1st Sunday of Lent 26.2.12 Good v evil
A previous Australian Prime Minister made the famous line: Life wasn’t meant to be easy.Most people would agree that they don't find it easy. On the other hand a case can be made that it should be easy – if only we took the right turnings. It is our own doing that life has been a lot harder than it needed to be.
If we go right back to the beginning: before Lucifer fell and before Adam fell everything was as right as rain, and would still be had those falls not happened. It is only spiritual resistance to God that has begun all the trouble.
Sin brings with it confusion and disorder.
We know the feeling if we are trying to solve a problem and we make a wrong move it gets worse; then we get frustrated and make it worse again.
Life is like that. If we take a wrong turning we make it worse, harder to see a way clear.
We did not stop at one sin. One sin is very likely to lead to another and in different ways the confusion spreads. eg if I am lazy I am likely to commit gluttony as well. etc
One vice breeds others.
And that is just for one person. What about a whole society copying each other and being influenced by each other - with every sin making things worse than they were before?
It is not all bad, fortunately. There has been another current running through our history. A lot of good has been done too. And the same principle applies in reverse. Every good deed makes it more likely that other good things will follow. And the confusion lifts and we start to see things more clearly.
Virtue will spread; eg generosity will lead to patience. (see Galatians 5).
This is what has kept the planet going. Enough goodness to save us from destruction so far. But not enough goodness to make this life comfortable (which it could be).
We are all exposed to these two currents. We are pushed and pulled in all directions. Today Our Lord battles with Satan. Good will always win if only it remembers its basic identity and principles. Evil really does not have substance; it works only with illusion and deception.
It is not as hard as we make it. We have available to us the grace, the means, the power to sidestep the temptation when it comes. It is always possible to take the good path; and when we do that we will grow in confidence and joy, without giving way to complacency.
If we avoid one temptation the devil will try something else, more subtle or more dangerous.
And there are many pitfalls and snares. It is possible that someone who is ‘good’ in basic terms can turn bad by degrees. The snares are often subtle. We are not likely to rob a bank, but there are other sins.
At least if we know how it works we can set about untangling things to some extent.
We can follow the example of the Lord to cut through the deceptions and build up our strength.
Eventually we can be strong enough that the devil has no way of getting at us, no foothold by which he can cling. (The Blessed Virgin Mary is an example of this. The devil had no way of getting at her because she had no weakness caused by previous sin.)
In the process of saving our souls we will be making our own lives easier and also improving the world - which no one will mind.
It is all there before us if we can only see it and take the right path.
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