You are on page 1of 6

Temptation of the 1st Adam (and Eve) and the temptation of Christ (the 2nd Adam)

Say, Thank you for sending me Father Michael's sermon on the temptation of Adam and of Christ by Satan. http://www.michaelckw.blogspot.com.au/2014_03_01_archive.html I was not going to comment on Father Michael's sermon as I thought it was well written and I had already referred to the temptation of Christ in my discourse mid-week on the meaning of Lent. The only aspect I thought that Father Michael did not cover was the aspect of our concurrent joint existence or being as 'sheep' and 'goats'; as eternal spirit sons of God and as mortal sons of man. I cannot read into his sentence - 'Courageous Catholics have the humility to say, we are not gods, we are rather sons and daughters of God.' - whether he is saying that the "we" refers to us as human beings, as sons of man or to our alter ego as spirit sons of God? It is like as if Father Michael has climbed up to the top of a slippery bamboo pole (just a Zen metaphor for a difficult journey, equivalent to the 'ascending and descending' of the Jacob's Ladder) and not taking the plunge to make the 'bungey jump' to test or overcome all human fears, particularly the one about human mortality. This essential and critical aspect was however alluded to in his last sermon about Lent, when he referred to saints 'living in this world' but are 'not of this world'. So, intuitively, he must have an inkling somewhere. As mortal 'son of man' we are living 'in this world' facing certain death but as eternal 'spirit son of God' we are 'not of this world'. We are in eternity. We were and are eternal spirit sons of God, before Abraham, and certainly before the Fall of Adam into mortal exile, and our eternal home is with the Spirit Father in heaven. Today's Mass is unusual because the 1st Reading from Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 and the 2nd Reading from Romans 5:12, 17-19 and the Gospel Reading from Matthew 4:1-11 are like 3 stars in alignment. There must be something propitious! The 1st Reading from Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 refers to the temptation of Adam (when he was still a spirit only) (and Eve). This is only a parable or an allegory, for nobody really knows what actually happened, resulting in Adam becoming a mortal man upon his exile on his Fall from Grace. To be fair to our woman folk, I think the casting of the Serpent (representing Satan) as Eve's tempter, and Eve as Adam's temptress is all make belief and quite unfortunate. Logically there could not have been an 'Adam and Eve', as a 'duality', as in 'male' and 'female' before the Fall of Adam. For, 'good and evil', 'male and female', 'life and death', 'mortal and immortal', 'I and you' and other pairings of 'duality', of 'relativity', of 'subjective judgement', are matters pertaining to having tasted the Tree of Knowledge, such that you see with worldly eyes, through the eyes of a false worldly self-ego! It denotes the failings of an imperfect 'god'; the false worldly self-ego, one who perceives or sees perfection in achieving immortality where there is or when they are faced with mortality. But 'immortality' can never be the same as 'eternity'. In the 'eternity' of a perfect God, where everything is eternal in the absolute sense, there is no need for want, no need for judgment, no need to decide anything! If I might extract and paraphrase from Father Michael's words - 'Today this proposal (by the Serpent to Adam and Eve) is still the mother of temptations, to be as gods, to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong.', the following statement - in the total bliss of the eternity that is God, there is no need for a separate self-ego, and there is no need for anyone or anything to decide anything! There was therefore no basic need for Adam to 'open his eyes'! Remember what Jesus said about those who 'see' with worldly mind or wisdom - "If you were (worldly) blind, you would have no sin;

