James 1:12-18
Psalm 94:12-15, 18-19
Mark 8:14-21
Temptation comes from three sources. These are traditionally listed as the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
Temptation from the world is the temptation of money, fame, and power. The world tempts us with the possibility of controlling other people and having people adore us. The temptation of the world is to be more successful than other people. The temptation of the world is to want to be higher than everyone else. Success is meaningless if we are not more successful than other people. But the Christian denies this temptation. It is illogical. We should be glad that other people are smarter and more talented than us. We are not perfect. The Christian is glad to see success wherever it exists. They do desire to be better, but not better than others.
Temptation of the flesh is the way that our body weighs us down. It is the temptation for entertainment, for relaxation, for eating, for sexual pleasure. Each of these has its proper place, but the body would have us give it constantly and in excess. One dessert is not enough. One movie is not enough. If we listen to the body, we will make ourselves unhappy. The body is happiest when we do not give it everything it wants. Give it good food in the proper amount, give it sleep when it is needed and the amount we need, give it exercise even when it is not inclined, and the body will be strong and useful. Give in to the temptations of the flesh and the body will be weak.
Temptation by the Devil is rarer than the others. Only in certain circumstances does the Devil need to get involved. Usually we make a mess of things all by ourselves. When he sees us getting along, trying to follow God, he comes in and steers us toward one of the other temptations. Just as he did with Eve, he makes us believe that God’s laws are unreasonable. He encourages in us the feeling of rebellion: who is God to tell us what to do? Often this question is enough and we are fooled until we realize once again that sin does not have the power to make us happy.
God does not tempt us; he does give us the power to fight all temptation. He wants us to be happy, and the only things standing in the way of our happiness is our temptation to sin.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Happiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happiness. Show all posts
February 8, 2014 - Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 3:4-13
Psalm 119:9-14
Mark 6:30-34
God offered to give Solomon whatever he asked for, but God already knew what Solomon would ask for. God knows everything: in the past, the future, and the present. He would not have made such a generous offer if Solomon would have asked for riches or a long life or the death of his enemies. Solomon wanted something that God wanted to give him, so God offered to give him whatever he wanted.
Has God offered you whatever you want? No? Me neither. The problem could be that God is not as generous as he used to be, but that makes no sense. The problem surely is that I do not yet want what God wants to give me. God will happily be very generous as soon as I am receptive.
Yet God has offered to give us his gift: the Holy Spirit, God himself. What else could we possibly want? Would we want money or fame or any other worldly possession? No. Who would want money or fame except because they think it will make them happy? Who wants anything at all except because they think that it will make them happy?
The problem is whether I believe that the Holy Spirit will make me happy. If I really believed that a life of serving God and my neighbor would make me happy, I would not do anything else. The essential problem of sin is a failure to believe that God is the source of my happiness. Eve ate the fruit because she failed to believe that God would make her happy. Every sin that has ever been committed has been done for this reason.
If only I would believe in the happiness God has to offer, how happy I would be! There is no failure of generosity on his part. He is ready to give me the happiness that my soul desires. I, however, for whatever reason I know not — pride, foolishness, fear, or all these things — will seek happiness everywhere except the one place that I am sure to get it.
Solomon eventually rejected the wisdom that God gave him; in his old age, he became a fool, worshiping other gods to please his wives, but in this one glorious moment Solomon did not ask anything for himself except the wisdom to accomplish the task God had given him. He is an example for us, that when we forget ourselves we will finally be happy.
Psalm 119:9-14
Mark 6:30-34
God offered to give Solomon whatever he asked for, but God already knew what Solomon would ask for. God knows everything: in the past, the future, and the present. He would not have made such a generous offer if Solomon would have asked for riches or a long life or the death of his enemies. Solomon wanted something that God wanted to give him, so God offered to give him whatever he wanted.
Has God offered you whatever you want? No? Me neither. The problem could be that God is not as generous as he used to be, but that makes no sense. The problem surely is that I do not yet want what God wants to give me. God will happily be very generous as soon as I am receptive.
Yet God has offered to give us his gift: the Holy Spirit, God himself. What else could we possibly want? Would we want money or fame or any other worldly possession? No. Who would want money or fame except because they think it will make them happy? Who wants anything at all except because they think that it will make them happy?
The problem is whether I believe that the Holy Spirit will make me happy. If I really believed that a life of serving God and my neighbor would make me happy, I would not do anything else. The essential problem of sin is a failure to believe that God is the source of my happiness. Eve ate the fruit because she failed to believe that God would make her happy. Every sin that has ever been committed has been done for this reason.
If only I would believe in the happiness God has to offer, how happy I would be! There is no failure of generosity on his part. He is ready to give me the happiness that my soul desires. I, however, for whatever reason I know not — pride, foolishness, fear, or all these things — will seek happiness everywhere except the one place that I am sure to get it.
