THERE'S A WHOLE LOT
OF SIFTING GOING ON

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There is an intriguing line in the Gospels during the Last Supper as recorded by St. Luke in his Gospel. It comes in the heat of the moment of Christ’s words to His Apostles then.

You might recall that Jesus said to Peter right before Peter protested that he would never deny knowing Him "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren." This is taken from Luke’s Gospel Ch. 22:31-32 from the Ignatius Study Bible version.

The editors there make a note that the “you” in verse 31 is meant to be plural from the Greek rendition (referring to all the Apostles) and singular, regarding Peter in its use in verse 32. Interestingly the version given in the New American Bible is more specific in actually spelling out the plural reference in Line 31 as “all of you” in the text.

The way things stand now, with so much political and social turmoil and continuing scandals and apostasy in the church, one might well take a page from the title of an old Jerry Lee Lewis hit “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” and say instead that there's a “Whole Lot of Siftin’ Going On.”

Christ gave Peter an important warning in these two verses above. Namely, that Satan would try to sift Peter and the other Apostles into being the chaff of infidelity to our Lord and His Church instead of their being the wheat that would fulfill His Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20).

Jesus’ warning to stay faithful applied not just to His Apostles but to us as well, as we try to separate the wheat from the chaff in our own lives. This is worth reflecting on, especially during the Lenten season, in what is shaping up to be an extraordinarily tumultuous time both for the church, and as a result, one can argue, also for the world at large.

And indeed, despite his protests that he would never do so, in the heat of the moment Peter would indeed deny knowing our Lord three times, as shown in this rendition above. We can well speculate that his presumption vanished, replaced by fear of experiencing the horrible punishments being meted out to Jesus for our salvation. Likewise the rest of the Apostles, besides St. John who would stand by the cross by our Crucified Lord with our Blessed Mother Mary, they would scatter as well!

Yet we can be inspired in knowing that after Pentecost Peter became a shining example of a leader who would indeed strengthen his brethren, as Jesus prayed he would, and attract numerous people to our Faith, as recorded in chapter two of the book of Acts for example, and that his fellow apostles would all be martyred, while courageously preaching the Gospel in foreign countries, except for St. John, who would be exiled instead to the island of Patmos.

It has been said of our current time that Satan, knowing his time is short, is causing as much havoc as he can in a world where God’s grace is being ignored or otherwise neglected, not just by non-believers and those of other faiths worldwide, but from a distressingly large number of what we might call Catholics in Name Only, including, tragically, many powerful figures in our government.

We live in a time when impurity is rampant, with pornography not just on the internet but in our childrens’ classrooms as well. Our cities are under siege by those for whom crime has become, for all intents and purposes, legal, given the wildly permissive nature of many of our district attorneys and law enforcement agencies as well.

In all this we clearly see Satan and his demonic minions running amok to challenge us all, the faithful and irreligious alike, as perhaps never before.

And with a potentially totalitarian shadow being cast upon us by technocrats enamored by Artificial Intelligence, among other things, to be used in such a manner as to define truth as something only emanating from those in power, it is readily apparent that we are being tried and tested as in no time certainly in the past few decades, if not much longer!

As such Satan is taunting many of us with the temptation to turn away from God either from arrogance that we don’t need Him or in nihilistic despair that we do and He doesn’t seem to be listening to our prayers.

St. Paul wrote these memorable lines to keep in mind in times such as these in his second letter to the Corinthians that we read on Ash Wednesday: “We entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:1-2).

Think of this Lent and beyond as being “the acceptable time” for your soul’s Spring cleaning. Besides prayer, fasting and almsgiving avail yourself of the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) to get the strength both to avoid and purge any attachments to mortal sin that might be keeping you away from our Lord. If there are any such sins making you despair of setting things right with God, just remember these lines from Psalm 51, Verse 19: “A heart contrite and humbled, O God You will not spurn”.

Remember that no matter how much you might feel threatened or disheartened by current events our Lord wants very much to give you the grace and means to see you through these tough times on the road to your salvation. Now is an acceptable time indeed to ask Him in prayer and in living the sacramental life for His grace!

These Lenten penances and observances, especially when applied not just during Lent but all year round, can give you the much needed armor of God (Eph 6:11-17) to resist any “sifting” Satan may attempt to make you fall into his clutches. Pray not to become prey to the Evil One!