Page 1 of 6

but now you say, 'We (worldly) see.', therefore your sin remains." [John 9:41] That 'sin', our sin, is the derivative sin from Adam having tasted the Tree of Knowledge! As to the expression - 'the mother of (all) temptations", I think is Father Michael is making an understatement; for the 'mother of all temptations', implicit and implied in the Temptation of Adam (and Eve) is in fact the temptation of the 'soul' (of the 'spirit'), the temptation that one can 'be like God'. It is the sort of temptation that is best described as the temptation of the Lost Prodigal Son that the 'grass is always greener on the other side'! If we inherit any spiritual genes from our forebears Adam and Eve, it is that we are tainted with the same 'mother of all temptations', and that is the temptation that the 'grass is greener on the other side'. If your 'soul', your 'spirit son of God' cannot be tempted, cannot be tempted to be a false worldly self-ego, then all other temptations fade into nothing or will not happen. Temptations of the 'flesh', of the world, of the false worldly self-ego, of the son of man, persist only because the temptation of the soul (spirit) (the 'mother of all temptations') persists in the 'spirit son of God' that is lost in the 'son of man'. We are after all 'sheep' lost in our 'goat' in us! Let us refer in full to Genesis 3:1-13 - 1 Now, the snake was the most subtle of all the wild animals that Yahweh God had made. It asked the woman, 'Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?' 2 The woman answered the snake, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. 3 But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death." ' 4 Then the snake said to the woman, 'No! You will not die! 5 God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.' 6 The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths. 8 The man and his wife heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. 9 But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked. 10 'I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' 11 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?' 12 The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' 13 Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.' The temptation of the soul or the eternal spirit that was (were) Adam (and Eve), that Adam could be his own idol before God, could be his own god, could be his own personal self-ego and persona; this was what led to the Fall of Adam; this was the Original Sin that led to his exile; this was what led him to become mortal son of man, the false worldly self-ego that is the son of man. Before Adam acquired his false worldly self-ego, he was not self-conscious. After he acquired his false worldly self-ego, he became conscious that he was (and Eve were) naked! Selfconsciousness brought about awareness of 'shame'. Also of 'guilt'! He had to hide when God called out his name! And also, the first hint of self-righteousness! He could not be to blamed, for it was Eve's fault for tempting him! As if only the tempter is to be blamed? Adam probably had never heard of the expression that 'it takes two to tango'! Let us now refer to the Gospel Reading from Matthew 4:1-11 and analyse the temptation of Christ. The temptation of Christ is a repeat of the temptation of the 1st Adam. It is probably just another allegory or parable about the temptation of the soul (spirit). The only difference is that Christ as the 2nd Adam is both the eternal Spirit Son of God as well as the mortal Son of Man in this world. Like the 1st Adam, Christ the 2nd Adam is also not born of the 'flesh'. Together with Eve, they are the only Bible characters not born of the 'flesh'. Take careful note of this fact so that you understand that Satan here is not able to trap Christ by any temptation of the 'flesh'. We are of course not so lucky being born of the 'flesh', being born as a consequence of and after the Original Sin of the 1st Adam.

