The Ridiculous Lies of the Devil
Satan's only power is lying.
Homily for the First Sunday in Lent (A).
Satan is real.
There’s a famous quote from the poet Charles Baudelaire: “The devil’s greatest trick is convincing you he doesn’t exist.”
When I was younger, I didn’t believe Satan existed. The world had assured me that this was just an idea from a simpler time–a metaphor for the evil in our hearts.
I know better now.
It is impossible for a devout Christian to reject the reality of Satan. No one in the Bible mentions Satan more times than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No one. In the gospels, Jesus makes over two dozen references to the devil. The temptation in the wilderness appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It’s a key moment from the life of our Lord, and it is not a metaphor.
Today, on this First Sunday of Lent, the temptation of Jesus is paired with the temptation of Adam and Eve. There’s a reason for this. The temptation proves the faithfulness of Jesus to the will of the father, in contrast to Adam, who followed his own will. Jesus becomes a second Adam, taking on humanity to give us another chance to get it right.
God does not need to be tested: if we are true to Him, He will be true to us.
Jesus is tempted with three things, and this threefold temptation is found throughout the Bible. The Gospel of John calls it the desire of the flesh, desire of the eyes, and pride. It’s a love of the things of the world above God.
Satan appeals to all three to tempt Adam and Eve when he says the fruit is good for food, which is a desire of the flesh; pleasing to the eyes, which makes them greedy; and will give them wisdom, which appeals to their pride.
When Satan takes another try at temptation with Jesus, the new Adam, he appeals to the same things all over again. He urges Jesus three times to use his divine power to end the suffering of his time in the desert.
First, he says turn these stones into bread. That’s the desire of the flesh, because Jesus was certainly hungry after 40 days of fasting. I was hungry on Wednesday after 40 minutes of fasting. Bread sustains the body, but the word of God, which is Jesus Himself, who is also bread!, gives us true life.
Second, he tells Jesus to throw himself from the Temple to display His power and God’s love for Him, which is an appeal to pride. God does not need to be tested: if we are true to Him, He will be true to us.
Finally, he offers him the kingdoms of the world and their wealth, which appeals to greed: the desire of the eyes. All Jesus has to do, is worship a false idol. We’re asked to worship false idols every day: money, celebrity, technology, power. But God alone is worthy of our worship.
How does Jesus defeat Satan? This is very important, because it’s how we defeat him. We don’t do it on our own and neither did Jesus. He showed us the way by quoting the words of God–by trusting in God–by faith. Those are your weapons as well. Faith, scripture, and trust in the Lord will defeat the devil and his temptations every time.
Temptation is everywhere. The world is a sea of temptation that tries to draw our gaze away from the good, the true, and the beautiful—and towards the wicked, the false, and the ugly.
Temptations are lies. Ridiculous lies, and their author is Satan.
He lies because that’s all he can do. It’s the devil’s one superpower, but it’s a big one because he gets in your head and tells you things and these things can seem true. He tells those who are depressed that they will never be happy. He tells those with addiction that they will never be free. He tells those who are abused that they deserve it. He tells the weak that they will never be strong and the lonely that they aren’t worth loving. He tells those who despair that there is no hope.
And he tells each of us the worst lie of all, the one he uses over and over again: that our sins can never be forgiven—that no matter how much we work or change or repent, our past will always be a stain on our souls. That lie is right from the very pit of hell.
We were bought for a price. That price was paid on the cross. If we repent, if we amend our life, if we let God’s boundless love heal us through the sacrament of confession, then all our sins, be they dark as night, are washed away in the blood of the lamb, and we are made a new creation.
Every time you walk from that confessional and perform your penance, the devil is defeated. And there’s no better way to observe Lent than by defeating the devil.
God does not throw our sins in our faces after they have been absolved. God forgives. How many times have we been happy and at peace, and something from our past, something we’ve already resolved, bubbles to the surface of our minds and makes us feel guilt or shame or hopelessness?
Sometimes that voice may our conscience nudging us to act, to reconcile, to do better. But if we’ve done all that, and we still hear that voice telling us we’re worthless, that’s not God. That’s the devil. Tell him you see him. Tell you’re not fooled by his lies. And then tell him to go back where he came from.
This is outstanding.