Crushing Temptations

Obviously from a couple of years ago, this is a good reminder to me of my own Lenten realization.

In Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ, in the very first scene in the garden, as Jesus is praying in agony, he sees a snake creeping up to him. The instant he sees the snake, he crushes it, he stomps on it, he has no mercy toward it and no second thoughts, no hesitation. That's what we all have to do with temptations: stop them at their very source, their very first beginnings, the very first thoughts.

Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Year C First Sunday of Lent

I must say that one of my personal advances during this Lent is to recognize some temptations when they occur. This might sound obvious, but most of my temptations creep up for sins that are habitual. That makes sense. Sometimes I am fighting myself and sometimes I'm being assaulted by enemy barrages. When I'm in the middle of the battle, do I stop to ask where the blows are coming from?

Too often I don't. But having had the grace given to ask myself the question, "What if this is a temptation?" I've been able to simply say, "Go away!" I'm not always good at repeating it too many times, but sometimes just knowing it might be coming from outside is enough. Now, part of my morning prayer is to ask Jesus to show me when I'm being tempted so I have that extra help.

It strikes me, having read the quote above, that another part of my battle needs to be the immediate crushing with no second thoughts. Too often I feel as if it is natural to have a long battle with temptation, which I may win or I may lose. But the times when I've crushed the thought and refused to allow it entry, however many times there is a knock on the door — those are the times I've won.

Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings by Peter Kreeft

Here's another set of commentaries to consider as the new Church year begins on Sunday. I originally ran this review when there was just one book available but now there's one for each of the Church's three year cycle.

Peter Kreeft has a different style than the John Bergsma books I recommended yesterday, but I love these too. We're going into Year B, if you are wondering which to get.

In Food for the Soul, the first book in a three-part series, philosopher Peter Kreeft invites the faithful—clergy and laity alike—to a heart-to-heart relationship with Christ the Word through the Word of the Scriptures.

Moving through the first reading, second reading, and Gospel reading for each Sunday and other major liturgical celebrations throughout the lectionary cycle, Kreeft brings the Mass readings to life with his trademark blend of wit and wisdom, challenging readers to plant their souls in the rich soil of Scripture and sharpen their minds with the Sword of the Spirit.

As Peter Kreeft himself says, this book is intended to help priests and deacons make their boring or bad homilies better. In his inimitable style, Kreeft offers reflections on each of the Sunday Mass readings, excepting the psalms (which I wish he'd included). These amount to a series of mini-homilies on each reading and I like them a lot so far.

Reading these made me think of Fordyce's Sermons*, which Jane Austen mentioned in her books. She was making a joke because of the topic of the sermons chosen, but I always thought it was a great idea to make sermons available for people to read at home or to give pastors something they could read if they weren't good writers or engaging speakers. Not everyone can do everything well after all.

Kreeft's style of commentary is quite different from John Bergsma's commentary so the two work together well. If I could only have one, I'd pick Bergsma's book but that is just a matter of taste. Luckily, that's a choice I don't have to make! I'll keep reading both to prepare for Sunday Mass.

Available directly from Word on Fire or I got mine from Amazon.

*Sermons to Young Women (1766), often called Fordyce's Sermons, is a two-volume compendium of sermons compiled by James Fordyce, a Scottish clergyman, which were originally delivered by himself and others. Fordyce was considered an excellent orator, and his collection of sermons found a ready audience among English clergy and laity alike. It quickly became a staple of many Church and personal libraries.

You are a temple, you are a great cathedral

Our culture has solved many of life's problems by its wonderful science and technology, and it has attained unprecedented power and comfort and freedom from pain. Yet it no longer loves life, no longer feels gratitude for life. Its suicide rate is far higher than it is in poor, primitive cultures. It lacks lasting joy. It is in the wilderness without a temple and without the manna from heaven, without the two temples that we know: our bodies in secual intercourse and Christ's Body in the Mass. They are the two holiest places in the universe and the two places where Goid literally performs a miracle millions of times every day around the world. Whenever we procreate mortal bodies, God creates new immortal souls, and whenever our priests echo his words of consecration, he transubstantiates our bread and wine into Christ's Body and Blood. ...

You are a temple; you are a great cathedral; you are God's masterpiece. Much more than that, you are God's children.

Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Cycle A, Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

What's Hard to Believe About God

From commentary on the parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.

What is not surprising or shocking, to any intelligent and honest mind, is that God is not only all-powerful and all-knowing but also all-good, all-righteous, all-just. No one who believes in one supreme God thinks of God as a criminal or a liar or a sneak. But sometimes it's hard for us to believe that God is so forgiving and merciful that he seems almost crazy; that he goes so far beyond justice into love that he is as ready with his forgiveness even for our worst sins as was the father in this story; that (as the saints say) it is impossible to commit a sin greater than God will forgive if we are sincerely repentant—that is news, and truly amazing news; news that is good beyond all hope.

Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Year C, Fourth Sunday of Lent

As has often been said by various people ranging from St. Francis de Sales to Father Mike Schmitz, we are our own worst critics. God is ready to forgive us when we will not forgive ourselves. Take a look at the speech the son is practicing as he trudges home and see how the father cuts him short, not letting him finish before forgiving. This is something to keep in mind if you are near the confessional as we enter the second half of Lent.

Perhaps Hell and Heaven are the very same thing ...

Perhaps Hell and Heaven are the very same thing: light, truth; but it blesses those who love it and tortures those who hate it.

Peter Kreeft, I Burned for Your Peace

I've had conversations where this has come up as an idea, but never so succinctly put. It is worth considering during Lent. Am I open to truth? Do I recognize my sins? As I've mentioned before, I am just modern enough to have trouble going to confession not because of having to speak my sins aloud, but because I often don't know what they are. I wind up asking Christ to open my eyes, shine the light, and let me see the truth of what is keeping me from getting closer to Him.

The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings by Peter Kreeft

Oh, no! Not another book on Tolkien!
Why should you read this one?

This is the opening to Peter Kreeft's introduction and it is a fair question. It is why I waited so long to try it. I've got a lot of excellent books about The Lord of the Rings and it was hard to see how this was going to add anything new. Except, of course, that Peter Kreeft is a philosopher and so he looks at everything a little differently than most other authors.

This was like a class in applied philosophy. Peter Kreeft looks at the philosophies embodied in The Lord of the Rings and also explains basic philosophical concepts along the way. It is obvious that Kreeft just loves The Lord of the Rings and it is hard not to join in with that enthusiasm. I was able to grasp the philosophical concepts with an ease that I usually don't feel.

I was startled by his idea that it is our generation's Divine Comedy. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. No wonder it has inspired so many and hung on so long as a great book. No wonder I have so many excellent commentaries. How did people feel when the Divine Comedy came out? Possibly just the same! I like that feeling of fellowship with long ago readers of another book that I really love (though I do not understand the Divine Comedy nearly as well as LOTR, but then LOTR is my age's great book so it is written for me).

Virtues can be classified in many ways. One is "hard" versus "soft." Our ancestors were better at the "hard" ones, like courage, duty, honor, chastity, and obedience. We are better at the "soft" ones, like pity, mercy, sensitivity, and humility. We are shocked at their cruelty; they would be equally shocked by our laxity.

Highly recommended.

Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes—Life As Vanity, Job—Life As Suffering, Song of Songs—Life As Love by Peter Kreeft

Ancient ethics always dealt with three questions. Modern ethics usually deals with only one, or at the most two. The three questions are like the three things a fleet of ships is told by its sailing orders. (The metaphor is from C. S. Lewis.) First, the ships must know how to avoid bumping into each other. This is social ethics, and modern as well as ancient ethicists deal with it. Second, they must know how to stay shipshape and avoid sinking. This is individual ethics, virtues and vices, character building, and we hear very little about this from our modern ethical philosophers. Third, and most important of all, they must know why the fleet is at sea in the first place. What is their mission, their destination? This is the question of the summum bonum, and no modern philosophers except the existentialists seem even to be interested in this, the greatest of all questions. Perhaps that is why most modern philosophy seems so weak and wimpy, so specialized and elitist, and above all so boring, to ordinary people.

I'd been wanting to read this book for years. When our podcast's season 12 opening guest chose Ecclesiastes as the book to discuss, that was all the excuse I needed!

Author Peter Kreeft considers Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs in a series of meditations. Looking at them as pieces of philosophy, he is able to show how each relates to attitudes still held today. He compares the three books thus: Life as Vanity (Ecclesiastes, where "vanity" means "a puff of air"), Life as Suffering (Job), and Life as Love (Song of Songs).

I really found it valuable to compare these books of wisdom literature which are some of the most difficult of the Old Testament – for me anyway. I am used to commentaries but Kreeft's philosophical approach felt unique as he considered what they teach us about the human experience. I especially enjoyed his take on them as a very early take similar to Dante's Divine Comedy — a journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. And I found it inspiring as well as useful for my own life.

To understand the world of things, you need science and suspicion and the method of doubt; accept nothing until it is proven. Every idea is guilty until proven innocent. but to know people, you need the opposite method: trust, love, openness. Persons are innocent until proven guilty. You cannot hear them unless that is your attitude. Suspicion never reaches the other's heart.