throw yourself down”. Why was the Temple chosen? Well, this is the place where the Jews believed God had chosen to dwell among His people. Just as no one is immune to temptation, no place is also immune from the devil’s snares; not even the “holiest place“ on earth. As in the first temptation, the divine Sonship of Jesus is central to the test. This time the temptation is buttressed with a quotation from Scripture that promises God’s protection through His holy angels. Immediately one notices how the tempter adjusts himself to the one being tempted, the devil uses the same method as used by the Lord, the Word of God, to continue his assault. This second temptation is essentially a challenge to the trustworthiness of God. Satan wants Jesus to subject His Father’s promises to verification. It is an attempt to manipulate God into action, just like so many of us do in prayer. To which our Lord rightly answers, “You must not put the Lord your God to the test.” God is not on trial. We are. He doesn’t need to prove Himself. Rather, it is we who must prove our faith in Him.

The third temptation brings our Lord to the summit of a very high mountain. The purpose is to give Him a panoramic view of all the kingdoms of the world. This time the devil’s mask comes off. Subtle insinuations have proven ineffective. Now the ambition of Satan is laid open to view. Peering out at the great empires of the world, the devil says, “I will give you all these if you fall at my feet and worship me.” In essence, our Lord is being offered a shortcut to achieving His messianic objectives. Here, authority and power are handed to Him on a silver platter without Him having to pay for them with the cost of His life’s sacrifice on the Cross. In exchange, Satan wants nothing less than a brazen act of idolatry. Jesus is asked to repudiate the Father by surrendering Himself to the lordship of Satan. Our Lord rejects this last offer, “Be off Satan! For scripture says: You must worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone.”

The last temptation actually exposes the true nature of the first two temptations and in fact, all other temptations. It is the repudiation of God. The ultimate goal of Satan is to keep us from worshipping the One he hates. As a master of persuasion, Satan easily deceives mankind into focusing on anything but God. Hardly any of us would admit that we would blatantly worship the Devil. But the devil’s temptation is more subtle. Secular society often finds itself believing that it has no need for God – as long as we can eradicate world hunger, find a cure to cancer, seek popular support for our political agenda and economic programmes of establishing economic justice and world peace – then there is no place for God in our lives. As attractive as this idea may be, the bottom line is that unless we are prepared to submit ourselves humbly to God in total obedience, all these man-made solutions would fail. Whenever we believe that we can move ahead with human progress and solutions without any reference to God, we have knowingly or unknowingly, fallen at the feet of Satan and worshipped him. As G. K. Chesterton once said, “For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.”

The devil’s last request is a parody of the worship which is due to God. In fact, if there is anyone who deserves our kneeling and worship, it is God alone. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had once remarked: “Kneeling does not come from any culture — it comes from the Bible.” Wise men knelt, Peter and the apostles knelt, lepers knelt, rulers knelt, Gentiles knelt, even men possessed by the devil knelt (Mark 5:6). They knelt only to the King of Kings. But even this Great King chose to kneel. He knelt to wash the feet of His disciples. In the garden of Gethsemane, He “knelt down and prayed” (Luke 22:41). On the other hand, there is one who will never ever kneel. ‘The devil has no knees,” wrote Abba Apollo, a desert Father of the Church who lived around 300 AD, “he cannot kneel; he cannot adore; he cannot pray; he can only look down his nose in contempt. Being unwilling to bend the knee at the name of Jesus is the essence of evil. (cf Is 45:23, Rom 14:11)” This by far, is the greatest irony. The Being that chooses to kneel to no one, now demands that the Son of God kneels to him.

The devil is no fiction. He is very real. But so is God. In a world where temptations seem to lurk around every corner, it may be prudent to return to God in prayer, always seeking His grace and assistance to face the wiles and lies of the enemy. Without God, nothing is possible, we are paralysed. With God in our lives, everything is possible. This is real discipleship — complete dependence on the Lord in everything. Our lives should be Christ-sufficient and not self-sufficient. This is the only way to see through and resist the temptations of Satan. Let our hearts be humbled during this Lenten season to place our entire trust in the Lord, and with Him, let us confidently stand up to the enemy and declare: “Be off Satan!

