When we talk about being healthy nowadays, what does that really mean? Many young people want to be physically fit and mentally sound, but they often forget the third and most important aspect, which is spiritual readiness and resiliency. We have seen in our own lives people who are physically fit but are mentally unstable. We also have things that are much more complicated than mental health issues. We often dismiss spiritual wellness and watering things down to simple physical or mental defects, but there are deeper problems that the eyes cannot see and the mind cannot comprehend. There is a greater force than us, and it is not taking our holistic and integral wellbeing lightly, so we, too, need to be mindful of the greater reality and not let ourselves be deceived, duped, lied to, and manipulated by the Devil and his minions.
In Luke 4:1-13, the Lord allowed Himself to be tempted in order to teach us how to overcome the Devil‘s lies and deceptions. Re-read the scriptural passage and see how patient the Devil was! He waited… not for a day or two… or a few weeks… but for forty days when Jesus was tired, wearied, and hungry. He twisted the Sacred Scriptures, too, in order to lie and manipulate the truth. As an egomaniac and sad creature that only cares about himself, he is very good at turning everything and anything to serve his needs, wants, and desires! Therefore, when he attacks, he feeds on our egocentric weaknesses, frailties, and brokenness, too.
If you do not believe me, look back at the times when we fell and the sins that we are still struggling with. Even though he might be more powerful than we are, he is not that creative in tempting us. He just learns from our mistakes and waits for us to be weak and attack. This miserable and fallen creature wants to separate us from God and His life-giving truth so he can enslave us to the worldly, self-centered, and fleeting pleasures and satisfactions. He makes us chase after unrealistic wants and desires of empty, vain, and false euphoria so we can be addicted, controlled, and enslaved by him. We make ourselves become occupied with sensory, prideful, and deceptive wants that we keep chasing after the endless desires of empty vanities.
See the patterns of his temptations with the Lord! He first attacked the appetite and our desires to have things to physically and humanly fill us right away. This is the easiest and cheapest of all attacks, especially if we are lacking or yearning for something in the basic sensory, appetitive, physical, or human level. When he failed with his first cheap attack, he led the Lord on a high mountain and fed on the typical, egocentric desires of power, wealth, prestige, and control. He offered the world to the Savior, deceptively lied, so He could get what he wanted!
As human beings, so many people have sold their lives, even at times, too, their souls, in order to be powerful, noticeable, influential, wealthy, or prestigious. So many have tried so hard, sacrificing their values and loved ones, burning people and isolating themselves along the way, that they are miserable deep from within. We have seen people who seem to have it all on the outside, objects of envy and desired by others, but they are bitter, resentful, unhappy, and empty deep within. Once we sell ourselves, our integrity, values, and moral foundations in order to get what we want, we end up with nothing at all except for the functional shell on the outside.
Furthermore, the Devil enslaves us through idolatrous means. They might not come in the names of dieties of the past, but they are the things of this world that we want and entice us! They could be named Apple, Samsung, anything and everything that we put as our object of lust and want, the things that occupied and fixed our minds before God. If we work and burn ourselves out in order to get the next best thing or to be a somebody that the world wants of us, we have chased after the wrong wants and ends that enslave us.
Hence, the last and ultimate temptation is often very egocentric because the Evil One wants to feed on our prideful nature and its desire to be in control and be like God. At the end of the day, it is very easy to let go of other things until we have to let go of ourselves. As human beings, we want and like things our way, even if it means hurting, manipulating, or using other people to get what we want at all costs! Sad and true, but I have seen this in so many people who seem to have everything, but they are miserable deep from within. Unless we know who we are and our place in that very relationship with God, we will always end up being bitter, resentful, negative, and unhappy because we never seem to have what we want. Life will be hellish if everyone (including ourselves) cannot meet our ridiculous and outrageous standards. In holding on to our ego and desire to be in control, we are left with misery and emptiness because nothing in this world can ever fill that void until we humble ourselves and allow God to be God for us!
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, let us take some time today to step back, reflect, pray, and discern how we can let go of our immediate, idolatrous, and egocentric wants, desires, and control issues so as to seek, give ourselves, and allow God to be the center of our lives. It will require a lot of personal sacrifices and dying to ourselves so that we can be humble and receive God and His will for us. The Devil hates someone who is tenacious and genuine! The saints knew their weaknesses and relied on God. They did not allow their brokenness and failures to doubt God‘s goodness and His loving grace. They continued to stand up and walk with the Lord, and that made the Devil and his minions so miserable.
As creatures who are full of themselves, the fallen angels want other people to be miserable like them. Like those who are manipulative and controlling, they are willing to do anything and everything wrong to get what they want! Therefore, the only power we have over them is to rely on God‘s grace and know ourselves. We need to take the time to fortify our weaknesses, put red flags and warning signs along the way so we know when to return if we have strayed away. Most important of all, we need to be genuine, transparent, and humble enough to recognize when we need to seek God and rely on His grace.
If we cannot be honest with ourselves, we will never know what makes us weak and vulnerable. If we spend our time trying to make excuses for our failures and actions, especially blaming others, then we will never have enough willingness to amend our lives and overcome our prideful sinfulness. If we do not strengthen our interior castle, especially its vulnerable areas, we let ourselves be prone and open to the Devil‘s cheap attacks (because those will be his typical areas). Trust me, the evil one is not that powerful, nor is he that creative! He and his minions are usually sitting around waiting for the right moment. Therefore, we can be proactive in strengthening ourselves through the practice of human and theological virtues, be enriched with the life of prayer, and especially in humbling ourselves to rely on God.
As with any strength, spiritual resiliency and tenacity require us to take time to learn from our past mistakes and life experiences so we can see what needs to be strengthened, how the Devil usually attacks us, and especially the grace of God was at work. Spiritual wisdom takes a lifetime to learn and relearn because the Devil, like a good general, continues to learn and adapt his way with us, too. Nonetheless, we can always do our best with what we can as human beings and humble ourselves to rely on God and His grace in times of need. If we are to be truly strong, healthy, and mature, we need to focus on the holistic, transcendental, and eternal reality as to strengthen and deepen all aspects of ourselves, which includes the physical, mental, as well as spiritual wellbeing.
I Thirst (John 19:28) with Father Khoi 