1st Sunday of Lent, Year A -Temptations

 

Years ago, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic school in Wichita, a 3^rd grade boy asked me a question. He said, “Is there sin in heaven?” I said, “No, there is no sin in heaven.” He asked me again, “Are you sure, there is no sin in heaven?” I said, “Yes, there is no sin in heaven.” He then said, “But didn’t the devil and the bad angels sin in heaven?” That was a pretty smart question. I said, “Yes, you are right. But that was a one time event, and now there will never be sin in heaven again.”

Before God created Adam and Eve, Lucifer was the most intelligent, strongest, and most beautiful of all angels. The book of Revelation Chapter 12:7 details what happened in heaven with regard to the angels. It states, “And war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels making war against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought, but they were not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Lucifer, also called Satan, fell from grace. As for the particular sin the bad angels committed, many theologians believe in their prefallen state, the angels were given a foreknowledge of humans (who would be inferior to them), as well as a foreknowledge God himself (Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity) would take on human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary and then Jesus redeem the universe through his death on the cross. This revelation, angered Lucifer because it meant he and the other angels would have to worship God in His human nature. Lucifer and the other angels who fell, were so proud of being superior to men that their arrogance wouldn’t allow them to worship Jesus Christ the God-Man. This refusal–“ I will not serve”–stemmed from pride. Therefore, the root of Lucifer’s fall as well as the other 1/3 angels who rejected God, was most likely pride and disobedience.

And since then, the bad angels (now known as demons) want to do everything they can, to cause the loss of human souls to show their anger towards God. Satan and his demons use temptation to persuade human beings to sin.

For example, in the first reading from Genesis, Satan tempted Adam and Eve, and in the Gospel, Jesus was tempted by Satan. Both were tempted in three ways. First--Adam was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree. Second--He was tempted to vain glory “your eyes will be opened”. His third temptation was to the height of pride “you will be like gods”.

Jesus was also tempted with food—to change a rock into bread to satisfy is hunger from fasting. He was to tempted to vain glory ---to show off His power—by jumping off a cliff. His third temptation was the desire for worldly riches and fame to have all the kingdoms of the world, so as to hold God in contempt.

We are all tempted in three different ways, the world, our self and from evil spirits. So not all temptations come from evil spirits.

Everyone is tempted. If Jesus was tempted, we are tempted too. Jesus, as God, overcame every temptation, and as God, we turn to Him to help us overcome ours.

Often times, people try to overcome temptations by themselves, and forget they need Jesus, who came to save us from our sins. Our Lord has also given us the sacraments and sacramentals to help us.

Confession is the most powerful way to turn away from temptations. In confession, we are washed in the blood of Jesus, our sins are forgiven and completely absolved, we receive sacramental graces to overcome sin, we receive advice from Jesus, through the priest to help us with our temptations.

Being in the presence of the Holy Sacrifice, we receive sacramental grace from the Cross of Jesus. When we receive Holy Communion, the Lord comes to dwell within us and gives us spiritual gifts, such as consolation, spiritual strength to turn away from sin, our union with Jesus helps us to practice virtue. We receive love poured into our hearts when our heart is united to the Heart of Jesus.

We also have sacramentals, that bestow grace, especially crucifixes, scapulars, holy water, medals, rosaries. The St. Benedict Medal has power due to an exorcism prayer prayed by a priest.

We also have the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and the many saints that we can turn to, in time of temptation. Our guardian angel’s mission is to help us become holy, to grow in love of God, to protect us from evil spirits and help us to get to heaven. We should pray the guardian angel prayer everyday. We can also specifically ask our guardian angel to help us during temptations. We also have other good angels as well, especially St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael, who we can turn to.

St. Michael is especially helpful when battling against evil spirits because as a lowly archangel, he stood up and led the other good angels to cast out Lucifer and the fallen angels. In response to Lucifer’s rejection of God, “he will not serve”, St. Michael is believed to have said, “Who is like God?”

A number of years ago, Bishop Kemme asked all priests pray the St. Michael prayer at the end of Mass. But we should also pray the St. Michael prayer when tempted, because when we call upon St. Michael, he immediately comes.

I have a rock from St. Michael’s cave, where it is believed St. Michael appeared to people on a British island. It is a wonderful sacramental I keep next to my bed and at times carry with me.

We need to have blessed objects like statues, crucifixes, blessed pictures of Jesus, Mary and the saints in every room of the house.

We should pray when we under temptation, especially, the Our Father, which asks us to be delivered from evil and the Hail Mary is very effective. The Virgin Mary is the new sinless Eve and She is the one who is at enmity with Satan. She has tremendous power over all evil spirits. She is the queen of angels, which means, evil spirits, who are fallen angels, must submit to Her power and authority given to Her by God. Besides the Hail Mary, we can pray, the prayer on the miraculous medal, which states, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us, who have recourse to thee.”