Solomon eventually rejected the wisdom that God gave him; in his old age, he became a fool, worshiping other gods to please his wives, but in this one glorious moment Solomon did not ask anything for himself except the wisdom to accomplish the task God had given him. He is an example for us, that when we forget ourselves we will finally be happy.
October 15, 2012 - Monday of the Twenty-eight Week in Ordinary Time
Galatians 4:22-24, 26-27, 31 -- 5:1
Psalm 113:1-7
Luke 11:29-32
Jonah just walked through the city of Nineveh, one of the wickedest cities in all of history, and told them it would be destroyed. They repented in sackcloth and ashes, with fasting. Jesus walked through Jerusalem, the holy city, and told them it would be destroyed. They killed him. Jesus begins with the stories that the people have known their whole lives to show them how they are failing now.
St. Paul also begins with a story from the Old Testament. When Abraham and Sarah were not able to conceive, they used a surrogate mother, the slave of Sarah named Hagar. Hagar has a son, but Sarah hates her for it. Then Sarah finally has a son and kicks Hagar and her son out of the house. St. Paul says that this story is an allegory for us. As it really happened, Hagar was a good person who was mistreated, but in the allegory each person just stands for a concept. Hagar was an Egyptian slave. Sarah was the wife, a free woman. Hagar became pregnant easily, in the normal way. Sarah became pregnant only after decades of trying, only after God made a promise that she would have a son. Hagar symbolizes how Abraham tried to take control of the situation and make things happen by his own power. Sarah symbolizes waiting for God to fulfill his promise in the right time. Christ freed us, but we right now are like Abraham, waiting for God to fulfill what he has promised.
Do we trust God? Will we wait for the happiness he promised, or will we try to reach out and grab whatever we can provide for ourselves? The lesson of the allegory is that the son of a slave is still a slave. Abraham would have gladly handed over his house to his first son, Ishmael, but when the true son is born, Ishmael is kicked out by Sarah, proving that all along Hagar and Ishmael were nothing more than slaves. The happiness of sin seems like it is real, and while it is the only happiness we can have, we accept it, but all along it has always been slavery. When the true happiness of heaven is revealed, we would gladly forget about the sin. Compared to what is coming, the fleeting happiness of pleasure or possessions is nothing, but we will be enslaved by them if we choose.
Psalm 113:1-7
Luke 11:29-32
Jonah just walked through the city of Nineveh, one of the wickedest cities in all of history, and told them it would be destroyed. They repented in sackcloth and ashes, with fasting. Jesus walked through Jerusalem, the holy city, and told them it would be destroyed. They killed him. Jesus begins with the stories that the people have known their whole lives to show them how they are failing now.
St. Paul also begins with a story from the Old Testament. When Abraham and Sarah were not able to conceive, they used a surrogate mother, the slave of Sarah named Hagar. Hagar has a son, but Sarah hates her for it. Then Sarah finally has a son and kicks Hagar and her son out of the house. St. Paul says that this story is an allegory for us. As it really happened, Hagar was a good person who was mistreated, but in the allegory each person just stands for a concept. Hagar was an Egyptian slave. Sarah was the wife, a free woman. Hagar became pregnant easily, in the normal way. Sarah became pregnant only after decades of trying, only after God made a promise that she would have a son. Hagar symbolizes how Abraham tried to take control of the situation and make things happen by his own power. Sarah symbolizes waiting for God to fulfill his promise in the right time. Christ freed us, but we right now are like Abraham, waiting for God to fulfill what he has promised.
Do we trust God? Will we wait for the happiness he promised, or will we try to reach out and grab whatever we can provide for ourselves? The lesson of the allegory is that the son of a slave is still a slave. Abraham would have gladly handed over his house to his first son, Ishmael, but when the true son is born, Ishmael is kicked out by Sarah, proving that all along Hagar and Ishmael were nothing more than slaves. The happiness of sin seems like it is real, and while it is the only happiness we can have, we accept it, but all along it has always been slavery. When the true happiness of heaven is revealed, we would gladly forget about the sin. Compared to what is coming, the fleeting happiness of pleasure or possessions is nothing, but we will be enslaved by them if we choose.
September 25, 2012 - Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13
Psalm 119:1, 27, 30, 34-35, 44
Luke 8:19-21
What is the good life? Many people think that the good life is a life of sin. The very best life would be to do whatever sin seems best and then to repent in the end and go to heaven. This is what the proverb means, “All the ways of man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the Lord who weighs the heart.” We think that sin is happiness, and feel torn between following that happiness and being perpetually disappointed in hopes of eternal life. God is our enemy, keeping us from being happy in this life. All of us are susceptible to this mistaken belief because of original sin. Ever since we ate that fruit and gained the knowledge of good and evil, we have had our own personal morality that is at odds with God.