Worship is not Theatre

Ash Wednesday

Today, if Air Asia claims that everyone can fly, social media has made it possible for just anyone to be a celebrity. Every mundane thought, feeling, moment or action is posted somewhere on social media to make sure others know what we’ve done, seen, experienced or felt today. It’s as if we try really hard to receive validation and appreciation: we need people to see we are doing good things, we need a certain number of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ for our actions to be of value. I often see - when I'm on Facebook - videos or photos of people giving to the poor, or helping someone out: people record themselves doing these things and then share them online for the world to see. Today, for example, we’re going to witness loads of Instagram foodie shots exhibiting that miserable slice of bread or bowl of soup that constitutes our fasting diet. If not for the recent pastoral recommendation to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we would also see many photos of ash stained foreheads.

But our Lord warns us in today’s gospel, people who do this, “they have had their reward.” In other words, when we show our good deeds to the world, and receive validation from the world in this way, the only reward we will receive for that deed is of this world - it is of no eternal value. We can have our reward, votes, acclaim, temporary esteem but we cannot use it as “credit” to get to Heaven – because we have expended our entire reward in the here and now. When we act in this way, we do it not to please God, but rather we crave the praise of men.

It is interesting how our Lord uses the word “hypocrite” in today’s passage. For in ancient times, the word was more commonly heard in the theatre than in a temple. It was a word used to describe an actor on a stage. The Greek word, in referring to the actor, means “under the mask” or “mask-wearer”.  The actor was play-acting, he was pretending. That is what hypocrites do. They pretend.

So when our Lord used this word to speak of those practising the traditional acts of piety, prayer, fasting and alms-giving, the word carried a weightier sting. What were these people pretending to be? They were pretending to be religious; holy; spiritual; they were pretending to be people who were serving God. The religious hypocrite has perfected the outward appearance, the ingratiating smile, the holier than thou accent, the long robes and so forth. With all the fanfare, pyrotechnics, and showmanship- God is totally unimpressed! They were pretending to be people who wanted to please God but God wasn’t pleased. Even today there are some people who desperately crave an audience for their spirituality. For these people if the show is not “on” then the performance is “off”. Their spirituality is wholly and solely for human consumption. Jesus says that ‘such people have had their reward’ – they crave fleeting human attention, human praise, human admiration, and that is all the reward they will ever get. They forget that if others are not able to see through their disguises, God can. He sees through every disguise and pretense. He alone knows who and what we truly are.

At first glance, this may seem opposed to our Lord’s earlier teaching, which we heard two Sundays ago, to be “salt of the earth,” “light of the world,” “a city built on a hill” and to let “your light shine before others” so that “they may see your good deeds.” There, our Lord commanded the disciples to live the beatitudes visibly in order to radiate God’s love to the world. When others see our good deeds, it is meant to give glory to God. In today’s passage, however, our Lord warns us not to do righteous deeds in order to draw attention to ourselves.

So, it must be clear that our Lord is not condemning the penitential acts of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. What is in question is the interior motivation and disposition for these acts. What must be avoided would be “hypocrisy”. These pious practices in themselves, however, are not evidence of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the split between outward show and inner reality, where actions do not correspond to one’s interior life. So, the words of Jesus are not to be interpreted as a disavowal of external actions but an invitation to match external actions with interior disposition. Our charitable acts must flow from a heart that is truly charitable and not only because we wish to earn the praises of others. Every act of penance must have an interior aspect, an inner change of heart, as well as an exterior aspect, changing one’s life in harmony with the change of heart. The interior aspect has to do with sorrow for sin, and with a firm resolve to amend one’s life, to conform ourselves more closely to Christ; the exterior aspect has to do with the self-denial, the good works, the sacrifices, which are necessary to overcome one’s selfish tendencies that lead to sin. In all matters, our actions must give glory to God. Our pious acts are not meant to “show off” our piety, but to “show forth” God’s love in the world.

