In the ancient times, as reported in the Old Testament, there was the phenomenon of the false prophet. Obviously, he never called himself the false prophet; he just called himself a prophet. However, he always preached what the people wanted to hear and not the word of God. He also told people to stop listening to the true prophet, whom he knew to be the real voice of God.

The false prophet would always say “Peace and Security.” In other words, when people disobeyed God and saw that other nations were on the war path, they would be worried that God would send those nations upon them as signs they needed to repent. The false prophets would always say, “Peace and Security, the warring nations would never attack God’s people and God was pleased with His people.” The people would know that they had drifted from God and they would know that there was a chance that nations like Babylon, Assyria, Egypt and others would attack. They would, however, put their faith in the false prophet because he told them what they wanted to hear. They would also try to silence the true prophets like Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Elijah. They were unwilling to discern the difference between the truth and a lie.

We can use this as background for today’s gospel. This is the traditional gospel for the 1st Sunday of Lent, the temptation in the Desert. We see the Devil giving three temptations and you will see these temptations are alive and well today. The three temptations are being self sufficient and, therefore, not needing any connection with God whatsoever. The second is seeking the world’s praise, while again turning one’s eyes from God’s glory to glorify oneself and the final one is to worship the Devil in order to gain universal political power. You can read regularly of those who succumb to these temptations in any newspaper. Each one cuts us off from God, focuses us on ourselves and promises great things, but ultimately only delivers disaster.

But look carefully at the temptations: who would not be tempted by them and the Devil is far more cunning than we are, he can phrase temptation to make it sound like the truth, when it is truly false.  His method is to confuse you and make you confuse the truth with a lie.

What does the Devil ultimately promise? Peace and security. The same as the false prophet. The Devil will never invite you to a relationship with God, but will instead tell you to ignore God, you are good enough, you are wise enough and, with apologies to the Stuart Smalley and his alter ego Senator Al Franken ‘darn it people like you’

Can you recognize the temptations in today’s world? I hope so. What is the text book to bring change to your world? It is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals which praises the devil, teaches people how to destroy the Church by imitating the devil’s tactics, and teaches people how to make the world politically the way you want it. There is the third temptation for you taught daily in some of our universities. The First: do what you can to find yourself to not need God for your daily life, the second, make yourself god are also common in daily life and those two temptations grow daily in our lives.

But Jesus teaches us to recognize the temptations for what they are and to reject them. Succumb to the temptations and you fall into the trap. If you don’t believe me, then think back just two weeks ago and ask yourself what is the major issue facing our world? Global warming. That has changed somewhat hasn’t it since the issue with Russia and the Ukraine? Someone walked into a trap to believe that we are on our way to peace and security and the most serious thing we need to address in our lives is “Global Warming”.  Now we enter a form of global chess that sounds similar to the way the world was in 1938.

Remember, the devil’s promises are all based on not being in union with God and each one is a trap. Jesus realized this, unfortunately, many in universities, media and government never do.

St. John Chrysostom reminds us that we have been called to be the true prophets to the world. Therefore know that the false prophets invest much in silencing us. So know that you need to discern truth from the lie. You can only do that with the wisdom that God gives us that surpasses all other wisdom. Remember what I said at the beginning of the homily, some universities teach people out of a book that praises the devil to silence the Church (the prophet) and seek political power in the world.

Many obeyed to the devil’s words and led others to fall victim to these tactics as they rejected God. Now people depend on you to be the prophets you were called to be at baptism. Which voices are you listening to? Are you able to discern the truth from a lie? Are you able to recognize which words lead us away from God and which one draw us close to Him. Reflect on that question this week, the first in our annual Catholic retreat called Lent.