Spiritual Warfare. We are Led into the Desert to Fight the Devil

Like the Christians in the ancient Roman empire, we live in an age which has - exchanged the truth of God for a lie, worshiping created things rather than the Creator. (Rom. 1:25)

The devil is not some figment of our imagination, but a malevolent fallen angel who, just as He tempted our first parents and tempted the Lord, now tempts us. These 40 Days of Lent are a classroom in which we learn to conquer the world the flesh and the devil, in order to live differently, beginning now.

CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - The Gospel for this First Sunday of Lent this year (Luke 4:1-13) begins with this statement: "Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil."

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. There He will overcome temptation and resist the devil - for you and for me! There He will show us the way. Now, He invites each of us into that desert with Him. There, we engage in spiritual warfare.

It is there, in that place of struggle, the field of engagement, where we can learn the root causes of our challenges and be equipped with the weapons of our warfare to fight what the Scriptures and Christian Tradition refer to as the "world, the flesh and the devil."

The "world" in this meaning is NOT referring to the created order. Creation is good and given to us as a gift. Rather, the "world" refers to the system which has squeezed the primacy of the Creator out of daily life. When we succumb to its seduction we give ourselves over to the idolatry of self.

The "flesh" is not our body - which God fashioned and which will be raised from the dead, made glorious by the Resurrection. Remember, the Word became flesh and was raised BODILY from the grave. Jesus was the "first fruits" and we too will be raised in Him. Rather, the "flesh" refers to the disordered appetites which are one of the bad effects of sin at work within us.

The devil is not some figment of our imagination, but a malevolent fallen angel who, just as He tempted our first parents and tempted the Lord, now tempts us. These 40 Days of Lent are a classroom in which we learn to conquer the world the flesh and the devil,in order to live differently, beginning now.

The Author of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, ".we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."  (Heb. 4:15)

Jesus, the Word made flesh is our Model.

The temptations He engages in the desert are the prototype of all of the challenges we face as we respond to the continuing call to conversion. After all, the Christian vocation is just that - a continuing call to conversion. We respond the Lord´s invitation.

The first temptation Jesus faced was to His identity. After all, he IS the Son of God! We, through our Baptism, have also now become Sons (and daughters) of the Father in Him. The next temptation was to idolatry. We regularly commit the horrid sin of idolatry, succumbing to its lies almost on a daily basis.

Like the Christians in the ancient Roman empire, we live in an age which has - exchanged the truth of God for a lie, worshiping created things rather than the Creator. (Rom. 1:25)

Finally, there was the subtle but deadly temptation to violate integrity, to use the gifts and power of God improperly and put the Lord to the test. How clearly this poisonous serpent lurks in our daily life!

In each of these encounters with the Tempter, Jesus shows us the method by confronting the lies of the truth of God´s Word. He is the Living Word, and we, through our Baptism, can now live our lives in Him. That is why I say we enter the desert IN Him. We do this by living within the communion of the Church which is His Risen Body on earth.

The Church is not some-thing but Some - One, the continuing presence of the Risen Jesus Christ who lives His life and continues ministry. That is what occurs in and through His Body, of which we are now all members. When we begin to understand that, and live differently in response, things begin to change.

After his beautiful instruction on the nature of the Church in the twelfth chapter of his letter to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul summarizes it with this affirmation, "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

There, living in the Lord, as members of His Body, we can find the resources we need to grow in holiness and struggle against the lingering effects of sin. There we embark on the journey of holiness, becoming what the Scriptures call "perfected´ or completed in Jesus Christ. (Matt. 5:48)

His Divine Life (Grace) is mediated to us through the Sacraments, in the Living word of the Bible and in the communion of love, the Church, the community of faith, in which we now live our new lives.

We are invited during these 40 days to take every gift, every grace, offered to us by the Lord. We are invited to learn to wield the weapons of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. By these practices we grow in freedom by putting away the old man or woman and putting on the new man or woman, created anew in Jesus.

The great Bishop, St. Augustine, teaches us, "He (Jesus) made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil."

"In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained salvation for you; he suffered death in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you."

"If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcome the devil. Do you think only of Christ's temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation."

It is Jesus, in his Sacred Humanity, who fully reveals the new man. (G.S. #22) He is the model, and He is showing us the method. However, in His Divinity He is Himself also the Means. In Him we are redeemed, made capable, empowered to grow in holiness and virtue by overcoming temptation. In Him, we triumph in the spiritual warfare in which we are now engaged.

Through His Saving Life, Death and Resurrection, he makes it possible for us to live new lives, in Him - beginning now and leading into eternity.

Too often we forget that sin is a wrong choice, an "abuse of freedom" (See, Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1731- 1739, 386 - 402). We were created in the Image of God and at the very core; the heart of that Image is the capacity to freely choose to respond to his loving invitation to communion with Him.

From the first sin, the original sin onward, every sin is an abuse of that freedom and leads us into slavery. However, as the Apostle Paul reminds the Galatians, "It was for freedom that Christ sets us free"! (Gal. 5:1) Our freedom has been fractured and the Cross is the splint which, when applied in our daily lives, restores our capacity to live freely!

In his homily on Ash Wednesday in 2010, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sketched for the faithful the portrait of this Holy Season as he reflected on the 40 Days that Jesus spent in the desert on our behalf:

"That long time of silence and fasting for him was a complete abandonment to the Father and to His plan of love. Going into the desert meant voluntarily exposing himself to the enemy's attacks, to temptation. entering into battle with him on the open field, defying him without any weapon other than his infinite trust in the Father's omnipotent love."

"Adam was expelled from the earthly paradise, the symbol of communion with God.... Now, in order to return to that communion and thus to eternal life we must pass through the desert, the test of faith. Not alone but with Jesus who proceeds us and who has already conquered in the fight against the spirit of evil. This is the meaning of Lent, the liturgical time that, each year, invites us to renew our decision to follow Christ on the path of humility in order to participate in his victory over sin and death".

Let us choose to enter into that open field. Let us enter into the desert, in Jesus and with Him. In Him we can now live our lives. Let us welcome Lent by embracing its way of voluntary sacrifice, of fasting, prayer and alms-giving. In so doing, we will receive the much needed grace it offers and be made ready to celebrate in greater freedom the coming Victory Feast of the Resurrection.

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Deacon Keith Fournier is an ordained minister in the Church, a Catholic Deacon, with an outreach to the broader Christian community. He and his wife Laurine have been married for forty years. They have five grown children and seven grandchildren.

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