Hitting the Mark

A reflection for the 1^st Sunday, Lent, Year A. The readings are Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Psalm 51; Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11.

I’m sure everyone reading this wants to be happy, right? And guess what? God also wants you to be happy. He wants you to be happy with Him. But we are fallen human beings and we’re weak. And there’s this thing called sin. So it’s hard.

Last week we heard that we should not murder, commit adultery or perjury (Matthew 5:17-37) and that most of us do not. And so we don’t think of ourselves as sinners. But that Jesus calls us to a higher standard. Yes, the 10 commandments are sin, but if we are really serious about our Christian journey on our way to be happy with God, we have to have a deeper understanding of sin.

The words in Hebrew and in Greek that are used in the Bible for “sin” is the same word that is used in the context of archery to mean “missing the mark”. In Archery we shoot an arrow and we try to hit the bull’s eye.  If we miss the bull’s eye, we’ve missed the mark. I think this this is a good image of what sin is. It is missing the mark. The problem is that we don’t even know we’re trying to hit a mark? We don’t know what the bull’s eye is. So, what is the mark we’re trying to hit? It’s happiness with God. It’s being with God. It’s saying “yes” to God. When we fail to say “yes” to God, we’re missing the mark. So, sin is anything that we do that says “no” to God. But it’s not always very clear. I don’t mean when we’re praying or we’re at Mass. That’s clearly (or should be) saying “yes” to God. But it’s at other times. When we’re doing other things. Every choice that we make (especially the big ones), we are either saying “yes” or “no” to God. In everything we do and say, we are either saying “yes” or “no” to God. And we’re not talking about murder and adultery. We’re talking about the less obvious things. The things when we are not thinking about God. And so, I think that it’s important to think about what leads us to sin. Those are temptations.

Every time we pray the Lord’s prayer, we ask God to “lead us not into temptation”. That is asking God to help us not fall into sin. That’s a good prayer to pray. Temptation is anything that can lead us to sin, to miss the mark. Temptation is anything that leads us or attracts us to say “no” to God. Anything that we do outside of God, is sin. Anything that leads us or attracts us or pushes us to do things without God, is temptation. Any thing we do to be happy without God is sin. Any desire we have to be happy that excludes God, is temptation.

So, here’s the question again: Do you want to be happy? Does your plan for happiness include God?

We hear two stories of temptation in the first reading and the Gospel today. The one from Genesis leads to sin. The ones in the Gospels don’t. In Genesis, the serpent tries to get Eve (and Adam, who was with her) to say “no” to God.  In the Gospels, that’s exactly what the devil tries to get Jesus to do as well. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that here the devil “tries to compromise Jesus’ faithful attitude towards God.” (CCC 540). In Genesis the temptation leads Adam and Eve to say “no” to God. In the Gospel, the temptation leads Jesus to say “yes”: to confirm his faithful attitude and relationship with God.

This is what the devil does: he tries to get us to do our own thing without God. He tries to get us to create ourselves in the image of ourselves. To have happiness without God.  

These readings teach us something about how the devil tries to do that. This is important because sometimes I think we focus too much on sin when in fact we could be paying attention to temptations and the things that tempt us. If we pay attention to the temptations, that will help us not “fall into temptation” and sin.

First of all, the tempter, the devil, who is very real, is the deceiver. He wants to confuse. He sows doubt. He makes you question who God is and who you are. “Did God really say that….”  “Is that what the Church really teaches?” “If you really are the Son of God….” We live in a world today where there is so much confusion. We don’t know what is truth, what’s real and what’s not. We redefine everything according to our ideas, blurring the lines of what is real and what isn’t. We call euthanasia, “medical assistance” and we call abortion “reproductive health” and we don’t know what’s male or female. This confusion is very much the work of the devil.