Consider it this way: What if God offered you a chance to sit down and rewrite the Ten Commandments? Not only that, but all of morality. What if you could put down, definitively, the rules of right and wrong? What would they say? Which rules would you change? What forbidden thing would you allow? What permitted thing would you forbid? Do you think that you improved anything? Do you know how much the human heart weighs and every measure of it? Do you know all the mysteries of the universe? Were you there when God created the galaxies? No. So how is it that we think we could improve on God’s law? If anyone thinks that they know more than God, then they do not know who God is. What arrogance that requires! But we all invent our own personal morality. We sin because we have decided that what we are doing is not wrong after all; we have decided that we know more than God.
We repeated in the psalm, “Guide me, Lord.” This prayer is asking the Lord for freedom from independence. If we choose our own way and do what seems best in our own eyes, we will go wrong. If we do the word of the Lord, we cannot go wrong. God does not want our obedience because he wants to set artificial limits on our happiness. God knows what is good for us and what will harm us. Father knows best. Even if we cannot understand a particular rule, it is clear that since God is never wrong, he must be right.
Psalm 119:1, 27, 30, 34-35, 44
Luke 8:19-21
What is the good life? Many people think that the good life is a life of sin. The very best life would be to do whatever sin seems best and then to repent in the end and go to heaven. This is what the proverb means, “All the ways of man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the Lord who weighs the heart.” We think that sin is happiness, and feel torn between following that happiness and being perpetually disappointed in hopes of eternal life. God is our enemy, keeping us from being happy in this life. All of us are susceptible to this mistaken belief because of original sin. Ever since we ate that fruit and gained the knowledge of good and evil, we have had our own personal morality that is at odds with God.
Consider it this way: What if God offered you a chance to sit down and rewrite the Ten Commandments? Not only that, but all of morality. What if you could put down, definitively, the rules of right and wrong? What would they say? Which rules would you change? What forbidden thing would you allow? What permitted thing would you forbid? Do you think that you improved anything? Do you know how much the human heart weighs and every measure of it? Do you know all the mysteries of the universe? Were you there when God created the galaxies? No. So how is it that we think we could improve on God’s law? If anyone thinks that they know more than God, then they do not know who God is. What arrogance that requires! But we all invent our own personal morality. We sin because we have decided that what we are doing is not wrong after all; we have decided that we know more than God.
We repeated in the psalm, “Guide me, Lord.” This prayer is asking the Lord for freedom from independence. If we choose our own way and do what seems best in our own eyes, we will go wrong. If we do the word of the Lord, we cannot go wrong. God does not want our obedience because he wants to set artificial limits on our happiness. God knows what is good for us and what will harm us. Father knows best. Even if we cannot understand a particular rule, it is clear that since God is never wrong, he must be right.
May 5, 2012 - Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Acts 13:44-52
Psalm 98:1-4
John 14:7-14
Enough is a splendid idea. We humans seem to have limitless greed, desires for every good thing which are never satisfied. This excessive desire is the center of all religions. It is this desire that proves to us that we are not merely animals. Give food and companionship to a dog, and it is perfectly happy. Give a human food and companionship, and they will write poems about unanswered desires.
Philip makes an unreasonable demand of Jesus: “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” The demand is unreasonable because no one has ever seen the Father, except the Son. The Son, Jesus Christ, is the revelation of the Father. It is impossible for us to see the Father except through the Son. Philip is right though: God is enough. Furthermore, nothing else in the universe is ever going to be enough.
The world believes that the answer to our unlimited desires is an unlimited amount of satisfaction. We know that this is false because when we look at the very rich who can afford to have every satisfaction, they do not come across as a perfectly happy demographic. Certain Eastern religions say that the answer is to destroy the desire, that the perfectly happy person is the one who has learned to appreciate what they have and not want any more.
Christianity, however, rejects both of these extremes and insists on another answer. Christianity tells us that there is an infinite answer to our unlimited desire. If we want to have enough, we should forget about all these insufficient satisfactions and turn to God. We should not moderate our desires but realize that what we have really been wanting all along is God.
Earth is earth and not heaven. It cannot satisfy our desire. Our desire for happiness is so strong, because our happiness someday will be equal to that desire. It is possible to have enough here on earth, so long as we remember what it is that we truly want, so long as we know why it is never enough.
Psalm 98:1-4
John 14:7-14
Enough is a splendid idea. We humans seem to have limitless greed, desires for every good thing which are never satisfied. This excessive desire is the center of all religions. It is this desire that proves to us that we are not merely animals. Give food and companionship to a dog, and it is perfectly happy. Give a human food and companionship, and they will write poems about unanswered desires.
Philip makes an unreasonable demand of Jesus: “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” The demand is unreasonable because no one has ever seen the Father, except the Son. The Son, Jesus Christ, is the revelation of the Father. It is impossible for us to see the Father except through the Son. Philip is right though: God is enough. Furthermore, nothing else in the universe is ever going to be enough.
The world believes that the answer to our unlimited desires is an unlimited amount of satisfaction. We know that this is false because when we look at the very rich who can afford to have every satisfaction, they do not come across as a perfectly happy demographic. Certain Eastern religions say that the answer is to destroy the desire, that the perfectly happy person is the one who has learned to appreciate what they have and not want any more.
