How to be or become a follower of Jesus Christ in the world and in your situation« When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.»
We too often, indeed very often, experience some kind of temptation. God leaves man freedom, precisely so that our choices are not conditioned, but voluntary and conscious.
And he therefore also leaves the spirit of evil the freedom to prove what our faith is worth, allowing it to attack us where we are most exposed and most sensitive.
If it were not so, what merit could we ever have in God's eyes? We would be like wild animals, driven by instinct, which can do neither good nor evil. For them the good and the bad are limited to the pure material sphere of their natural needs and instinct.
God has allowed Satan to tempt even His Son, to give us an example of how we can fight against evil, and how deep and terrible the temptations can be, which we will freely strive to reject.
The devil does not give up, he returns to Jesus at the hour of the supreme test. Jesus also rejects this last temptation, which touches him so deeply in his nature as a true man that it makes him sweat blood in the garden of Gestsemane.
He could save himself the horrendous torture but he doesn't, he submits himself to the cross for our sake. He voluntarily submits himself to torture and death, knowing full well that atrocious suffering this decision would cost him.
For us sentient beings and endowed with conscience, in our sphere of life, however, it is no different.
The devil knows us because he always follows us and knows very well who we are, he knows our weaknesses perhaps better than ourselves and knows where, how and when to attack. He is therefore ready in ambush to tempt us.
To resist better let's ask
help to our Guardian Angel
Satan's purpose is to distance us from God, to make us lose the status of adopted children and then eventually take us with him into death.
We are weak, we do not have the strength of Jesus, we can be tempted where we are weaker and fall under the blows.
For us who strive to follow and imitate Christ, who pray often. that we try to understand what He wants from us, and read the Gospel, it is easier to get up after a fall.
If we have the gift of faith and try to keep it alive, we can get up and resume the journey. Every time we ask and obtain the forgiveness of Jesus, divine mercy, it is as if we were saying to the devil: get away from me, I too am a child of God, and to Him alone I owe my life and my dedication!
Unfortunately, there are people enslaved to their vices, to their unregulated behaviors, or to what they possess. These people are actually not free and live - as is said figuratively - for their belly.
That is, they do not have the sensitivity and above all the will and the strength to understand that they are immersed in evil, which does not allow them to detach themselves from it.
The devil continued equally to tempt them too, to make them live worse and worse, to induce them to be more and more slaves of themselves, to sink more and more.
But Jesus tells us that "nothing is impossible for God" and God does not want anyone to get lost. Let us therefore try not to lose faith and to study to understand how to cast our nets, so that we too do our part for the salvation of others.
Lino Bertuzzi Marb, 06, 2022
End
No fear! the Mercy of Jesus
is INFINITE
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 4,1-13.
for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."
Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him, "I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me."
Jesus said to him in reply, "It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.'"
Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
for it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,'
and: 'With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him in reply, "It also says, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'"
When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.
