You are Good

Yesterday was the first Sunday in Lent, and the Gospel deals with Jesus 40 days in the desert being tempted by the devil. A visiting priest to our parish gave an amazing homily, it dealt with the devils most sneaky temptation. He made the point that the "obvious" temptations towards "Lust, greed, drunkenness" are not the most dangerous, and in some instances can even lead a soul into a deeper relationship with God, because the soul sees clearly how much he/she needs a Savior. The most dangerous temptations of the devil, is not to convince us that Greed is bad, or that violence is bad, those are obvious to anyone who is open, the most dangerous temptation is to convince us that we are bad. Here's the big problem, if you think that you are flawed, it effects your identity, how you see the world, how you see yourself, and how you see God.

This is the beauty of confession, when you confess your sins to a priest, its so healthy, because you are saying, "I have done these things, but this is not me, this is not who I am," A person can walk away from the confession with great joy, because the truth of the matter is, God does not make mistakes, He made me Good, so its true. We have to remember this, because the more our identity is tied up in the notion that God made me good, the more likely I will continually make good choices!