Page 2 of 6

Let me first comment on Matthew 4:1-2 - '1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the desert to be put to the test by the devil. 2 He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was hungry,'. Ask yourself this - did Jesus fast for 40 days and 40 nights because he was feeling penitential about anything? Of course not! If so, why should you treat Lent as having to do with penance and mortification? Lent is about learning to train yourself against temptation! Lent is about prospective behaviour and not about punishing yourself for retrospective or past bad behaviour! Lent is about gradually training yourself, first against the temptations of the 'flesh', temptations of the world, and finally the 'mother of all temptations', the temptation of the soul (the spirit). I will not comment in detail about the three temptations of Christ cited in the passage on the temptation of Christ. Firstly, I have commented on them in my last (mid-week) discourse, and secondly trying to extract worldly meaning out of them is futile. This is because, as I have just mentioned, the true context is of the temptation of the soul or spirit. Here we have Christ at the stage where he is lost to this world; he is 'in this world' only nominally after fasting 40 days and 40 nights; so he is 'out of this world'! He is egoless and selfless. Unlike us he is without or has no self-ego! He has no self consciousness! He is not self-righteous! He is spiritually virtuous! He is the epitome of egoless righteousness! The 1st temptation is as meaningless as arguing about 'good works'. Christ as the Spirit Son of God is only concerned about and committed to 'spiritual bread', i.e. 'every word that comes from the mouth of God'. If 'spiritual bread' can only come from the mouth of God, what exactly is the relevance of making bread from stones! Satan is just barking up the wrong tree! Jesus could have just said to Satan - 'It is the Spirit (God) who gives life (not bread); the flesh (human body) profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.' (John 6:63). The 2nd temptation finds Jesus indirectly telling off Satan not to repeat what Satan did to the 1st Adam (in the spirit). In telling Satan that he must not test God, he is also likewise telling Satan that he should not test or tempt the Spirit Son of God and indeed any spirit son of God ever again. The 3rd temptation finds Jesus telling Satan, who is also a fallen angel of God, that we should love God with all our mind, body and soul! Nobody else! What is important to realise spiritually is that because Adam succumbed to the temptation of the soul; we are in the derivative sense, a 'fallen angel of God' ourselves! The Lost Prodigal Son in us is basically a fallen angel of God! To the extent that we are 'son of man' caught in the web of deceit of Satan, we have the 'devil' or Satan in the 'goat' in us. To the extent that we are 'lost' or 'fallen' we are the 'spirit son of God' or 'angel of God' in the 'sheep' in us. They are both sides of the same 'coin'! We can choose either to be a 'devil' or an 'angel'. That is what the temptation of the soul is all about, in very simple basic terms! But all the above are cliches, that we should all know of by heart. The important thing to note is that if we should ever become like Jesus, egoless and selfless in the 'spirit', spiritually virtuous, we will no longer have the 'worldly eyes' that Adam and Eve acquired through tasting the Tree of Knowledge. When you have spirit eyes, and not worldly eyes, they are like x-ray eyes. You do not see the superficial worldly phenomena. You see right through the superficial phenomena to the microscopic substrate of individual atoms and molecules. You see the 'cosmos' within the 'cosmos' within the 'cosmos'. There in its absolute homogeneity, 'all is in one and one is in all'! You see beyond duality and relativity. You see beyond life and death. You see through to eternity! In eternity what is there to want or need? What can be that something better that you can be tempted with when you are already in eternity? For eternity is absolute satiation in itself! That was the Fall of Adam (and Eve), thinking that the 'grass could be greener on the other side'; that there could be something better than eternity! Father Michael said that - 'Catholic Tradition lists the world, the flesh and the devil as the sources of temptation.' Of course, he is correct when you group together the worldly temptations facing the son of man and the 'mother of all temptations' facing the spirit son of God. We are 'sheep' (eternal spirit son of God) lost in the 'goat' that is our son of man being, our false worldly self-ego being.

Page 3 of 6

The spirit son of God in us must carry his cross, and like Jesus resist the temptation of the soul. It is a choice between being an 'angel' or a 'devil'! Only thus can the spirit son of God regain its egoless righteousness (spiritual virtue) and as a derivative flow-on effect, the son of man can then resist the temptations of the 'flesh', temptations of the world, that are keeping the son of man 'reaping and sowing' and 'ascending and descending' Jacob's Ladder, the stairway to heaven. How does the 2nd Reading from Romans 5:12, 17-19 fit into the trifecta? It explains how Jesus redeemed the Original Sin, which separated Adam from God, the spirit son from the Spirit Father, resulting in Adam and the sons of Adam as the 'Lost Prodigal Son'. Let us study the entire passage from 12-19 (inclusive). St Paul said - '12 Well then; it was through one man that sin came into the world, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. 13 Sin already existed in the world before there was any law, even though sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Nonetheless death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sin was not the breaking of a commandment, as Adam's was. He prefigured the One who was to come. 15 There is no comparison between the free gift and the offence. If death came to many through the offence of one man, how much greater an effect the grace of God has had, coming to so many and so plentifully as a free gift through the one man Jesus Christ! 16 Again, there is no comparison between the gift and the offence of one man. One single offence brought condemnation, but now, after many offences, have come the free gift and so acquittal! 17 It was by one man's offence that death came to reign over all, but how much greater the reign in life of those who receive the fullness of grace and the gift of saving justice, through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 One man's offence brought condemnation on all humanity; and one man's good act has brought justification and life to all humanity. 19 Just as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience are many to be made righteous.' This passage from Romans explains how God by allowing Christ the 2nd Adam to re-sit the temptation of the soul that the 1st Adam failed (his 'disobedience'), and through Christ passing his temptation of the soul (his 'obedience') redeemed the 1st Adam's Original Sin. Now in our spirit sons of God, through Christ's redemption of the Original Sin, we can all now take the journey home of the Lost Prodigal Son. We can all similarly redeem the Original Sin of our (spirit son of God's) 'separation' from God. We have however to be 'baptised by water' and also 'baptised by the Holy Spirit'. Please do not take these two expressions literally. They both have a spiritual meaning. The former requires you to be worldly virtuous. The latter requires you to be spirit virtuous. In brief, you have to be egoless righteous rather than self-righteous. You must be egoless and selfless; and that is what filial piety represents - humility and virtue. What is commonly described as the 'Old Law', by way of the Ten Commandments, was just God's way of teaching people (sons of man) how to be spiritually 'egoless righteous' or spiritually virtuous. We are talking of spiritual virtue and not worldly virtue, although the former is predicated on the latter. Through Christ's redemption of the Original Sin, the 'New Law' is God's Grace. Through God's Grace, salvation is not strictly about the worldly virtue, the 'morality' or the 'good and bad' in us as 'son of man' but rather about the spiritual 'virtue' in God's eyes of us as his lost children, as the spirit Lost Prodigal Son. For, 'egoless righteousness' (virtue) in our spirit son of God, in our journey home as the spirit Lost Prodigal Son, to redeem the Original Sin, begins by our being virtuous. As I will explain later, it is in our being 'egoless righteous' or virtuous that we overcome or over-ride or work in our favour the Immutable Law of Cause and Effect, the Law of You Reap What You Sow, the Natural Law that besieges our mortal son of man, in terms of our moral (worldly) sins. It is in our being 'egoless righteous' or virtuous, both morally (worldly) or spiritually that we will 'ascend' and never 'descend' Jacob's Ladder, the stairway to heaven. This is what 'Snakes and Ladders' is about in the virtual reality show of our life or lives! In spiritual terms, we are all playing Snakes and Ladders! So, whether we are 'egoless righteous' (virtuous) or self-righteous is a matter that is or will be fully spiritually accounted for consequentially by the unbiased and un-relentless application of the