Christianity, however, rejects both of these extremes and insists on another answer. Christianity tells us that there is an infinite answer to our unlimited desire. If we want to have enough, we should forget about all these insufficient satisfactions and turn to God. We should not moderate our desires but realize that what we have really been wanting all along is God.
Earth is earth and not heaven. It cannot satisfy our desire. Our desire for happiness is so strong, because our happiness someday will be equal to that desire. It is possible to have enough here on earth, so long as we remember what it is that we truly want, so long as we know why it is never enough.
February 19, 2012 - Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
God says that he is tired of us. “You burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your crimes.” How should we understand this statement since God, who is all-powerful, cannot actually be wearied. One way of understanding this verse is to apply it to Christ. Even though this reading was written centuries before Christ, it is a prophecy and therefore we can understand it as applying to Christ who by carrying the Cross for our sins actually was burdened with our sins and wearied with our crimes.
However, we also can understand it of God in the divine nature. What wearies us more than futile labor? A man is not wearied of digging if he finds the treasure he is seeking. The teacher is not wearied by hours of work if the students are learning. The parent is not wearied by their teenage children who obey them. But digging a hole and finding nothing, and teaching the same point over and over again, and seeing your children make the same foolish mistakes over and over again is very tiring.
God is wearied and burdened because we his children are very frustrating. He tries to make things easy for us, but we make them hard for ourselves. He created us to announce his praise, but we ignore him. He tells us exactly what we need to do to be happy, and we try to find happiness anywhere else.
So God, who still is not giving up on us, begins again. He wipes out our offenses. He forgets our sins. He gives us a second chance and the third chance and a 576 millionth chance. He does not want us to fail; he wants us to succeed. He is not trying to make us into something monstrous. He is not trying to convince us to be something boring. Everything he does is to make us into exactly what we want to be. We might not even know what we want, but he does.
Is real forgiveness possible in this world? Is it possible to have our sins wiped away and forgotten, as if we had never sinned? Not superficially. On the surface of things, people remember. Our debt remains; our shame remains; the consequences of our choices remain. We can never go back to that fork in the road and take the other path. But this is just the surface of things. In reality it does not matter what the other people think or what they remember about us. Even the consequences of our actions, the life situation that we have ended up in for good or ill, partially through luck and partially by our own fault, is not that important. Only one thing really matters, has God forgiven us?
Because if God has forgiven us, and he no longer remembers our sin, then it really is as if we had never done it. The forgiveness of God has the power to change history. After forgiveness our sin only remains inasmuch as we love God more for having forgiven us. Once God has forgiven us, what does shame matter? It does not. Once God has forgiven us, what do we care if people judge us? We do not.
When the Pharisees today see Jesus forgive the sins of the paralyzed child, they doubt his ability and authority. Fine, but when he proves his ability and authority by healing the child, they ought to have run right up to him and said: “Me next! Forgive me!”
There is one who is not pleased by the possibility of forgiveness. That one is he who refuses to be forgiven, Satan himself. When we sin, he uses his every ability to prevent us from being forgiven. Fear, shame, and excuses are all used to try and separate us from the love of God.
When we have sinned, we become afraid of God. This is the devil trying to keep us sick by making us afraid of the cure. The solution is love. We cannot really be afraid of someone we love and who we know loves us. God loves us. He loves us more than we can imagine, more than anyone else has ever loved us, and more than we have ever loved anyone in this world. What could we possibly be afraid of?
When we have sinned, we become ashamed of what we have done and unwilling to admit it. This is the devil trying to keep us injured by making us hide our injury. The solution is humility. We would not be ashamed to admit weakness unless we wanted people to think that we were perfect.
When we have sinned, we begin to make excuses. This is the devil trying to keep us unhappy by lying to us about where happiness can be found. The solution is trust. Who are we going to trust has the key to happiness? If we can trust that God's plan for us will make us happy and if we can trust that God has given us the church to reveal his plan for us, then we will not be fooled by any thoughts we have and excuses we come up with for why we can find happiness in sin. Left to our own devices, we will come to crazy conclusions about what is sin and what is not. If we trust that there is someone wiser than us who is looking out for us, we will not believe the lies.
However many promises God has made us, there is a yes revealed in Jesus Christ. Will he forgive our sins? Yes. Will he make us the person we wish we were? Yes. Does he have a place prepared for us where we will be happy forever? Yes. God makes extravagant promises, but he is fully capable of fulfilling every one of them, and he has fulfilled them in Jesus Christ.
In Jesus, there is a yes to everything we have ever wanted. Perhaps when you were a little child you wanted a particular toy, and when you grew older that toy changed every year, and now what you want more than anything else has a different shape from that toy, but really what you wanted never changed. You wanted to be happy, and you still want to be happy. Whether you want a new car or to win the lottery or a happy family, you really just want to be happy. And Jesus is saying yes.