Second, the devil will prey on our weaknesses. Jesus was hungry after not eating for 40 days; that’s where the devil strikes… He attacks Jesus’ need for food. “Surely God doesn’t want you to be hungry… what’s a little piece of bread…” He attacks Jesus’ need for protection, his (human) desire for greatness, maybe even his (human) insecurity about the future… “God doesn’t really want you to die on the cross….” He does the same with us: “You’re really tired; you worked so hard last night… God wants you to sleep in and rest; you don’t have to go to Mass….”

Then the devil is a liar. He is the “Father of Lies”. He lies. “You will not die; you’re eyes will be opened”. This is not easy because most often they are not outright lies. They are half-truth. They sound true but are not entirely true. Their aim is to confuse. But at the root of the lies is always about who God is and who we are. “God doesn’t love you… God’s not all-powerful… God doesn’t care… see all the suffering in the world…. you are not worthy of God’s love….” As soon as you start thinking that God doesn’t love you or that He is not all-knowing or all-powerful; that He doesn’t care and that you are not His beloved, you’re in trouble.

Lastly, the devil doesn’t want us to think about eternity; he wants us to think in earthly ways. If you think about earthly life, yes, we live of bread alone. But if you think about Heaven, we don’t live on bread alone. If you’re not thinking about Heaven then of course all the good things of this life, what makes you happy, what gives you comfort, pleasure, power, status, reputation… it becomes the bull’s eye, the mark to hit. God could want you to have success and power and pleasure and comfort… but not outside of Him. That’s the key. Are we seeking happiness with God or without God? The devil wants to distract you so you’re not thinking of the real mark: Heaven. Again, in this world we live in, there are so many distractions. We are so distracted from Heaven. That’s why the Church gives us seasons like Lent, so we unclutter and re-focus on what matters: God.

So, it seems to me that an important thing for us to do if we really want to be happy with God, is to figure out whether the voice we are hearing is the voice of God or the voice of the devil. Here’s a general suggestion: If it’s confusing, causing you to doubt in a way that’s uncomfortable; if it causes despair; making you feel shame; if it takes away your peace, it’s not God. It could be suffering. Saying “yes” to God can lead to suffering. It could be a trial. It could be painful and hard, but God never takes away your peace. You may feel down temporarily, but in the long-term, over a period of time, saying “yes” to God will never take away your peace. Saying “no” to God and “yes” to sin, even if it gives us fleeting happiness, will always take away our peace.

And so, in order to fight temptation, which is leading us away from God, we have to everything we can to always draw closer to God: through scripture, prayer, the Sacraments – going to Mass…But not just when we are tempted; all the time – so that we are always ready and strengthened to fight temptation. The more we know God, the closer we will be to Him and the better we will be able to recognize the lies, especially about who God is and who we are in relation to God, and discern between the devil’s voice of discouragement or false guilt and the peace and strength that come from the Holy Spirit. If you want to conquer temptation, just keep saying “yes” to God. Jesus conquers by staying true to who He is and who God is. It’s also good to build the virtues that will strengthen our muscles of self-restraint, like fasting. It’s not coincidence that “the Spirit leads Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted” and the first thing Jesus does is he fasts. He’s ready for the devil.

The Church teaches that temptation is a normal part of the spiritual battle we all face. The devil is always out there, “prowling like a lion”, trying to make sin look appealing; trying to make us say “no” to God; to go at life without God. That’s why we pray, “lead us not into temptation” asking God to help us not to give in and trusting that God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our strength. The Church also makes a distinction between trials, which help us grow, and temptations, which aim to lead us into sin. It’s also good for us to pay attention to our temptations. Doing so can actually reveal our weaknesses and push us to rely more on God. Lent is a good time to work at this. Perhaps the next time you pray “lead us not into temptation” you can make a special commitment to pay attention to those temptations in your life. It will strengthen you to say “no” to sin and “yes” to God.

God wants you to be happy. But not without Him. But not because He’s a tyrannical dictator. God is a loving, merciful father who loves you and knows what’s best for you. He wants us to live life with Him, trusting Him in all things, doing His will, so that you can one day be in Heaven with Him.

That is our happiness!