Tag: diagnostic manual

Curiosity is one of those qualities of the human person that are double-edged swords. It can cut a path to glory or it can be like a dagger of sin that cuts deep into the soul.

As to its glory, it is one of  the chief ingredients in the capacity of the human person to,  as Scripture says, “subdue the earth,” to gain mastery over the many aspects of creation of which God made us stewards. So much of our ingenuity and innovation is rooted in our wonder and awe of God’s creation, and those two little questions, “How?” and “Why?”

Yes, we are curious as to how things work and why they work as they do. This curiosity burns within us and motivates us to unlock many of nature’s secrets. Curiosity drives us to learn and to gain mastery—often for good, but sometimes for ill.

What a powerful force within us, this thing we call curiosity! It is a passion to know! Generally, it seems quite exclusive to us who are rational, for animals manifest little or none of it. Occasionally an animal might seem to manifest curiosity: a sound might draw its attention causing it to look more closely. But the investigation is probably more motivated by seeing whether the sound is a threat or a food source rather than by curiosity. True curiosity asks the deeper metaphysical questions of what, how, and why. True curiosity seeks to explore formal and final causality as well as efficient and material causality. It seeks to learn, sometimes for learning’s own sake. Sometimes, and potentially more darkly, curiosity seeks to learn so we can exert control.

Of itself, curiosity can be a magnificent quality, rooted in the gifts of wonder and awe as well as in the deeply profound gift of man’s intellect or rational nature.

However, as a double-edged sword, curiosity can also wound us very deeply and mire us in serious sin. Indeed, it can be a very sinful drive within us. Eve grew curious of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and thus Satan was easily able to turn her curiosity into a deep dagger that has reached every human heart.

Understood this way (as a sinful drive), curiosity is a desire to gain knowledge of things we have no right to know. A more mitigated form of sinful curiosity is the desire to know things that are in no way useful to us. In this sense, curiosity is a form of spiritual gluttony that exposes us to innumerable tricks of the evil one.

Sinful curiosity causes us to meddle in the lives of others, to pry.  This can then lead us to gossip, potentially defaming others and ruining reputations in the process. Nothing is a bigger invitation to sin and gossip than the phrase “Have you heard the latest news about so-and-so?” Heads turn, ears perk up, and meddlesome curiosity is immediately incited. Almost never is the news that follows such a question positive or even edifying. Sinful curiosity is at the root of almost all gossip, defamation, slander, and even calumny. Ninety percent of what we hear through gossip is none of our business. And yet, through sinful curiosity, somehow we feel that we have the right to this information.

There is a whole branch of news, barely distinguishable from gossip columns and scandal sheets, that has emerged based on the people’s “right to know.”  Too much secrecy can be unhealthy but that is hardly the problem in this day and age. Today, too many people know too many things about too many people. Even what is reported (most of it unnecessary) about so-called public figures is not really helpful for us to know. This is not to say we should have no concerns whatsoever about what is happening in the world or about the character of our leaders; rather, it is an invitation to distinguish between what is truly useful and necessary for us to know and that which is simply rooted in sinful curiosity.

A mitigated form of sinful curiosity is the excessive desire to know too many things all at once. This is a kind of “information gluttony.” This sort of desire, though not necessarily sinful, can become so by excess. It is catered to by the 24-by-7 news services. Being informed is good, but being over-informed can easily lead to becoming overwhelmed and discouraged.  Generally speaking, indulging in such a steady stream of news (along with talk radio, etc.) incites a great deal of anxiety, discouragement, and a sense of being overwhelmed. Such news services tend to generate interest by inciting alarm. Bad and bloody news predominates; the exotic and strange are headlined; the titillating and shocking lead the news hour, that which generates controversy and ratings is emphasized. It’s not long before we have moved away from necessary and important news and back into the sinful curiosity that sets tongues wagging and heads shaking.