By wearing a miraculous medal, or a crucifix, demons have difficulty tempting us. A simple sign of the Cross, will cause demons to flee. When we call upon the name of Jesus, every knee must bow and every tongue confess, Jesus is Lord. The name of Mary is likewise powerful too.

The world and each of us are in a spiritual battle. And we need to take up our weapons for battle. The power from all these weapons comes from Jesus, who is God, and who overcame every temptation of the devil. He is like us in all things, but sin.

Jesus wants to help us. We need to turn Him often and remember He is always with us. When we have Jesus, we have nothing to fear. Demons like darkness, but the light of Christ scatters all darkness, because light can not be over come. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who walks with me, does not walk in darkness.”

When someone remains in mortal sin, people don’t realize it, but demons influence them because are not in the state of grace.

Evil spirits can tempt children and adults through the Ouija board, astrology, wicca, black and white magic, video games with magic, spells & wizardry and... the dark web are all portals for evil spirits to enter into our life. Evil spirits hate us. They want to destroy us. They want us to burn in hell forever by rejecting God. You know the old saying, “If you mess with fire, your gonna get burned.”

If you have ever played these in the past, you should confess them to break any kind of attachment, you may have to them.

Jesus, wants us to be with Him in heaven, where there is peace, joy, happiness and love. We need to reject sin and temptations. We should hate sin, but love sinners.

Evil spirits can cause addictions and they can use them to negatively influence us. There are many kinds of addictions such as pornography, gambling, stealing, alcohol, drugs, excessive watching of television, the internet, video games. We should confess these in confession. Confession can break bonds with sin, and it removes evil from our lives, through repentance and sacramental grace. Confession is the most powerful way to break addictions, however sometimes we need supplemental help, such a deliverance prayers, therapy, treatment or medicine.

In the bulletin this weekend, I attached “Prayers of Protection” anyone can pray. When we are battling against evil spirits through temptation, we can bind them, and ask Jesus to deliver us us from them. Through baptism, we have the authority of Jesus to be delivered from evil spirits such as, “In the name of Jesus, I bind the evil spirit of lust or greed or anger, or the demon of addiction of gambling, to leave me and command you to go to the foot of the Cross of Jesus and remain there until Jesus sees fit what to do with you.”

But, we should not directly command them to leave others. For example its dangerous to say, “I command you evil spirit, etc…to leave a specific person.” Only priests and exorcists can command evil spirits in that way, because they have the authority to do it.

Exorcists have authority by the bishop to expel demons. Over the years, I have seen people who are possessed. A 19 year old man, became possessed by playing tarot cards, just one time. The repeated playing of the Ouija board can lead to possession too. When someone is attached to a serious sin and refuse to try to turn away from it, they too can be possessed. Our diocese has a priest exorcist, who can expel demons from a possessed person.

It may surprise you, yoga is an opening for evil spirits. Priest exorcists warn against yoga, because the meditations, breathing exorcises and positions, were originally created to worship false gods. This does not mean, people can’t do stretching exercises, but we should not do them in the form and manner used by another religion.

A pentagram or the numbers 666 can attract evil spirits. Some, will say, I just like the shape of the design of the pentagram, or I just like the numbers, or I don’t have any bad intention, but, these kinds of things are Satan’s instruments and we should avoid them because they attract evil spirits.

We should have our house blessed once a year by a priest and it is a very good practice to sprinkle holy water regularly and even each night in our bedrooms, before we go to bed.

I would like to tell you a short story about the importance of blessing the home. If a grave sin occurred in a house or any location, demons become attached to that place. For example, if there is a murder or illegal drugs are used, or if someone played the Oujia board or in a certain place, the room will attract demons.

When I was in Wichita, as an associate, I was asked to bless a home of a woman who had a 3 year child. She told me late at night she would hear footsteps and the TV and toys would turn on by themselves. At first, I thought she was crazy. I told her to unplug the TV and take out the batteries of the toys and I would come to bless her house. When I did the blessing, as I made the sign of the cross, we all felt a gust of cold wind go through the house. A few weeks after the blessing, while tearing up carpet, they discovered a pentagram used by a previous occupant of the house. They removed it, and I came to bless the house again, and there was no more problems after that.

We should not be afraid of evil spirits, but rather be afraid to commit sin because serious sin can cause us to end up in hell and because sin hurts and offends God, who loves us.

If we stay in the state of grace, if we pray regularly, if we go to confession regularly, attend Mass regularly and receive Holy Communion often, while in the state of grace, we will be protected.

Jesus loves us and cares for us. He does not allow us to be tempted more than we can handle. By our successful fighting against them and overcoming them. Temptations can actually help us to grow in virtue and holiness. As we begin Lent, I encourage you to turn to Jesus, His sacraments and sacramentals, to help you overcome temptations.

Evil spirits do not only tempt in gardens and deserts, they tempt us wherever we are. But compared to God, they are like dust bunnies.