1. The devil, man and the destruction of his soul.
To understand our topic today, we have to be aware of the three levels of knowledge mentioned by St. Augustine. The highest level of knowledge called supernatural knowledge; the middle level called philosophy or natural knowledge; and the lowest level called unnatural knowledge.
The highest knowledge is possessed by those with the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity; i.e. those who are truly within the Catholic Church. The second knowledge is possessed by the common natural man, like the philosophers of Greece. And the third knowledge is possessed by those in a psychiatric ward.
2. Talking points.
When we talk about the devil, about man and about his soul, we are talking in the supernatural level. When we talk about man being tempted by the devil, we are in the philosophical level. When man falls into sin we are visiting him in the psychiatric ward.
3. The Gospel of the First Sunday of Lent.
Two Sundays before Ash Wednesday and all through the season of Lent, Holy Mother the Church will be teaching us the ‘Life of Repentance.’ The ‘Life of Repentance’ is the way of life by which we are able to win for ourselves God’s forgiveness for all our past sins thus making us worthy to receive the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. These three virtues is what makes us worthy to attain eternal life in heaven.
4. The lesson of Lent.
Let us look at the three levels of knowledge again. In the highest level, the supernatural knowledge, we have the knowledge of God, his nature and His commandments.
Then, we have the knowledge, which is partially supernatural and partially philosophical, about man as being a creature of God. He has two faculties; the intellect and the free will. These were given to him by God that he might KNOW and LOVE God.
Lastly, we should have a supernatural knowledge of the existence of the devil, who tempts man away from God by attracting his mind and heart to the world, which was given to the devil and of which the devil is the prince…..by God’s permission as described in the second temptation.
5. The three temptations.
Note that there is nothing wrong with the three objects of temptation; namely, food, the kingdoms of the world and to fly from the parapet of the temple down to the earth. There is nothing wrong to eat some food when hungry; there is nothing wrong to be the president of a tech company; and there is nothing wrong to occasionally play superman and fly from some tower down to earth. So why are those called temptations and when do we fall into sin through the temptations of the devil?
Sin is when the mind and heart are removed from God and focused on these three objects, food, the world and attracting attention. St. Augustine described sin as ‘aversio a Deo’ and ‘conversio ad creaturam.’ Sin is loving creatures more than God. So there is nothing wrong with the objects; the defect is in the faculties of man.
That is why it is nearly impossible to convince men of what is sinful. Because everything looks good and well. What is evil is spiritual; it is in the spiritual faculties of man.
The attraction or conversion towards creature is incidental; to sin; the essence of sin is the aversion or dislike towards God. The aversion towards God is already sin; one does not have to be converted ;or attracted to creatures. Often, the reason why souls develop aversion towards God is because of their attraction towards creature, though this does not necessarily follow.
Here is another example. Nobody in his right mind believe that to love one’s wife, husband or children is evil. Absolutely no one! Yet Christ said; ‘He who loves husband, wife and children more than me is not worthy of Me.’
See! It is not the loving of one’s family that is sinful; it is loving them ‘MORE THAN GOD’ that is sinful. And this is the definition of mortal sin; the sin that brings us to hell.
6. Main message of Lent.
The main message of the Catholic Liturgy is that we must love God above all things; with all our minds, wih all our hearts and with all our strength. To do otherwise by focusing that mind and heart away from God and towards creatures is a mortal sin. And the virtue of repentance taught by Lent is to restore to God what is His right; the two coins gifted by the widow to the temple box….the symbol of our mind and heart.
7. The spiritual state of the world.
The mind and heart of the world are focused on the things of the world; first, on what to eat, what the other senses can enjoy, to be known, to be loved, all the natural knowledge of the different sciences and on what is going on in the world. Engrossed on the things of the world, as the three temptations of today’s Gospel enumerates, most men cannot think of God and the concept of sin…..both concepts being in the spiritual level.
Having an aversion or dislike for God, they cannot think of God, they cannot think of sin, they are in the state of mortal sin and are going straight to hell…..and they do not know it. What a tragic situation. And yet, most of my loved one, my friend priest and bishops are in that situation. They are more concerned with Global warming, the problem of immigrants, jobs for the unemployed youth and the sadness of the elderly more than the state of their souls. They know everything that is going on in politics; but do not know that they do not have the four visible signs of the Catholic Church mentioned in the Nicene Creed.
8. Signs of ignorance.
A man may love another man; this is called friendship. A married man can love another married woman; this is, also, called friendship. Man is supposed to love his neighbor even his enemy. But if the person concerned have an aversion or dislike for God, this cannot be friendship. This aversion is sin and the punishment is that he is only capable of having a perverted love for another man; while the married man is punished by simply being capable of having a lustful desire for the married woman.
Take these statements; ‘the gays can also love God,’ ‘the adulterers can have a meaningful relation,’ ‘atheist can be saved,’ and ‘we must save the world.’
These words show aversion towards God. They have, already, committed mortal sin before they were attracted towards creatures of the same sex, towards adulterers, towards they own thinking and towards love for the planet. Their attraction or conversion towards creatures is the aftermath of their mortal sin, so everything that follow after mortal sin are part of that sin.
As we have seen above; to love your family more than God is a mortal sin. As a consequence you cannot love your family because there is no love in you being in the state of sin.
An adulterer cannot love his mistress because he has no love in him being in the state of mortal sin. A gay person cannot love his partner because he has no love in him being in the state of mortal sin. Mortal sin is the total absence of love and the perfect presence of hate. Pope Francis often encourages men to show love for creatures, like the world, for men and married women and those in the peripheries of society, without mentioning that this love of creatures cannot be the result of aversion from God. Otherwise those acts are mortal sins.
9. The morality taught by the church today.
The morality taught by the men of the church today is completely devoid of the concept of aversion or dislike for God which is the concept of sin. It is based only on love or conversion towards creatures. With that kind of thinking there is absolutely no morality. ‘Is it wrong to love food, to love being CEO of a company, to love flying through the skies? Nothing, nothing, nothing. What is wrong is that you have loved these things more than God. What is wrong is that you have an aversion for God; i.e. you are not thinking and not loving God first.
The world had fallen into the trap and temptation of Satan. They cannot see what is wrong with loving their families, with loving food and with loving their jobs. They cannot see that they are loving these worldly things more than God. This is a complete lost of the sense of sin; it is the inability to rise up to the spiritual and supernatural level. It is the total lost of the Catholic spirit.
What do we do? Repent. Do Penance.
We shall explain these as we go through the spirit of Lent.