Sinful curiosity, even of this mitigated form, so easily draws us into very negative, dark, and even depressing places. News junkies would do well to balance their diet with other more edifying things than what is the latest scandal or threat.

St. Paul gives good advice to all of us when it comes to sinful curiosity and our tendency to collect unnecessary, unhelpful, and unenlightening news. In effect, he invites us to discipline our minds with the following good and solid advice:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Phil 4:8).

Curiosity—the double-edged sword—so noble yet so easily ignoble, so wonderful yet so easily debased.

Satan, it would seem, does not act in an arbitrary manner when trying to tempt us. Rather, he is more of a master hunter carefully setting traps, or a skilled fisherman who carefully studies behavior in order to choose the most effective bait. Satan is calculating and clever.

Sadly, most of us are far less calculating and clever in seeking to avoid temptation and sin. We seem more often to engage in the wishful thinking that no trouble will befall us, and our strategy seems to depend more on “dumb luck.” Would that we were as ingenious in holiness as Satan is in trying to trap us! Jesus sadly and ironically observed, For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light (Luke 16:8).

Let us consider for a moment the notion of bait and hook, to use imagery from the fishing world.

Let’s consider first the bait. It is of course the purpose of bait to be alluring, to be attractive. If a fisherman were to lower an empty hook, or a hook with a rock attached to it, no fish would come near. So he chooses a bait that appeals to the fish: perhaps an insect, or some other morsel that promises a meal.

Thus in choosing a bait to attach to his hook, Satan will strive to render it appealing, even beautiful to us. He often casts a spell to hide the ugliness of sin and to distract us from the presence of the hook.

In our time especially, Satan cloaks ugly sins in exalted language, speaking of them as ways of giving us “freedom,” or “fulfilling ourselves.” Abortion is not the killing of a baby, it is “reproductive choice,” or “reproductive freedom.” Many exalt sinful acts by cloaking them in the language of tolerance, acceptance, etc. Still others exude a false compassion in declaring it licit to actively kill the suffering or to terminate the lives of children in the womb who have been given a poor prenatal diagnosis.

In ways like these, evil masquerades as good. Sins once thought of as clearly awful and ugly are now presented as good and even beautiful.

Of course other more traditional bait is still used by Satan as well: sex, money, glory, power, and so forth. Not all these things are bad in themselves, but they are presented in excess or in the wrong context. And how tasty, how attractive, how beautiful, how desirable they can seem!

And thus the bait: attractive, beautiful, and tasty. Scripture describes Eve’s assessment of the forbidden tree: the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it (Genesis 3:6).

But then comes the hook—there’s always the hook with Satan. Never forget this: the hook is always there with Satan. No matter how beautiful, reasonable, or desirable the bait may seem, there is always the hook.

With the bait of illicit sexual union dangled before us comes the hook. Perhaps it is addiction to pornography, ruined marriages, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, absent fathers, abortion, higher divorce rates, broken families, improperly formed families, and terrible injustice to children.

With the bait of gluttony comes the hook of obesity, heart disease, high cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, addiction to alcohol or drugs, and even death.

With the bait of greed for more and more possessions comes the hook. Perhaps it is credit card bills we cannot pay, perhaps it is slavery to a lifestyle we think we cannot live without but which drives us to need two incomes and work long hours. And thus we never really know our children or even enjoy the things we think we need. Perhaps it is the supreme frustration in realizing that no matter how much more we have, it will never be enough. Our eyes are never really satisfied with seeing, or our ears with hearing, or our will with amassing. For we seem to be insatiable; we want more and more as the hook of greed drives deeper within us, snaring our hearts so that Satan reels us in.

But there is always the hook; never forget that no matter how pleasing the bait may seem, there is always the hook.