What happens when our actions are meant to show off instead of glorifying God? Two Protestant Pastors in their best-selling book had this to say, “When ministry becomes performance, then the sanctuary becomes a theater, the congregation becomes an audience, worship becomes entertainment, and man’s applause and approval become the measure of success. But when ministry is for the glory of God, His presence moves into the sanctuary. Even the unsaved visitor will fall down on his face, worship God, and confess that God is among us.” (Warren and David Wiersbe, 10 Power Principles for Christian Service)

Three times Jesus uses the phrase: “And your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.” And twice Jesus refers to ‘your Father who is in that secret place”. We are reminded that the God who sees acts hidden from human sight will surely reward our devotions given without fanfare. By leaving the question of reward to God, one is set free from the concerns of others. God is watching us and cannot be fooled. Spiritual performance is thus completely futile, and only humility, repentance and contrition will impress the Lord. 

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are good, and we should all continue to pray, fast and give alms but these pious actions are not performance, nor is it theatre and it is certainly not a way of winning public approval. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are ways in which we seek to enter into a holy reverent communion with God, not theatrics, antics and showmanship. Therefore, we need to be on guard against the temptation to want to please man; or to congratulate ourselves; or to seek the wrong reward; to have the wrong motivation. The effort to lead a life of public piety should not make us self-congratulatory, self-justifying or judgmental of others. If this has happened, we know that we have fallen into the trap or the “quicksand” of hypocrisy.

For a supremely ironic twist to this central theme of the gospel that warns us of making a show of our religion, today we will be sprinkled with ashes on our crown. Perhaps, it would be good to remember what the Lord has to say about hypocrisy, so that our ashes would not just be a means of “showing off” but a means of “showing forth” Christ to the world, a reminder of our mortality and sinfulness, and a visible call to all to “repent and believe in the good news.” During this season of Lent, let us ask the Lord to deepen our prayer life, to grant us the courage and self-discipline to fast and the generosity to share with the poor. Let our Lenten practices not be mere external actions. We pray for a change of heart, a “turning to the Lord your God again”. Let our “hearts be broken not (just our) garments torn.”

Perfection and Holiness

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Modern society applauds the drive for excellence – it cherishes motivational success stories of athletes, musicians, business personalities and others whose dedicated striving elevated them to new heights of achievement. But what seems problematic is having too much of it – too much of excellence or too much of perfection may end up in the personality disorder called perfectionism. And so there has been a shift from what was culturally prized, to something which society now views as a kind of neurotic disorder.

This growing aversion to, and suspicion of perfection has led to a broader acceptance and tolerance, and sometimes even glorification, of imperfection. In the moral sphere, this paradigm shift has also led to a reversal of values. If in the past, sin was regarded as something shameful, scandalous and abnormal; today, such behaviour would be accepted as normal and acceptable. Holiness and piety, on the other hand, are regarded as anomalies, the result of shame-driven neurosis that needs to be contained and cured.  We frequently hear the following caution from well-intentioned persons, “Don’t try to be too holy” as if the condition of being too holy could even lead to either permanent brain damage or our damnation.  Both in secular media as well as among liberal theological circles, we witness a tendency to vilify saints matched by the canonisation of villains. Notice how Hollywood depicts witches, vampires and people who have abandoned God or religion as the new heroes. Religious people, on the other hand, are frequently depicted as scheming, narrow-minded and unkind. The message is clear – if you want to stay normal, if you want to be nice and kind, stay away from religion at all cost.

Holiness as a life-goal is no longer fashionable in our society, and perhaps, even within the ranks of the Church, and there are understandable reasons for this. First, holiness has often been associated with an otherworldly mysticism that supposedly leads people away from the crying needs and concerns of daily life. The holy person then appears to be a dropout from society. Holiness has also been confused with neurotic perfectionism—the illusion that one’s best is never good enough, thus filling us with a perpetual gnawing feeling of inadequacy. Finally, holiness has been confounded with a legalistic mentality that insists on rigorous adherence to moral codes often stated in negations—no drinking, no smoking, no drugs, no dancing, no card-playing, etc. In other words, if you choose to be holy – no fun! 