God has made promises, and he will fulfill those promises. He already has begun to fulfill his promises. He has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, and no matter where we are or what we are going through, the Holy Spirit has the power to make us happy.
You and I have sinned. You and I have sins in our past and in our present. God is tired of us. He is tired of waiting for us to change, but that does not mean that he is going to give up on us. He is going to keep trying. Let us, you and I, do God this favor and let him make us happy.
God says that he is tired of us. “You burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your crimes.” How should we understand this statement since God, who is all-powerful, cannot actually be wearied. One way of understanding this verse is to apply it to Christ. Even though this reading was written centuries before Christ, it is a prophecy and therefore we can understand it as applying to Christ who by carrying the Cross for our sins actually was burdened with our sins and wearied with our crimes.
However, we also can understand it of God in the divine nature. What wearies us more than futile labor? A man is not wearied of digging if he finds the treasure he is seeking. The teacher is not wearied by hours of work if the students are learning. The parent is not wearied by their teenage children who obey them. But digging a hole and finding nothing, and teaching the same point over and over again, and seeing your children make the same foolish mistakes over and over again is very tiring.
God is wearied and burdened because we his children are very frustrating. He tries to make things easy for us, but we make them hard for ourselves. He created us to announce his praise, but we ignore him. He tells us exactly what we need to do to be happy, and we try to find happiness anywhere else.
So God, who still is not giving up on us, begins again. He wipes out our offenses. He forgets our sins. He gives us a second chance and the third chance and a 576 millionth chance. He does not want us to fail; he wants us to succeed. He is not trying to make us into something monstrous. He is not trying to convince us to be something boring. Everything he does is to make us into exactly what we want to be. We might not even know what we want, but he does.
Is real forgiveness possible in this world? Is it possible to have our sins wiped away and forgotten, as if we had never sinned? Not superficially. On the surface of things, people remember. Our debt remains; our shame remains; the consequences of our choices remain. We can never go back to that fork in the road and take the other path. But this is just the surface of things. In reality it does not matter what the other people think or what they remember about us. Even the consequences of our actions, the life situation that we have ended up in for good or ill, partially through luck and partially by our own fault, is not that important. Only one thing really matters, has God forgiven us?
Because if God has forgiven us, and he no longer remembers our sin, then it really is as if we had never done it. The forgiveness of God has the power to change history. After forgiveness our sin only remains inasmuch as we love God more for having forgiven us. Once God has forgiven us, what does shame matter? It does not. Once God has forgiven us, what do we care if people judge us? We do not.
When the Pharisees today see Jesus forgive the sins of the paralyzed child, they doubt his ability and authority. Fine, but when he proves his ability and authority by healing the child, they ought to have run right up to him and said: “Me next! Forgive me!”
There is one who is not pleased by the possibility of forgiveness. That one is he who refuses to be forgiven, Satan himself. When we sin, he uses his every ability to prevent us from being forgiven. Fear, shame, and excuses are all used to try and separate us from the love of God.
When we have sinned, we become afraid of God. This is the devil trying to keep us sick by making us afraid of the cure. The solution is love. We cannot really be afraid of someone we love and who we know loves us. God loves us. He loves us more than we can imagine, more than anyone else has ever loved us, and more than we have ever loved anyone in this world. What could we possibly be afraid of?
When we have sinned, we become ashamed of what we have done and unwilling to admit it. This is the devil trying to keep us injured by making us hide our injury. The solution is humility. We would not be ashamed to admit weakness unless we wanted people to think that we were perfect.
When we have sinned, we begin to make excuses. This is the devil trying to keep us unhappy by lying to us about where happiness can be found. The solution is trust. Who are we going to trust has the key to happiness? If we can trust that God's plan for us will make us happy and if we can trust that God has given us the church to reveal his plan for us, then we will not be fooled by any thoughts we have and excuses we come up with for why we can find happiness in sin. Left to our own devices, we will come to crazy conclusions about what is sin and what is not. If we trust that there is someone wiser than us who is looking out for us, we will not believe the lies.
However many promises God has made us, there is a yes revealed in Jesus Christ. Will he forgive our sins? Yes. Will he make us the person we wish we were? Yes. Does he have a place prepared for us where we will be happy forever? Yes. God makes extravagant promises, but he is fully capable of fulfilling every one of them, and he has fulfilled them in Jesus Christ.
In Jesus, there is a yes to everything we have ever wanted. Perhaps when you were a little child you wanted a particular toy, and when you grew older that toy changed every year, and now what you want more than anything else has a different shape from that toy, but really what you wanted never changed. You wanted to be happy, and you still want to be happy. Whether you want a new car or to win the lottery or a happy family, you really just want to be happy. And Jesus is saying yes.
God has made promises, and he will fulfill those promises. He already has begun to fulfill his promises. He has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, and no matter where we are or what we are going through, the Holy Spirit has the power to make us happy.
