After His Baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus prayed for forty days in the desert and then received three temptations by Satan. In his wonderful book, "The Life of Christ", Bishop Fulton J. Sheen writes that the third temptation was political and so Christianity and Politics have been closely associated for about two millennia.
Saint Augustine, in his book "Confessions" said that the third temptation is a wish to be feared or loved by people for no other reason than the joy derived from such power, which is no joy at all. It is a repulsive life of wretched vanity.
If we hold certain offices in society it is often deemed necessary to be loved and feared by people and the enemy of true happiness will always tend to be on the offensive. When we are avid to amass such approval, we may be caught off guard. We cease to find our joy in truth and place it in deceitfulness. It becomes our temptation to be loved and feared not for the sake of truth but for our own sake.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment