Tag: temptation

Lent in 40 Days: Day Five (repentance)

February 18, 2024

I was in the confessional earlier this month.

Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seattle does a great job of “setting the mood” for reconciliation on Friday evenings – low lighting, the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, brief song.

Among other items on my list that evening, I told the priest “I hate crows.”  I went on tell him about my road rage about crows who hop around in the streets of Seattle.

In addition to not liking crows, I don’t like going to reconciliation (i.e., “confession”). I know a person who says they like going to reconciliation because they feel forgiven when they’re done. I know that reconciliation is about being sorry for what we’ve done and being forgiven. I don’t feel forgiven when I’m done in the confessional. Despite that, I go because I’m trying to really live my faith.

While I don’t feel forgiven when I go to reconciliation, I do often feel closer to God afterward. In my case, the act of my living out my faith by doing something I don’t want to do is a good thing….. Somehow, I think God likes that I’m doing what’s asked of me despite my grumblings about attending reconciliation (i.e., confession). Also, having to tell another human how I’ve sinned is good for humility (there are ways in which I’m stubbornly vain).

I considered a key point while in the confessional. After saying, “I hate crows” and told the priest about my ongoing road rage about crows, the priest made a comment geared toward trying to get me to ease up about crows. An act of contrition happened at the end of reconciliation and my sins were forgiven. However, I hadn’t fully gotten done with my animosity toward crows-in-the-streets-of-Seattle. ”Why,” I was thinking, “can’t crows just wise up and stay out of the road! Sociologists who study crows talk about how smart crows are!

Perhaps, however, some good is now being achieved by my acknowledgement of hating crows-in-the-street – and then blogging about it. I am blogging about this to illustrate the need for us to focus on repentance during Lent (we’re all called to be penitent during Lent).  I started to explain the following: “This ‘hating crows’ matter is a case of ‘road rage.’ Crows hang out in the road, getting in the way of traffic. Do they think they own the road? What business do they have interrupting my day and the days of other drivers by hopping around in the road?” This got me to thinking. Hmmm…. “Perhaps this is about me being self-absorbed. How am I suppose to expect crows to take into the consideration drivers’ self-perceived needs to drive around uninterrupted by crows hopping around in the street? Crows are a part of nature. They have as much right to live in Seattle as I do. I can’t reasonably expect crows to figure out human perceptions (i.e., about drivers not wanting our driving to be interrupted by hopping crows). I should be able to co-exist with crows.”

Yes, Lent is a time for us to be repentant. One small positive outcome of Lenten reconciliations this year (okay, I actually went to reconciliation just before Lent started….) is that Seattle’s crows and I may end up on better terms (including these crows that I photographed at Seattle’s Green Lake – they had no idea that I’ve been experiencing road r). We’ve all got something for which to repent.

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them (thank you!). You can also support this blog by clicking here when you are going to shop on Amazon (that lands A Parish Catechist a commission on Amazon sales).

Lent in 40 Days: Day Four (more on temptation)

February 17, 2024
Two rows of trees

Lent is a time when we anticipate Christ’s death and resurrection. We experience the wonder of Christ’s death and resurrection for our salvation.

Christ died for our salvation due to our fallen nature. It could be tempting to look at Christianity’s focus on our fallen nature as Christianity taking a needlessly dark view of humanity that doesn’t build us up. Not the case. The fact is that all of us do things we shouldn’t do. We all know that we all due things we shouldn’t do. Original sin and the opportunity of redemption through Christ is actually freeing. Christianity – through Christ – offers us a tangible pathway to becoming the best of the people we are meant to be.

Due to our fallen nature, temptation (temptation to do what we shouldn’t do) is one of the themes we consider during Lent.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels (depending on whether we are in Year A, Year B, or Year C of the liturgical cycle of readings), we hear in the first Sunday of Lent about Christ spending 40 days in the desert and being tempted by the devil. He resisted the devil’s temptations.

How do we deal with temptation when we find ourselves faced with temptation in our own lives? In my previous Geography of Faith post, I make poetic reference to the times we wander down detours in our lives. 

For starters, succumbing to temptation leads us into the wilderness. Not in a good way. Giving in to temptation to behave as we shouldn’t can take us where we ultimately don’t want to go. Keeping that in mind can sometimes be an effective deterrent from doing what we shouldn’t do.

Sometimes, the temptations we face are clear.  Eat that extra sugar we don’t need. Lie to avoid unwanted consequences. Walk away rather than be a Good Samaritan in a difficult situation. Other times, temptations are more subtle. C.S. Lewis’ classic book The Screwtape Letters creatively presents the subtle and alluring nature of many temptations. If we don’t recognize something as a wrongful temptation or as guaranteed to cause trouble, so much easier to succumb to it….. For example, we sometimes find ourselves attracted to negative temptations – to sin – precisely because we think we’d benefit from it. ”It’s okay for me to ‘carry tales’ against another because it will achieve a greater good” (when we actually want to slander the person because we don’t like them – eather than holding ourselves to a standard of evaluating whether what we are going to say is true, necessary, and kind). As another example, no one slides into an alcohol problem intending to become an alcoholic. ”Life’s hard right now, I can have a few drinks to relax until this current situation gets easier……” (years later…rehab). ”Yes, I can take out that extra credit card” (when I already have enough funds to meet my needs and the unsolicited credit card being offered is designed to entice me to buy things I don’t need and can’t afford….).