You and I have sinned. You and I have sins in our past and in our present. God is tired of us. He is tired of waiting for us to change, but that does not mean that he is going to give up on us. He is going to keep trying. Let us, you and I, do God this favor and let him make us happy.
February 14, 2012 - Memorial of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, Bishop
Today's Readings
Temptation comes from three sources. These are traditionally listed as the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
Temptation from the world is the temptation of money, fame, and power. The world tempts us with the possibility of controlling other people and having people adore us. The temptation of the world is to be more successful than other people. The temptation of the world is to want to be higher than everyone else. Success is meaningless if we are not more successful than other people. But the Christian denies this temptation. It is illogical. We should be glad that other people are smarter and more talented than us. We are not perfect. The Christian is glad to see success wherever it exists and does not give in to any desire to be better than others.
Temptation of the flesh is the way that our body weighs us down. It is the temptation for entertainment, for relaxation, for eating, for sexual pleasure. Each of these has its proper place, but the body would have us give it constantly. One dessert is not enough. One movie is not enough. If we listen to the body, we will make ourselves unhappy. The body is happiest when we do not give it everything it wants. Give it good food in the proper amount, give it sleep when it is needed and the amount we need, give it exercise even when it is not inclined, and the body will be strong and useful. Give in to the temptations of the flesh and the body will be weak.
Temptation by the Devil is rarer than the others. Only in certain circumstances does the Devil need to get involved. Usually we make a mess of things all by ourselves. When he sees us getting along, trying to follow God, he comes in and steers us toward one of the other temptations. Just as he did with Eve, he makes us believe that God’s laws are unreasonable. He encourages in us the feeling of rebellion: who is God to tell us what to do? Often this question is enough and we are fooled until we realize once again that sin does not have the power to make us happy.
God does not tempt us, but he does give us the power to fight all temptation. He wants us to be happy, and the only things standing in the way of our happiness is our temptation to sin.
Temptation comes from three sources. These are traditionally listed as the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
Temptation from the world is the temptation of money, fame, and power. The world tempts us with the possibility of controlling other people and having people adore us. The temptation of the world is to be more successful than other people. The temptation of the world is to want to be higher than everyone else. Success is meaningless if we are not more successful than other people. But the Christian denies this temptation. It is illogical. We should be glad that other people are smarter and more talented than us. We are not perfect. The Christian is glad to see success wherever it exists and does not give in to any desire to be better than others.
Temptation of the flesh is the way that our body weighs us down. It is the temptation for entertainment, for relaxation, for eating, for sexual pleasure. Each of these has its proper place, but the body would have us give it constantly. One dessert is not enough. One movie is not enough. If we listen to the body, we will make ourselves unhappy. The body is happiest when we do not give it everything it wants. Give it good food in the proper amount, give it sleep when it is needed and the amount we need, give it exercise even when it is not inclined, and the body will be strong and useful. Give in to the temptations of the flesh and the body will be weak.
Temptation by the Devil is rarer than the others. Only in certain circumstances does the Devil need to get involved. Usually we make a mess of things all by ourselves. When he sees us getting along, trying to follow God, he comes in and steers us toward one of the other temptations. Just as he did with Eve, he makes us believe that God’s laws are unreasonable. He encourages in us the feeling of rebellion: who is God to tell us what to do? Often this question is enough and we are fooled until we realize once again that sin does not have the power to make us happy.
God does not tempt us, but he does give us the power to fight all temptation. He wants us to be happy, and the only things standing in the way of our happiness is our temptation to sin.
February 4, 2012 - Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
God offered to give Solomon whatever he asked for, but God already knew what Solomon would ask for. God knows everything: in the past, the future, and the present. He would not have made such a generous offer if Solomon would have asked for riches or a long life or the death of his enemies. Since Solomon wanted something that God wanted to give him, God offered to give him whatever he wanted.
Has God offered you whatever you want? No? Me neither. The problem could be that God is not as generous as he used to be, but that makes no sense. The problem surely is that I do not yet want what God wants to give me. God will happily be generous as soon as I am receptive.
Yet God has offered to give us his gift: the Holy Spirit, God himself. What else could we possibly want? Would we want money or fame or any other worldly possession? No. Who would want money or fame except because they think it will make them happy? Who wants anything at all except because they think that it will make them happy?
The problem is whether I believe that the Holy Spirit will make me happy. If I really believed that a life of serving God and my neighbor would make me happy, I would not do anything else. The essential problem of sin is a failure to believe that God is the source of my happiness. Eve ate the fruit because she failed to believe that God would make her happy. Every sin that has ever been committed has been done for this reason.
If only I would believe in the happiness God has to offer, how happy I would be! There is no failure of generosity on his part. He is ready to give me the happiness that my soul desires. I, however, for whatever reason I know not — pride, foolishness, fear, or all these things — will seek happiness everywhere except the one place that I am sure to get it.
Solomon eventually rejected the wisdom that God gave him; in his old age, he became a fool, worshiping other gods to please his wives, but in this one glorious moment Solomon did not ask anything for himself except the wisdom to accomplish the task God had given him. He is an example for us, that when we forget ourselves we will finally be happy.
