THE WILES OF THE DEVIL
9
“The world,” or more appropriately the fallen world – is that aspect of the world that denies or rejects God. Human beings experience temptation from the false allurements of the world around us. Advertisers urge us to live for ourselves, to satisfy basic cravings for comfort and success. We are shown images of happiness that are essentially hollow. Through media in its extraordinary variety of forms we are constantly being tempted. Indeed, there is an all pervasive attractiveness to live for ourselves. What is really selfish or shallow or crude becomes part of the landscape of our daily lives. We become deadened in our sensitivity because temptations are so much the environment in which we live. The second source of temptation comes from our fallen nature – “the flesh.” All human beings, as a result of Original Sin, are affected by what Scripture calls “concupiscence.”4 People find themselves attracted to world or the flesh or the Devil.” Adolphe Tanquerey, in his classic The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology states that we have three spiritual foes: the flesh, the world and the Devil. The flesh is often called “concupiscence,” which is the inclination to sin deep within us. The world and the Devil are external to us. “Etymologically, ‘concupiscence’ can refer to any intense form of human desire. Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St Paul identifies it
4