We moderns are perhaps more foolish than those who came before us, for we live in a culture that is rather successful in at least temporarily hiding the consequences of many things. And thus our medicines and technologies may temporarily stave off the effects of too much food and drink or the diseases that come with sexually irresponsibility. So-called government safety nets, many of them well-intentioned and in some degree necessary, also expand to create the illusion of no consequences. Too easily and too repeatedly, many are bailed out from poor and foolish decisions. Thus we are just a little more able to maintain the illusion that the hook isn’t really there.

But the hook is there. There is always a hook with the bait.

Just a simple reminder: don’t forget the hook. With the bait comes the hook. The bait is about the hook. First the bait, then the hook; always the hook.

The battle against temptation in our lives is, of course, an ongoing struggle. Some moments and periods of our life provide more temptation than others, but no day goes by without at least some sort of temptation. While it is important to battle temptation in the moment, it is also important to build ourselves up by grace so that in moments of temptation we can draw on that strength and preparation to more easily win the battle.

Obviously, recourse to prayer, the Sacraments, and the Scriptures are essential in building ourselves up. But it is also instructive for us to observe how Jesus prepared Himself for the temptations that He faced. The Scripture affirms that He was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin (cf Heb 4:15). Two important moments of temptation for Jesus that are depicted in the Scriptures are at the end of His time in the desert and in the garden of Gethsemane.

Let’s look in particular at what Jesus did to prepare Himself for the devil’s onslaught toward the end of His forty days in the desert. We can distinguish several important things He did to prepare for the moment of the devil’s attack.

I. In accepting baptism by John in the Jordan River for our sake, Jesus illustrates that it is important for us to deepen our own baptismal renewal by the Holy Spirit, and the experience of God’s love. Though Jesus did not have any sins that needed to be washed away, He humbly entered the Jordan for our sake, bringing into the water His mystical Body, which includes us. There He acquired for us, in a kind of prevenient way, the cleansing of our sins by repentance and baptism. He also prefigured for us the coming of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and the Father’s great love for us, calling us his beloved sons and daughters.

Each of these gifts is important for us to frequently renew and meditate upon as a way of strengthening us against temptations that will come.

A. We must learn to appreciate the beautiful gift of being cleansed of our sins. We must learn to esteem the baptismal innocence which was ours as we came through those waters cleansed and beautifully renewed. What a precious gift to  appreciate and to seek to preserve by daily repenting of our sins, calling on the Lord’s mercy, and frequently celebrating the Sacrament of Confession. This is a great help against temptation since, learning to more fully esteem the great gift of baptismal innocence, we are motivated to preserve it through the grace of the Sacraments.

B. Jesus also acquired for us in the river Jordan the great gift of the Holy Spirit, who descended upon Him like a dove. What a magnificent gift: that we would become temples of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, sanctifying us and offering us every good grace. Yet too easily we forget this, for the Spirit dwells within us quietly, respectfully doing his work as does a careful surgeon. It is for us to ask for an anointing of the Spirit, to be aware of and respectful of His wonderful, mysterious, and powerful work within us. As we grow in knowledge and appreciation of this tremendous gift, we are enabled to draw consciously upon the grace and strength of the Spirit and see our lives gradually transformed. Here too is a great help in making us stronger so that when temptations arise, they are more easily conquered.

C. Jesus also receives for us the beautiful love of the Father. For as the Father looks to Jesus he says, Here is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And yet, mysteriously, this great acclamation extends also to us, who are in Christ. It is such a beautiful and necessary gift that we should experience God’s tender love for us. How encouraging and transformative it is for us to experience that we are beloved, that the Father has a tender love for us. Experiencing this love, we are equipped to respond with love and the holy reverence that makes us fear to ever offend the Father whom we love so much. When we love God, we love what God loves, and we love those whom God loves. And thus we desire to keep His Commandments not because we have to, but because we want to. And here is yet another way to see ourselves built up in love, so as to better avoid and have victory in moments of temptation.

After His baptism in the Jordan, Jesus continues to demonstrate for us other ways to build ourselves up so as to prepare for and have victory over temptation.