God offered to give Solomon whatever he asked for, but God already knew what Solomon would ask for. God knows everything: in the past, the future, and the present. He would not have made such a generous offer if Solomon would have asked for riches or a long life or the death of his enemies. Since Solomon wanted something that God wanted to give him, God offered to give him whatever he wanted.
Has God offered you whatever you want? No? Me neither. The problem could be that God is not as generous as he used to be, but that makes no sense. The problem surely is that I do not yet want what God wants to give me. God will happily be generous as soon as I am receptive.
Yet God has offered to give us his gift: the Holy Spirit, God himself. What else could we possibly want? Would we want money or fame or any other worldly possession? No. Who would want money or fame except because they think it will make them happy? Who wants anything at all except because they think that it will make them happy?
The problem is whether I believe that the Holy Spirit will make me happy. If I really believed that a life of serving God and my neighbor would make me happy, I would not do anything else. The essential problem of sin is a failure to believe that God is the source of my happiness. Eve ate the fruit because she failed to believe that God would make her happy. Every sin that has ever been committed has been done for this reason.
If only I would believe in the happiness God has to offer, how happy I would be! There is no failure of generosity on his part. He is ready to give me the happiness that my soul desires. I, however, for whatever reason I know not — pride, foolishness, fear, or all these things — will seek happiness everywhere except the one place that I am sure to get it.
Solomon eventually rejected the wisdom that God gave him; in his old age, he became a fool, worshiping other gods to please his wives, but in this one glorious moment Solomon did not ask anything for himself except the wisdom to accomplish the task God had given him. He is an example for us, that when we forget ourselves we will finally be happy.
September 6, 2011 - Tuesday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
“See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental powers of the world, and not according to Christ.” Our world is filled with empty, seductive philosophies. Every human being in existence really only wants to be happy, so every philosophy must promise happiness of some kind. Empty, seductive philosophies deny true happiness, settling for easy happiness in this world, and then fail to deliver even that.
The philosophies are seductive because they tell us the “real truths” that we always knew deep down. In other words, they confirm our fears. Many worldly philosophies tell us that you live on this earth, and then you die, and after death there is nothing at all. How do they know? There is, of course, no scientific proof of this, nor could there be, yet they tell us that we who believe in life after death, we who believe that we are more than atoms and electrons, are simply fooling ourselves. We are all afraid of death, so when they tell us that the fear is real, what could be more seductive? But they are just ignorant as we are.
Having confirmed our fears without a basis, the philosophies are empty because they deny the only possible source of happiness. God gave us an infinite capacity for happiness which can only be satisfied by loving him. He is the only infinite good in the universe. We are going to live forever, which is a very long time. Anything less than the infinitely good, beautiful, and true God will eventually be boring. Sex, money, parties, drugs, power, entertainment, games, and every other source of limited happiness fail to satisfy our longing. Everything on earth is boring after a few years at most, how could it possibly last forever?
So these philosophies tell us that there is no God, that death is final, and that humans are selfish. Then they promise us happiness with money, sex, and power. Jesus tells us that God is our Father, that death is the beginning, and that we have a capacity for perfect love. Then he promises us happiness with poverty, chastity, and obedience. “Brothers and sisters, you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, depend on him, be built up on him, and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Do not be afraid, and do not settle for what fails to satisfy.
“See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental powers of the world, and not according to Christ.” Our world is filled with empty, seductive philosophies. Every human being in existence really only wants to be happy, so every philosophy must promise happiness of some kind. Empty, seductive philosophies deny true happiness, settling for easy happiness in this world, and then fail to deliver even that.
The philosophies are seductive because they tell us the “real truths” that we always knew deep down. In other words, they confirm our fears. Many worldly philosophies tell us that you live on this earth, and then you die, and after death there is nothing at all. How do they know? There is, of course, no scientific proof of this, nor could there be, yet they tell us that we who believe in life after death, we who believe that we are more than atoms and electrons, are simply fooling ourselves. We are all afraid of death, so when they tell us that the fear is real, what could be more seductive? But they are just ignorant as we are.
Having confirmed our fears without a basis, the philosophies are empty because they deny the only possible source of happiness. God gave us an infinite capacity for happiness which can only be satisfied by loving him. He is the only infinite good in the universe. We are going to live forever, which is a very long time. Anything less than the infinitely good, beautiful, and true God will eventually be boring. Sex, money, parties, drugs, power, entertainment, games, and every other source of limited happiness fail to satisfy our longing. Everything on earth is boring after a few years at most, how could it possibly last forever?
So these philosophies tell us that there is no God, that death is final, and that humans are selfish. Then they promise us happiness with money, sex, and power. Jesus tells us that God is our Father, that death is the beginning, and that we have a capacity for perfect love. Then he promises us happiness with poverty, chastity, and obedience. “Brothers and sisters, you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, depend on him, be built up on him, and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Do not be afraid, and do not settle for what fails to satisfy.
