Time to get back to basics. Baseball players are doing just that this time of year. As baseball players begin spring training, they’ll once again practice those bedrock basics of the game: how to throw the ball, how to swing the bat, how to hit the cutoff man. But not just athletes practices basics. Musicians, even very skilled and famous ones, practice their scales and the basic techniques of playing their instruments. You can’t do something spectacular in sports, music, business, cooking or building, without the basics—until the basics are in place.
And the spiritual life isn’t any different. The Saints aren’t just those who got lucky and were gifted at birth with tremendous virtue. They practiced the basics of the faith—day in and out.
And Mother Church gives us this wonderful season of Lent, to get back to the basics of the Christian life. As Pope St. Leo the Great said 1600 years ago: “What the Christian should be doing at all times should be done now [during the season of Lent] with greater care and devotion.”
The scripture readings throughout Lent, certainly emphasize these fundamentals. On Ash Wednesday, we heard our Lord’s teaching on his disciples are to pray, and fast, and give alms. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving aren’t just for the 40 days of Lent, of course. We are to pray daily, “pray always” as St. Paul teaches. We are to fast often, to discipline our minds, bodies, hearts and souls. And we are to give alms and engage in the works of charity all throughout the year. Christians are to be known by their good works, their acts of love.
But we practice these basics now, intentionally, with greater care and devotion during Lent, so that the basics can become habitual and integrated into our normal lives. By shutting out the distractions of t.v., social media, video games, during Lent, going to our inner room and shutting the door, as the Lord teaches, we can come to realize the value of prayer, of encountering God in real, life-giving prayer. Through prayer, become become quiet enough to hear the Lord speaking to us in the quiet of that inner room, we come to prayerfully detect the Lord dwelling in the inner castle of our souls.
Similarly with works of charity. We engage in intentional, additional works of charity during Lent, and by doing so come to discover that selflessness is so much more fulfilling than only thinking about ourselves all the time. We do come to discover that helping others, serving others, is so powerful, fulfilling, and life-giving.
And fasting. We practice Lenten fasting because fasting is to be one of our standard, go-to weapons for combatting temptation, overcoming sinful tendencies, and growing in our reliance and trust in God. “Some demons are cast-out only by prayer and fasting,” the Lord teaches.
And that leads me to another one of the Christian basics that we focus on during Lent. Resisting temptation.
That we experience temptation should not surprise us. Our first parents in the Garden were tempted prior to the fall. Our Lord, in the Gospel, immediately after his baptism in the Jordan was tempted by the devil. To be human is to be temptable. Every human is subject to temptation.
And Lent begins with these stories of temptation because they remind us that we will be tempted during Lent, just as we are tempted throughout much of the Christian life. We are tempted, just like Adam and Eve to violate the commands of God. We are tempted in so many ways, are we not? We’re tempted in every dimension of our lives. We’re tempted in our family lives—to be rude, disobedient, condescending to loved ones, impatient, and over-reactive. We’re tempted in our professional lives—to cheat the company, to steal from the workplace, to use foul language in order to fit in with coworkers. We’re tempted in our private lives: to overindulge in food, to be selfish with our possessions, to consume sinful media, to misuse medication. We’re tempted in our religious life—to not pray, fast, and give alms as much as we should.
But all of these various temptations boil down to the same temptation faced by Adam and Eve—will you use your free-will to be faithful to God or not—will you trust God or not. The Catechism says, “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.”
The Lord Jesus faced these very same temptations. Will he trust his Father or not? Will he trust that his Father will provide the food he needs, or will he misuse his divine power to turn stones into bread. Will he trust in his Father’s care for him, or will he live recklessly, by throwing himself off the top of the temple. Will he trust that his Father will ensure the success of the Gospel mission or will he turn to the devil to grant him power to pursue those ends.
Unlike Adam and Eve who allow the devil to erode their trust in God, the Lord trusts his Father, recalls the solid wisdom of the Scriptures, and the devil departs from him.
St. Luke writes “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Jesus for a time.” As long as we draw breath, we are temptable. We might remain faithful and strong one day, but the enemy also knows are weaknesses. He looks for opportunities to tempt us especially when we are hungry, lonely, sick, tired or frustrated: “just give-in to sin” he says, “it will make you feel better. You’re lonely, just give-in. You’ve had a hard day, just give in. In the end, God will forgive you, just give-in. Who’s the pope to dictate your life anyway, just give-in?”
But the Gospel passage of the Lord’s temptations, or rather, his faithfulness in the face of temptation, is so powerful for us. Because this passage reminds us that Christians possess the very strength of the Lord when facing temptation. His spirit, his strength, his faith, dwells within us.
St. Augustine wrote, “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… 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 one of the basics of the season of Lent, to learn how to triumph over temptation. And we triumph in temptation by not giving in to every bodily appetite or enticement we experience, but learning to recall the wisdom of God when the devil confounds us with this lies and empty promises. We triumph in temptation by recalling the indispensability of obedience to God’s commands when the devil tempts us to disobedience. We triumph in temptation by calling upon the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, when the devil wants us to trust in ourselves, by evoking the divine assistance given to us in the sacraments when the devil exploits our weaknesses. It’s all pretty basic, isn’t it?
Lead us not into temptation, dear heavenly father, help us to resist the devil, that he might take flight. For the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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