II. The Forty days of fasting and prayer in the desert. There are three keywords here; let’s look at them in reverse order.

A. The desert is a symbol of completely separating oneself from the world, of drawing apart from the world with all of its seductions, its lust of the eyes, and its desire for power and comfort. In the desert, one feels anything but powerful. Just a few minutes in the hot desert will humble even the strongest of persons. The spiritual desert is devoid of most of the luxuries and comforts of the world. It is a place of great simplicity, a place where less is more. Trying to carry around many things in the desert is quite foolish and results in needless expenditure of energy and depletion of necessary hydration. In the desert, essentials are emphasized and extraneous things are shed. Although the Church emphasizes this during Lent, one does well to embrace desert experiences throughout the year. As we gradually renounce the world and develop a capacity for the simplicity of the desert, fewer of the things of this world tempt us. And when they do tempt us, we see more clearly the lies of the world and prefer the simplicity and clarity of the desert.

B. Prayer – The prayer that assists us in overcoming temptation is not so much intercessory prayer (in which we tell God what we want or need), but rather prayer understood as the prayer of union, in which we seek to unite and align our heart with the heart, the mind, and the will of God. This is not the prayer that asks for what we want, but the prayer that asks God what He wants. As we enter into deeper union with God through this prayer, our heart, mind, and will begin to align with God’s great vision for our life. Through this sort of prayer, we love the beauty and goodness of God’s truth and begin to abhor injustice. We begin to desire holiness and find the sinful attitudes and perceptions of the world increasingly obnoxious and unattractive. Thus we are assisted in battling temptations to sin as our desires become more conformed to divine will.

C. Fasting – We may think first here of food. But spiritually it may involve other things. Perhaps it means intentionally removing some of the things in our life that clutter it: television (a terrible time bandit), the news, politics, etc. Perhaps, even for just a few days, we can create something of a fasting experience by intentionally screening these areas off and using the time and mental faculties for spiritual reading, recollection, and so forth. Fasting helps strengthen us against temptations because it trains us in certain forms of self-mastery. Giving up or setting aside certain lawful pleasures or interests, even for a relatively short time, is a good way to train ourselves to resist unlawful pleasures and interests.

Resisting the temptation to sin is easier for those who have spent time in the desert and in fasting, for in going into the wilderness we learn to lean on the Lord, and in fasting we learn to shed some of the unnecessary excesses of a worldly life.

Here then are some teachings of Jesus on how to be stronger so as to avoid temptation and to be prepared for the temptations that will still inevitably come. We are not simply to be sitting ducks. We need to be prepared ahead of time for the temptations that surely await us.

Jesus, though sinless, was still tempted, and He gives us very good picture of what it means to be prepared and ready for the temptations of life.

This song by Tallis is “In Jeiunio et Fletu” (In fasting and weeping). The singers are all wearing coats in the chapel of this old castle. Perhaps the singers (or the owner of the castle) are fasting from heat or other creature comforts as they sing this lament for sin and seek strength against temptation!

Every ancient prayer manual and guide to spirituality until about fifty years ago had at least one large section devoted to what was known as Pugna Spiritualis (spiritual battle or spiritual warfare). In more recent decades, many spiritual books have downplayed or completely deleted references to spiritual battle or spiritual warfare.

Sadly, many modern approaches to faith, religion, and spirituality prefer to emphasize exclusively consoling themes rooted in self-esteem, affirmation, etc. To be sure, the authentic faith can and does offer great consolation, but the truest and deepest consolation often comes after one has persevered along the sometimes-difficult path, along the “narrow way” of the cross.

But too many today, in the name of affirmation and pseudo-self-esteem are ready to excuse, and even affirm grave moral disorders, rather than fight them. Grace and mercy are preached, but without reference to the repentance that opens the door to these gifts. Both the possibility of Hell and any consequences of sin, are absent from many modern conceptions of faith and religious practice.

