Fr. Dwight LongeneckerWhy do so many Catholics refuse to tithe? Because they have fallen into Satan’s second trap. They have come to trust their wealth and power rather than trust in God. They have chosen the devil’s gift rather than God’s gift of grace. God gives so much and asks so little, and yet we pull back. We want to trust our banker and our broker instead of God, but what has your banker ever done for you except break the bank, and what has your broker ever done except watch you go broke?
The third temptation is to “tempt God” or in other words, to put God to the test. That is a way of saying that we want God to do what we want him to do. We want to give God orders. “Here God. I’m going to throw myself from the parapet. Send some angels. Now.” This is Satan’s first and constant rule. “I will not serve. Non Servium” God must do my bidding. I will not do his. God must obey me for I am God and not him.
We overcome this third of the unholy trinity of temptation by prayer. The heart of prayer is to learn how to say with our whole heart, “Thy Will be Done” not “My Will be Done.” The heart of prayer is submission to God in humble obedience and simple worship.
This is the lesson of the long Lent of trying to be his disciple.
For me this journey is never ending. It is a never ending adventure.
It is the work of a lifetime and the gift of a instant.
It is an endless cycle of trying to learn (and constantly failing to learn) the truth of humility.
“All we can hope to learn is the wisdom of humility. Humility is endless”
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