August 5, 2011 - Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
Moses, in the first reading today, tells the Israelites that they have been blessed to be so close to God. They heard the voice of God speaking to them from the fire. God was willing to condescend, to come down and be with, his people. He drove out the nations before them. He gave them a law so that they would know his will.
If Moses was amazed by how close God was to the Israelites, how much more should we be amazed by the Lord’s invitation today! Jesus invites us to be as close to him as possible: he invites us to suffer and die with him. What else could be the meaning of these words: “Take up your cross [your] cross and follow me”?
How beautifully our Lord entices us today. He begins with the invitation, “Whoever wishes to come after me”. What a beautiful invitation! It is so casual, almost offhand: “Whoever wishes.” He does not tell us what we ought to do or must do; he does not command us with harsh words. He is simply relating the logical consequences. If someone happens to want to follow him, they will have to do what he did. No one can follow another person without going where they went. That is the meaning of “follow”. Where did Jesus go? He went to the Cross.
We have this possibility of being so close to God. Why would we not take advantage of the opportunity? Fear, mostly. We are afraid of suffering and death; we are afraid of giving up what makes us happy in this world. As the old saying says, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Of course, it is more like a flock of birds in the bush, millions of birds in the bush, but still, a bird in the hand is something definite.
Then we look at this bird in our hands and we realize that it is a sickly, ugly thing. The worldly happiness that we would have to give up is not really making us so happy after all. Nothing can make us as happy as God. If suffering and death could make us happy, there is nothing to be afraid of. To suffer with Jesus, to die with Jesus, who suffered and died for us, to be united to Jesus by these unbreakable bonds, this is the only true happiness.
Moses, in the first reading today, tells the Israelites that they have been blessed to be so close to God. They heard the voice of God speaking to them from the fire. God was willing to condescend, to come down and be with, his people. He drove out the nations before them. He gave them a law so that they would know his will.
If Moses was amazed by how close God was to the Israelites, how much more should we be amazed by the Lord’s invitation today! Jesus invites us to be as close to him as possible: he invites us to suffer and die with him. What else could be the meaning of these words: “Take up your cross [your] cross and follow me”?
How beautifully our Lord entices us today. He begins with the invitation, “Whoever wishes to come after me”. What a beautiful invitation! It is so casual, almost offhand: “Whoever wishes.” He does not tell us what we ought to do or must do; he does not command us with harsh words. He is simply relating the logical consequences. If someone happens to want to follow him, they will have to do what he did. No one can follow another person without going where they went. That is the meaning of “follow”. Where did Jesus go? He went to the Cross.
We have this possibility of being so close to God. Why would we not take advantage of the opportunity? Fear, mostly. We are afraid of suffering and death; we are afraid of giving up what makes us happy in this world. As the old saying says, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Of course, it is more like a flock of birds in the bush, millions of birds in the bush, but still, a bird in the hand is something definite.
Then we look at this bird in our hands and we realize that it is a sickly, ugly thing. The worldly happiness that we would have to give up is not really making us so happy after all. Nothing can make us as happy as God. If suffering and death could make us happy, there is nothing to be afraid of. To suffer with Jesus, to die with Jesus, who suffered and died for us, to be united to Jesus by these unbreakable bonds, this is the only true happiness.
February 26, 2011 - Saturday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
The Lord has made us to praise him. This is not to say that the Lord made us because he wanted to be praised. God is perfectly happy in the perfect union of the Trinity. He is not looking for compliments. The Lord made us to praise him because that is the most wonderful action that is possible. God could have made us so that our final happiness was found in something simpler. He could have made creatures who delighted in a full stomach and a good bed and nothing more. But a creature is only as great as their final destiny. It is only the dissatisfaction that we sense in the things of this earth that make us look toward heaven. All of the truly great accomplishments in art or music or literature are the result of this desire we have to praise God, even if the artist did not know why they were impelled to create something beautiful.
This desire to praise God is inside each one of us, and it is God’s own gift to us. Our soul cries out like an infant, unable to put its desire into words. We try to quiet it with pacifiers. There are many pacifiers in this world: food, alcohol, sex, entertainment. Sometimes the pacifier works for awhile, but then our soul begins crying out again. Some people try to keep up a variety of these pacifiers, switching whenever one has lost its power. Some people remain bored and unhappy as they continually go to the same pacifier looking for the satisfaction they have never found there.
We, however, know what our soul is crying out for. We want love, and not the imperfect love that any human being can give us. This too can be just another pacifier. We want the perfect love of God. Without a doubt, God does love us. He is love, and he created us. It is left for us to recognize his love. This recognition is praise. Boredom is a sign that we have not been praising God enough, that we have forgotten about the love of God. Every time we choose to answer boredom with one of the pacifiers of this world instead of by praising God, we make ourselves less than we should be. Whenever we do praise God, we are fulfilling our soul’s true desire.
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