1 Cor 10:12-13. “So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall…God is faithful, and... will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”
Self-reliance and determination are intrinsic to our American heritage. It is easy to succumb to the temptation of believing that life depends on us and us alone; whether how necessary our work or how needy the world. It is tempting to think that if only…if only we had more energy, more money, more time, more…then, then we would be … accomplished, generous, content... The latest cultural images, ideals and material possessions tempt us on every side. Indeed, advertising counts on us to see ourselves as the center of reality. And so, we are always hungry for more.
Temptations are perpetual. One of the greatest of these is hubris, an “overconfident pride and arrogance”, that comes from self-centeredness and self-sufficiency to the exclusion of all else. St. Paul echoes Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall…” Instead, he seems to suggest that the nature of our life with God requires humility. To learn to be humble is to willingly submit to God, recognizing our human frailties so that we are truly open to a right relationship with God, ourselves and community. Humility places our Divine Creator, ever faithful, in the center of our lives. So when we are inevitably tempted or tested, we can be confident that we will endure because God is with us and will give us what we need.
What hungers or temptations, habitual attitudes or attachments keep us from a right relationship with God, ourselves and the world? Perhaps it is time to empty ourselves of these during this Lenten season so that we can be open to receive God’s grace and love.
— Aileen Loranger
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