Some years ago, I was approached by a rather angry woman who, having heard my sermon on the seriousness of certain sins (which were in the readings of the day), expressed great indignation that I would preach on such topics. She said, “I come to church to be consoled and have my spirits lifted, not to hear old-fashioned warnings about judgment and sins.” She felt quite a “righteous indignation,” and was most certain that I had transgressed a fundamental norm, namely, that religion exists to console, and that any challenge to one’s moral stance, (except perhaps caring for the poor), is intolerant and way out of line.

Indeed, many today have this kind of attitude: that it is their birthright not to be troubled or vexed in any way by something people might say, especially a preacher who claims to represent God! The “God they worship” would never trouble them. They will have Jesus for their consoler and best friend, but not their Lord, and certainly not their judge. And never mind the literally thousands of verses from Scripture in which Jesus himself speaks sternly and warns of sin, death, judgment, and Hell. They will have none of it, and are certain that “the Jesus they know,” would never raise his voice at them or challenge them even for a moment. Never mind that the real Jesus says to take up our cross and follow him.

With spiritual battle having been removed from many people’s spiritual landscape, the idea that the Lord would summon us to battle, or ask us to choose sides, seems strangely foreign, intolerant, and uncompassionate.

Even more dangerous, these modern conceptions not only distort Jesus, but they downplay the presence and influence of Satan. This is a very, very bad idea. Even if we cease fighting against Satan, he will never ceases his sometimes very subtle attacks on us.

Jesus called consistently for prayerful, sober vigilance against the powers of evil and sin. Like it or not, we are in a battle. Either we will soberly and vigilantly undertake the battle, or we will be conquered and led off like sheep to the slaughter.

Despite what modern spiritual approaches would like to eliminate, Christianity has been a militant religion since its inception. Jesus was exposed to every kind of danger from the beginning. Herod sought his life; Satan tried to tempt him in the desert; many enemies plotted on all sides as he worked his public ministry, misrepresenting him, levying false charges, and conspiring to sentence him to death, and eventually even succeeding though only for a moment.

And as for Jesus, so also for his mystical Body the Church: Saul, Saul why do you persecute me!?  (Acts 9:4) Jesus warns us that the world would hate us (Luke 21:17; John 15:20); that in this world we would have tribulation (Jn 16:33), and that we should watch and pray lest we give way to temptation (Matt 26:41). He summons us to persevere to the end if we would be saved (Mk 13:13). Jesus rather vividly described the kind of struggle with which we live when he said From the time of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force (Matthew 11:12). Indeed, no Christian until the time that Jesus returns, can consider himself on leave or dismissed from this great spiritual battle, from this great drama that we exist in, this battle between good and evil.

Popular theme or not, we do well to remember that we are in the midst of a great cosmic and spiritual battle. And in that battle, we must be willing to choose sides and fight with the Lord for the Kingdom of God. Either we will gather with him or we will scatter. We are to fight for our own soul, and the souls of those whom we love.

In the holy week that is about to unfold, we are reminded once again of the great cosmic battle that the Lord waged, and that is still being waged in our time. Though already victorious, in his mystical Body the Church, the Lord in his faithful members still suffers violence, rejection, and ridicule. It is also for us to reclaim territory from the evil one, to take back what the devil stole from us. We are to advance the glory of God’s Kingdom through the fruits of great spiritual struggle, sacrifice, prayer, fasting, preaching, and an extensive missionary campaign to which the Lord has summoned and commissioned us.

The battle is on; the struggle is engaged! To spiritual arms one and all! Fight the good fight for the Lord.

Still not convinced we are at war? Let the Lord pull back the veil just a bit and let you look at what’s really going on. The final words of this article will not be mine; they will be the Lord’s. Here is described the cosmic battle that is responsible for most of the suffering and confusion you experience:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers who accuses them before our God day and night,has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (Rev 12)