THE DIVINE SEDUCTION

SUNDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Jer 20:7-9; Ps 63:2-6,8-9; Rom 12:1-2; Mt 16:21-27

Our Natural Attraction to God

The reason discovering or knowing the will of God and doing it is so difficult for us is the presence of sin in us. Sin exists as a disorientation within each of us, a desire that is different and impedes what ought to be our natural desire for God that God planted in every nature as coming from him. This disorientation, or desire to go against the natural, becomes a second nature within us as we follow its pull in our daily activities. The presence of this disorientation constitutes receptivity in us for suggestions or instigations of the devil. The presence of this tendency witnesses to the fact of original sin and its effect on us. But the fact that God made us in his image means that the original and natural orientation to God and to all that is natural lies within each of us. The disorientation of sin cannot destroy the original structure and orientation from God; it only impedes their well-functioning, as each of us can testify in our daily struggles. Because it is from God, it is a certain foundation for the divine presence within us, which evil cannot destroy. When we are living in sin, the foundation, functioning as an original orientation to God, haunts us and keeps us restless. It is the major source of eternal torment for a damned soul, for it becomes an eternal reminder to the soul that it was meant to house God forever.

The natural orientation within us to God becomes more active when we encounter the word of God or approach his presence in any way. The presence of God comes to us in many and varied ways through everything natural and uncontaminated, through holy or blessed objects, morally sound people, the word of God, angels, or divine manifestation in grace. We experience an increase in pull to God when we encounter him in any of the above ways. Hence, anyone in pact with the devil or housing a demon feels a painful restlessness in such situations. Otherwise, we experience a constant pull towards God within our nature. The pull becomes unbearable when we carry or house the word of God. Jeremiah’s vocation and his consecration from the womb heightened his experience. “You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger. I am a daily laughing-stock, everybody’s butt.” The seduction of God was so overwhelming for Jeremiah because of the natural orientation within each of us, the fact of his consecration from conception, and his reception of the word of God. This inherent orientation and desire within each of us makes the marriage of each of us to the Eternal Word possible. It is the foundation of the Incarnation within our nature.

The original desire makes each of us attendants to the word of God. Hence, we have understood our natural life as the original invitation to divine communion. Our greatest danger in this regard is not to attend to the word of God. Knowing this, the evil one uses many distractions to keep us from attending to God’s word and to anything that will bring us before his presence. He works so hard with his cohorts to disfigure our nature and exclude what is divine or original. Saint Paul therefore urges us to turn away from the worldly distractions and model our lives on the word of God. “Think of God’s mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God. Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind.” Once we are rightly oriented and consecrated to God, knowing God’s will for us becomes easy and natural, as Paul confirms.

When our consecration to our Lord Jesus and his Gospel is not deeply rooted, we experience conflict in our desires and interests. The conflict is between the original desire and the sinful desire sown in us by the devil. Our Lord identified the contrary desire within Peter, when he advised him against the will of the Father, as the presence of Satan in and through him. “Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said, ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.” By man’s way of thinking, our Lord means our fallen nature, which bears a sinful orientation in place of the original orientation from God. To reclaim what was originally ours, we must make a lifelong commitment to following the Son of Man, who has no sin at all. This is the instruction Jesus gave us. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.” We cannot go by ourselves because the prevalent desire within us is the disorientation of sin. But a closer walk with Jesus Christ brings the original and pure desire to the fore. Our original desire is what the Psalmist expresses. “O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water.”

Let us pray: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.