Page 4 of 6

Immutable Law of Cause and Effect, of You Reap What You Sow - the Natural Law to our worldly deeds. Our spiritual faith is simply to glorify God, seek His Kingdom and his Righteousness. However, 'how to' be 'egoless righteous' or 'how to' have the 'right faith' is not 'out' there in the world but 'within' you. For your spirit son of God is 'not of this world'! It is within the 'goat' that is the son of man in you! It is within the heart of your mind, not physically (for flesh is flesh, and spirit is spirit - John 3:6) but mentally in your consciousness, in its very core conscience such that it can be said to be within your very 'soul' (spirit). That is why the 'mother of all temptations' is the temptation of the soul or spirit. When you worldly judge yourself or others after the event it is too late. It is already too late. It is already 'water under the bridge'. The seed is already sown. The 'how to' practice has to come before the 'deed', before the 'event'. You cannot cry over spilt milk. When you have to decide whether your worldly deed is good or bad after the deed is done, it is already too late! That is why we say that the Spirit Father's 'forgiveness' has nothing to do with worldly sins. The Spirit Father cannot forgive our worldly sins we committed as a son of man. They are already germinated seeds in terms of the Immutable Law of Cause and Effect, of You Reap What You Sow. That is the Natural Law. The Spirit Father's sole will, wish or desire is that his spirit Lost Prodigal Son return home to him. He will take the spirit 'sinner' son, 'as he is', unconditionally without recourse! No questions asked. No incriminations. No malice, such as that the elder brother demands of the Father of the younger Lost Prodigal Son. That is what the Spirit Father's 'forgiveness' is. Forgiveness has nothing to do with actually forgiving the spirit Lost Prodigal Son's 'past' sins. Only the spirit Lost Prodigal Son's victims can forgive him not God, the Spirit Father. From the Spirit Father's point of view, it is just simply, let bygone be bygone; son, just come home! That is what the spirit Lost Prodigal Son's 'redemption' or 'repentance' is. He has 'redeemed' himself by reverting to filial piety. It has nothing to do with repentance or mortification. It is simply about being filial and pious. It about turning over a new leaf. It is about turning his errant life around. Most importantly, the spirit Lost Prodigal Son (the 'lost sheep') has to stop being a 'goat', being a 'son of man' and return or revert to his true and original eternal self as spirit son of God, an 'angel of God'. The Natural Law has nothing to do with the parallel Law as in the "The Law and the Prophets", as in God's Righteousness, which is concerned only with the "egoless righteousness" of the spirit son of God. The Spirit Father's forgiveness is that of the Original Sin, of the 'separation' of the 1st Adam, spirit son of God, from God. The Law and the Prophets, God's Righteousness, deal with the 'separation' of the spirit son of God from the Spirit Father. Upon the reconciliation when the spirit Lost Prodigal Son returns home, there is no longer the spiritual 'separation', no longer the Original Sin. In that sense there is spiritual 'forgiveness' by the Spirit Father and 'redemption' by his spirit son of God, in effect, of the Original Sin of the spiritual 'separation' between 'Spirit Father and spirit son'. The Natural Law in contrast, deals with the son of Adam, exiled as a son of man within and during the spiritual 'separation' between spirit son of God and the Spirit Father; so that he 'reaps what he sows' within his being 'exiled' in the period of 'separation', within the 'exile' that is the consequence of the Original Sin. The spirit son of God is thereby or consequently caught or entrapped in the hiatus (the 'dream' and the 'illusion') that is the karmic consequences of the Natural Law affecting the son of man. Therefore (until he is baptised by the Holy Spirit), the spirit son of God is the 'sheep' that is lost within the 'goat' that is the son of man. The 'goat' comprises of the 'lost sheep' (i.e. the evil spirit, being the false worldly self-ego) and its seven more deadly companions (being the 'monkey' mind and its five senses and the sixth sense) (Matthew 12:45). The antecedent 'how to' practice therefore has to deal with the two separate matters of the 'sheep' (the spirit son of God) and the 'goat' (the son of man). The 'sheep' is 'not of the world' but the goat lives 'in this world'. The 'sheep' is lost in the 'goat'! We have to lose our mortal life as a 'goat' to gain our eternal life as a 'sheep'! The Good Shepherd epitomising the Spirit Father is however only seeking his lost sheep and not the goat. This is what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew

Page 5 of 6

25:32-34 - "He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then He will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." We have to be skilfully mindful to be virtuous. The pursuit of virtue as in egoless righteousness and faith as in filial piety in the spirit son of God in us requires us to be skilfully mindful. To put it in simple terms, you have to be virtuous (egoless righteous) for your faith to be true and you have to be skilfully mindful to be virtuous. Spiritual practice is basically skilful mindfulness. You must be fully aware and on the alert at all times about the karmic effect of you reaping what you sow. Nobody, and I mean nobody, escapes from the Natural Law, the Immutable Law of Cause and Effect. Nobody is exempt. As son of man, we need to work towards our spirit son of God that is trapped within our son of man, 'ascending' and not 'descending' Jacob's Ladder, the staircase to heaven. We have to learn to play the game of Snakes and Ladders so that we get out of the game, so to speak! "We gotta get out of this place; if it's the last thing we have to do." (Eric Burdon & the Animals). You must be fully aware that it is the self-righteousness of our worldly false self-ego that is entrenching us in the house or body of a 'goat'. Self-consciousness and self-righteousness are what we reap from having acquiesced to the 'temptation of the soul', of having our eyes 'opened' and seeing through a false worldly self-ego. If the 'temptation of the soul' is not redeemed by our spirit son of God (sheep), we will continue to be (derivatively) tempted by the 'flesh', by the world, in our son of man (goat). We must exercise equanimity in our worldly affairs, so that we are not enticed by the lusts, temptations and attachments that our 'monkey' mind and our five senses and our sixth sense would want us to be infatuated with. That way we 'work' towards getting awakened in our spirit son of God, the 'sheep' in us. It is us, as the lost sheep, as the spirit Lost Prodigal Son, that is required to revert to 'egoless righteousness', to lose its ego, to lose his self-righteousness, so as to return home to be reconciled with the Spirit Father, and thereby redeem the Original Sin. 'Redeemed' because there is no longer the spiritual 'separation' from God the Spirit Father; and therefore no longer the spiritual Original Sin! Love and God Bless! Chuan

Page 6 of 6

You might also like