Satan!  Make no mistake!  He exists!  Saint Peter tells us: “Be on your guard. Your adversary the devil prowls the world like a roaring lion, seeking whomever he may devour.  Resist him, strong in the faith.”  Satan has one horrific and ghastly goal, the eternal ruin in hell of every human person.  He is man’s mortal enemy!
   

    To strengthen us for this conflict with evil, the Church begins the Lenten Season with Saint Luke’s account of Our Lord’s Three Temptations.  Our Divine Savior had fasted for forty days and forty nights.   Satan’s first temptation was for Jesus to secularize His mission.  “If You are the Son of God, command these stones to turn to bread.”   In other words, Satan wanted Jesus to do something good, for the wrong reasons.  He would have Jesus reduce His mission to making this a better world in a purely materialistic sense, devoid of all supernatural considerations.   
   

    Satan knew that Christ’s passion and death would destroy his dreadful dominion over man.  On Calvary, Christ would conquer sin, Satan and eternal death.   The evil one wanted Jesus to become a Christ without a Cross.  In effect he was saying:  “No one wants a cross or suffering!  Fill their bellies!  Improve the economy!  Then men will follow You.  Not the Cross!”  Our Lord countered with consummate clarity: “Scripture has it, `Not on bread alone shall man live.’” 
   

    Next, Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world.  “I will give you power and the glory of all these kingdoms.”   The Father of Lies then added this frightening fact: “They are mine and I give them to whomever I wish.  Prostrate Yourself in homage before me and they shall be Yours.”  In utter wickedness, Satan wanted the Son of God to adore him.  Jesus said: “Scripture has it, `You shall love the Lord your God; Him alone shall you adore.’” 
   

    In like manner, the devil tempts us to adore him and not God.  He shows us the riches of this world, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes and the flesh.  Anything that will lure us from God.  The price is our eternal souls! Nothing less will satisfy Satan!  Nothing!    Saint Paul said: “The wages of sin is death!”  Eternal death!
   

    Then Satan led Our Lord to Jerusalem and set Him on the parapet of the Temple.  “If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here, for Scripture has it, `He will bid the angels watch over you;’ and again, `With their hands they will support you that you will never stumble on a stone.’”  Satan does not hesitate to use scripture to achieve his evil ends.
   

    Herod sought the same of Jesus; he wanted entertainment, not truth.  The devil wanted to reduce Our Lord to a wonder worker, nothing more.  “Give the people what they want,” was the diabolic wile.  “Perform more miracles.  Raise the dead!  Entertain the people and then they will follow You.”  Jesus said: “Scripture also says: “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”  Saint Matthew adds that Jesus then said: “Be gone Satan!”
   

    My friends, we must be very clear.  Jesus Christ could not have sinned.  His nature is divine and sin is totally contrary to His nature.  The Son of God could not come under the dominion of Satan!   By submitting Himself to the fury of the devil however, Jesus taught us how to resist temptation and to avoid vain attachment to this world.  “My Kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus told Pilate.
   

    The devil’s tactics are the same today.  Never enter into dialogue with him, as did Eve in the garden.  When tempted, say immediately: “BE GONE SATAN!”   “Resist the devil,” Saint James said, “and he will flee from you.” 
   

    In times of temptation, run with haste to Mary for she is our sure refuge of strength.  At the foot of the Cross, she became the Refuge of Sinners and the Gate of Heaven.  Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World.  Through Him, Our Blessed Mother  has crushed the serpent’s head under her feet. 
               
                    Father Richard J. Rego, S.T.L.