Day 37 of 40 Days for Life

40 DAYS FOR LIFE: DAY 37, NOVEMBER 1
Daily Devotional by Fr. Frank Pavone

INTENTION: Pray that we may find true freedom by humbly submitting all our choices to God, and leading others by word and example to do the same.
SCRIPTURE: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman,"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." -- Genesis 3:1-4
REFLECTION: St. John in his first letter sums up the mission of Jesus by saying, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). What "works of the devil" does Jesus destroy? Jesus Himself tells us that the devil "was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). In one and the same breath, Our Lord calls the devil a liar and a murderer. Lies and murder go together. The only way abortion can continue on such a horrible scale is for it to be covered in lies, sugar coated with denials and distortions of truth. Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). He is the way to salvation precisely because He is the Truth, shattering the devil's lies, and because He is the Life, undoing the devil's work of death. We see the devil act in in character with lies and murder from the first pages of the Bible. Adam and Eve had been told they could eat of any tree in the garden except "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.""In the day that you eat of it," God warned them, "you shall die" (Gen 2:17). What is wrong with knowing good from evil? Aren't we supposed to know the difference between good and evil? Why, then, is this the one tree of which our first parents were not to eat? The answer lies in the fact that the "knowledge of good and evil" here does not simply mean "knowing." It means that Adam and Eve would think they could decide the difference between good and evil, that they would be the ones to determine what was right and wrong, that they would be the norm of morality. This is the original temptation. "What's right and wrong for me is up to me... What's right and wrong for you is up to you... Do not impose your morality on me... I will create my own values... I am accountable to nobody but myself." In other words, it's all up to my own personal choice. The original sin is to put choice above goodness and truth, to abuse freedom by trying to create what is right rather than submit to it. Jesus showed us the way of submission to the Father, of obedience even unto death on a cross. That is why he was highly exalted. Following his example, and living in the power of the Spirit, we lead our culture from the self-exaltation of "choice" that leads to death to the self-sacrifice of obedience that leads to life.
PRAYER: Father, save us from the lies of Satan. Save us from the thought that we can be like you by becoming our own source of morality. Free us from the desire to exalt ourselves. Give us the Spirit of your Son, who humbled himself and was therefore highly exalted by you. May we find our true freedom by submitting all our choices to you, and lead others by word and example to do the same. We pray in Jesus' Name, AMEN.

David Bereit
National Campaign Director
40 Days for Life