The Reality of Temptation

“Today’s first reading is taken from the book of Genesis, chapter three.

Now, many of you probably have seen the old movie called The Bible. It’s basically about the story of Genesis, Noah’s Ark, and then the story of Abraham. There have been other books and movies of that time period. They always show Satan appearing as the snake tempting Eve.

Well, none of them ever read the scriptures correctly because Satan does not appear as a snake when he appears to Eve. Satan doesn’t even become a snake until after what you heard today: Satan has tempted Eve. She is given to temptation. Then Adam is given into temptation. Now they’ve realized.

God told the serpent that ‘you will be crawl on the ground, and you will eat dirt.’ So Satan is depicted in the Book of Genesis as the dragon, another word used to describe a very, very large lizard or crocodile. So what happens if you have a crocodile and you take away the legs?

You get a big ugly snake with a big mouth, and that’s what happens here. But how Satan is depicted really is rather important to the fact that Satan exists, because both today’s First Reading and Gospel Reading have a lot to do with Satan.

So let’s get a couple of things perfectly clear. Satan is real. The devil is real. The devil promotes the values of the world, which is ‘get as much as you can here and now; There’s nothing beyond it.’ And ‘whatever happens to you, it’s never your fault, it’s always somebody else’s fault.’

Those are the values of the world, and Satan promotes those values. And that is what we are opposed to. Not only that, but Satan does not want you to have a relationship with Jesus, and he’ll tempt you in any way possible to keep you from having that relationship.

Now, here’s the good news: You’re all children of God!

The love of Jesus Christ is in all of your lives because of Baptism and the Eucharist. Christ is there.

So when you are tempted, these temptations come in all kinds of forms. Two of the most common forms are getting angry and watching things on the computer you have no business watching on the computer, or anywhere else for that matter. When those temptations come, it’s important to recognize that you’re just not giving in to a feeling or giving in to your temper. You are being actively encouraged to sin by the devil.

These are the very actions going on, and you have to counter those actions with action on your part.

When temptation comes, you have to say to the demon of anger, ‘I’m not going to give in, go to hell.’ Or if it’s the demon of pornography, you have to be able to say, ‘no, I’m not going to give in.’ And you tell the demon to go to hell. It’s perfectly okay to tell the demon to go to hell.

No, that’s not sinning. That’s not swearing. You’ll find that when you do it, you’ll feel something. It will be very positive in your life because you are actively fighting a real demon who’s trying to tempt you… that’s what’s really going on.

So from a spiritual standpoint, and an eternal standpoint, I give you that advice because Jesus will empower you to resist. He loves you as much as He loves His own mother – a beautiful thing that He says today in today’s gospel reading. That’s a marvelous and beautiful thing: how much He loves every single one of us.

God’s love is within you. He gives you the strength and power to resist temptation.”

The Reality of Temptation ~ Fr. Joseph Gembala