Every First Sunday of Lent, the Church invites us to meditate on the temptations of Christ. It is a way of teaching us that, if Christ the Son of God was tempted, whoever wishes to follow him and his teachings will be tempted and must prepare to be tempted. The writer of the First Letter of St. Peter sounds a note of warning in this regard, saying: “Be alert and vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. Stand up to him, strong in faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

But if we are to stand up to the devil, we must know his strategy. And this is his strategy: He opens every temptation with a dialogue; he uses the dialogue to present something good to us; he tells us it is alright to acquire the good wrongly, possess it wrongly, and use it wrongly; he uses the good thing he presents to us as bait.

Like a fisherman who uses a bait to catch a fish, the devil, father of lies, presents lies to us but clothes the lies he presents to us in the garment of truth. So we think he is telling us the truth. But he is only pretending to be truthful. He is not, and he can never be, because he is the father of lies who entices the unsuspecting with empty promises.

Like a murderer who serves his victim a glass of Fanta or a glass of wine containing poison, the devil presents what is desirable to the unsuspecting soul who does not know that there is poison in what is presented.   That was why, when he tempted our Lord, he quoted the word of God in Scripture. And that still happens today,

That is what happens when quack pastors, fake prophets and pseudo-evangelists use the name of God to scam people.  They quote from Scripture to manipulate their audience to buy into the self-serving agenda they call ministry.  That is what happens today when fake piety is brandished, advertised and used to conceal the antics of con artists parading themselves as pastors.  The word of God from which they quote is true.  But they quote it with sinister intent, using it for selfish gains. 

Only hypocrites advertise their piety and holiness.  And, on Ash Wednesday, our Lord warned us in the Gospel not to imitate hypocrites who parade and advertise their holiness.  Today, we have people who boast of how holy they are.  They speak of grace as what they earned, what they worked for, what they deserve, what is given to them and what they maintain because they sleep on stones and have remained virgins, forgetting that grace is what God gives us even when we do not merit it.  They forget that grace is not a human achievement but a free gift from God, a divine accomplishment.  And when you have this free gift, do not look down on people lest you find yourself falling down.  Grace is not given to us because we are heroes but to make us heroes.

Moreover, there is grace for ministry, and there is grace for personal holiness.  Grace for ministry is given to us so that we can use our ministry to lead others to holiness.  Grace for holiness is given to us so that we can live a life of holiness.  That you are a prophet, that you speak in tongues, that you perform miracles--that does not mean you are holy.  It means you have been given the gift to lead others to holiness of life.  You who minister to others so that they become holy also need to be ministered unto so as to become holy.  Apart from grace for ministry, you need grace for holiness of life.  Whichever you have, grace for ministry or grace for holiness or both, grace is not a human accomplishment.  It is divine accomplishment.  That is why authentic charismatics do not boast about grace. 

The devil is a hypocrite.  He was being hypocritical when he tempted our Lord by quoting from Scripture.  We must therefore be alert and vigilant so as not to fall into the trap of those who would use the word of God to attract, manipulate and mislead us for their selfish gain.  It is to prevent us from falling victim   to such manipulators that the Christian tradition, right from the time of the apostles, has always insisted that every gift must be discerned, and every spirit tested to be sure they come from God. 

Every baptized—lay faithful, religious and clergy—is gifted with the Holy Spirit.  Every Christian is charismatic.  But, reading the Letters to the Corinthians, we see how gifted Christians in the Church in Corinth used the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to them to create confusion, chaos and division in the Church.  St. Paul wrote his Letters to the Corinthians to put an end to that chaos.  He let it be known that among the many gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Cor. 12 and 13, there is the gift of discernment given to leaders of the Church as a gift to be used to regulate all other gifts so that gifts can be used for the edification of the Church, not for the self-elevation of fake pastors into celebrity status and objects of personality cult.  Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit given to those who lead the Church to ensure that no gift of the Holy Spirit is misused by anyone.

The season of Lent is a time to redouble our efforts to stand up to the devil.  We have as weapons the word of God authentically interpreted by the teaching ministry of leaders of the Church, not by self-called, self-appointed, self-styled and self-missioned evangelists.  We have the sacraments.  And we have prayer and self-discipline through fasting and abstinence.  These train us for battle as we have to face the devil and the temptations he brings before us.

The season of Lent is a time to keep in mind the words of the First Letter of St. Peter: : “Be alert and vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat.  Stand up to him, strong in faith.”

Father Anthony Akinwale, OP