1st Sunday of Lent 1.3.20 Battle of wills
Our Lord overcomes the temptations the devil puts
before Him.
The devil puts certain attractive ideas forward; Our Lord
crushes those ideas with His own much stronger wisdom.
We know what it is to be tempted; we do not always dismiss
the temptations as decisively as Our Lord did.
It boils down to a battle between spirit and flesh. In Our
Lord’s case His flesh was totally in harmony with His spirit. So there was no
conflict.
With us there is a lot of conflict, and we often find
ourselves wanting the wrong thing, or basing our decisions on the wrong
footing.
Every sin can be seen as a wrong perception of reality.
The first sin of mankind was based on mistaken appearances;
the forbidden fruit looked good to eat. Every other sin has been along the same
lines.
Our Lord was able to turn that on its head. In His humanity
He could see the true value of each thing, and it was easy then to choose that
which is best.
He did not seek first to gratify His own flesh; rather He
sought the spiritual good above all else.
Because sin has entered the world our desires are out of
balance. We tend to put the flesh ahead of the spirit; to put our own desires
ahead of the holy will of God.
How can we shift from what pleases me to what pleases God,
and so will please me?
Are we prepared to let God have a say on what we should be
doing, or what our life situation should be? Or are we going to keep Him as far
away as possible, even if we do give Him some attention?
His ways are always going to be right. We know that before
we start, but we can try to ignore the fact and press ahead with what we want.
The devil will come in and reinforce our wrong inclinations with
the help of our friends, families, colleagues, neighbours – any of whom might
encourage us to do whatever we are inclined to do. After all, we have a right
to be happy, they will say.
Beware of false advice. Let us take God's advice instead.
He has infinite wisdom and vision. He can see through all
pretence and deception, and He can help us increase our own share of that
wisdom and insight.
At first it is more likely that we do not seek to please God
so much as to please ourselves, while
hoping not to displease God.
Lent is a time to crack the egg, take the bull by the horns,
burn our bridges… to make radical progress in grasping God's will with both
hands.
I am sick of my sins and my bad habits; I am going to
change.
Small progress is fine if we cannot do it all in one hit. It
is a matter of getting the next thing right. One thing at a time. And then keep
doing that.
If we get something wrong, we acknowledge it, learn from it,
and quickly bounce back.
Gradually our wills change to conform with God's will. This
happens as we grow in spiritual maturity, becoming fully human in Christ.
It becomes easier to accept God’s will as we see Him more as
an ally than a threat; and it becomes natural to love Him as we love others,
such as family. Doing right and pleasing God amount to the same thing.
Christ of course achieved all this in His humanity. So He
will help us learn from Him.
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