From the emptiness of sin to the Glory of the Cross

From the emptiness that is sin to the Glory of the Cross

It is from the moment we fail that the Lord has always been with us to carry the load of our weakness that may still want us to turn away from redemption.  The devil will not relent in using our mind to create doubt about God’s mercy that overcomes the attraction to sin.  Not until we reach the home that Christ’s Passion was meant for us will we be totally free from the clutches of Satan’s desire to capture us and make us one of his trophies.

This may sound like a broken record as another effort leading to acceptance of the Cross as our only path to eternal life with God.  But the more we might try to discern the correct answer to this grace from Christ’s Crucifixion the more we shall find that there is no other way to be redeemed with a guarantee of everlasting life.

If there was a way of avoiding the pain that sin seems to pull our faith away by believing that sin isn’t the problem, according to Satan it is the tendency to follow God’s will that is the Nemesis of your problems.   This is the same lie that the devil used with Eve when telling her, “You certainly will not die (by eating from the tree in the center of the garden).  No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.”  (Gn 3: 4 - 5). 

One thing that Satan uses in a subtle manner is lying.  He has a way of manipulating our sense of understanding by telling us what we want to hear rather than common sense.  Since we quickly accept the easy way around temptations his lies do not threaten our senses and are pleasing to the desires we may look for.

Reading the challenges the devil confronted Jesus with after his fasting in the wilderness, we see that he immediately used lies to tempt the Lord because he was tired, hungry, and alone .  But he was not alone in a sense of no spiritual help.  His Father is always with him and in the same way is also with us as we face temptations.  The apparent feeling of being alone is not real if we rely on the Holy Spirit to open our sense of assurance that we are two against the   devil and being a strength of two against one we have the upper-hand.  Jesus relied on his Father during temptation from the devil.  We too must also depend on the Spirit of God to be the 

One who leads us into spiritual battle.  

The Cross on which Christ won the battle at Calvary, the battlefield of Good against Evil, we now have the sign of Victory as our shield of armor daring Satan to fight against our God.  Sin creates an emptiness and the Cross fills it with Christ’s divinity.

Ralph B. Hathaway