When we are tempted to do something that we clearly know we shouldn’t do, how do we avoid temptation? If we can walk away on our own, great. Sometimes, getting moral support from someone we know is needed (and usefully helpful!). An active prayer life is also essential. Going to reconciliation before succumbing to temptation can also be an effective deterrent. An active prayer life is also always a good idea! An active prayer life and involvement in a faith community helps with many kinds of temptation. Read more about prayer in this prayer post….. Surrendering to allow God to lead us in the direction God wants us to go has positive outcomes in all kinds of ways!

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them (thank you!). You can also support this blog by clicking here when you are going to shop on Amazon (that lands A Parish Catechist a commission on Amazon sales).

Lent in 40 Days: Day Three (Temptation)

February 16, 2024

We are called to give something up during Lent. ”Fish on Fridays.”

Jesus faced temptation in the desert. He didn’t give in when offered things many of us would have been tempted to accept. He prayed. A lot. Whenever Christ’s time on earth was difficult, we hear repeated stories about him going alone to pray. Often, he prayed at places where there would likely have been no easy distractions (such as in the desert). Good advice for us. As the saying goes, there can be no faith life without prayer.

If you haven’t given up something for Lent yet, now would be a good time to start (also, this would be a good time to start praying more if regular prayer isn’t part of your life).

What if there’s something we CAN’T give up? I’ve been in that situation. For several years in a row, I couldn’t give up sugar during Lent. At first, I came up with excuses (“Oh well, my prayer life is growing year-round anyway – I don’t have to limit my growth in faith to 40 days on a liturgical calendar…..”). Slowly, I became honest about the bottom line: I couldn’t give up sugar. I had to look at my earthly attachments – and how unhealthy attachments to things such as sugar negatively impact my life. Giving up something that’s hard to give up counts more than giving up something we don’t care about (such as an established vegetarian “giving up meat” during Lent).

We are called to not be so bound to anything in this life that we can’t give it up; rather, we must be willing – capable – of being attached only to God. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26). ”The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life” (John 12:25). 

If there’s something we can’t give up – such as an inordinate attachment to sugar, money, alcohol, sex, prestige, a cell phone – why? Underneath such attachments, we’re going to find some kind of emotional dis-ease. And, probably, negative consequences. God doesn’t want us to live with dis-ease and negative consequences. If we surrender to allowing God to turn us into the person God wants us to be, God will transform us from being the person we aren’t meant to be. Such surrender requires a willingness to be in relationship with God and to go wherever that leads – a commitment.

Allowing God to help us move beyond attachments that we aren’t capable of giving up also goes beyond being a self-help fix (if we’re just looking for help improving our own life, there’s more to being a person of faith than this!). Certainly, God loves us and wants us to be happy. In addition, however, a vibrant faith is about more than just God making us healthy. Ultimately, a vibrant faith is about “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:34-40). As children of God, our first priority is a relationship with God – which we must be able to put before all else. Further…..when we become the people God meant for us to be, we are in a position to contribute to healthy families and vibrant communities.  

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them (thank you!). You can also support this blog by clicking here when you are going to shop on Amazon (that lands A Parish Catechist a commission on Amazon sales).

Book Review: C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Screwtape Letters’

November 15, 2023

I am not sure how I feel about reviewing a book that many people have already read (i.e., it’s so widely read that it perhaps doesn’t need much of an introduction!)…. With that said, I ended up choosing to review this timeless classic for anyone who hasn’t yet found and read this must-read book.

A friend – and spiritual guide – gave me a copy of The Screwtape Letters when I was in high school. Because it’s such a well-written and insightful spiritual classic, the book’s insights practically inform my faith life. I return to the book periodically, though I don’t ever need to re-read the entire book because the book’s contents impacted me enough the first time for its’ content to leave a lasting impression.

This book is well-described on Goodreads: “The Screwtape Letters by C.S.  Lewis is a classic masterpiece of religious satire that entertains readers with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to ‘Our Father Below.’ At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation — and triumph over it — ever written.”

When I first read this book (high school), I was just old enough to grasp what C.S. Lewis was getting at in this insightful, informing, and at the same time entertaining read. I had moved beyond Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia (my third grade teacher introduced us to that wonderful series of children’s books, which I read six times in elementary school) and was ready to start having my faith challenged on a maturing level. The Screwtape Letters helped me grasp – in an immensely readable way – that temptation comes to us in subtle and psychologically powerful ways in order to tempt us effectively.

I’ve still got the copy of The Screwtape Letters that I was given in high school. I recently came upon another copy in a Little Free Library – I brought it home because I want to pass it on to another reader (if I can find someone who hasn’t yet read it!)… (note: that second copy led to this book review). This book’s writing style makes it a worthwhile read for Christians and non-Christians alike – it tells us as much about our own psychological makeup and how we humans surrender to temptation’s allure as it does about the devils who are out to outwit us. A book for all ages (chronological ages and eras).

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a “Content Creator/Individual” member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog post, please share it with them (thank you!).