For a culture that has grown weary and even intolerant of holiness and perfection, our Lord’s words at the end of today’s gospel must be a cause of confusion: “You shall be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” For many of us, the commandment to be perfect triggers feelings of anxiety and discomfort. Jesus seems to be advocating a new kind of evangelical perfectionism. Perhaps, the real problem is that many confuse the commandment of Jesus to be perfect with the call to perfectionism. “Perfect," in this context, means "complete, finished, fully developed.” Who doesn’t wish for this?  Notice that the term does not mean “flawless!”  

For people who struggle with perfectionism, it is always a personal struggle to outdo themselves. They are much too hard on themselves, expecting perfection from themselves and becoming bitter and even hating themselves for coming up short. Perfectionism is an obsession with control and Christian perfectionists often believe that they can earn God’s love and work their way to heaven. They fail to understand God’s grace and the nature of His unconditional love. They forget that perfection belongs to God alone, but the story doesn’t end there. 

Yes, the goal of Christian life is perfection. But perfection isn’t perfectionism. In fact, Christian perfection is not just different from perfectionism, it’s diametrically opposed. The very perfectionist impulse that makes us winners in the world’s eyes is the one we need to overcome on our journey to eternal life with Christ. If perfectionism is about control, perfection is about surrender, about letting go so that God can be in control. For only God can perfect us, and He did so by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die as a perfect sacrifice for sin.  Though we are flawed, we can be forgiven, saved, sanctified, and perfected.  St Paul assures the Philippians in Chapter 1 verse 6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Christ completes us. Paul reminds us that perfection and the call to holiness isn’t a singular one-off event but a process of sanctification as we continue to learn to walk in the path of Christ.  Perfection is never possible by our own efforts, that’s the illusion posed by perfectionism. Perfectionism can indeed be an obstacle to perfection in holiness because it prevents us from allowing God to perfect the good work He has begun in us. Thus, we should struggle against perfectionism, yes; but always be ready to embrace perfection, especially in the area of spiritual excellence.

For a Christian, the way to reach perfection is to strive for holiness. Perfection and holiness are synonyms. What is true perfection? Christ's words are clear and disconcerting: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” These words sum up all the six examples or antithesis we’ve heard in last week’s and this week’s gospel. In the Old Testament, Israel was to imitate God in His Holiness (“Be Holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” Lev 19:2). But this eventually evolved into an understanding, which was prevalent at the time of Jesus, that saw it as a call to separate oneself from all that is unholy – sin, sinners, Gentiles, women, and so on. But then our Lord called into question this minimalistic way of thinking. He reminded us that being good is just not good enough. What is demanded of us is perfection. And perfection is not just separation, it is uniting oneself to God. In other words, our attitudes toward others must be the same as those of our Father in heaven. We must imitate the Father’s perfect, committed, selfless, merciful love. To have God as our model is a dizzying thought! Yet the Church reminds us that, all the faithful, whatever their condition or state in life, are called by the Lord to that perfect holiness. Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote: “Holiness is not something for the extraordinary; it is not a luxury of the few. Holiness is the simple duty for each one of us.”

We do humbly acknowledge that the perfection and love to which our Lord calls us is beyond the capacity of our fallen human nature. For man perfection may seem impossible - we can’t accomplish holiness without God’s grace. But with Him, though, “all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26). But it’s not going to be easy. The way of gospel perfection is the narrow way, it demands a life-time of surrender, a life-time of dying to oneself. Letting go of our need to be in-charge, and letting God take charge. It is a life-time’s project; it is always work-in-progress. Unlike the pursuit of perfectionism, a life aimed at attaining Christian perfection probably won’t impress your family, neighbours or friends. But the gift of the Spirit received through faith and the sacraments, makes perfection. Our Lord summons us to a heavenly way of life; the saints show that it is possible to live this way on earth.