Let us pray for each other.
The last few days have felt heavy. You have carried the weight of recent events, and you have seen how quickly they give rise to endless commentary, harsh debate, and poisonous words. Public dialogue, instead of healing wounds, seems only to deepen them. The air feels charged with anger, suspicion, and contempt. It is as if everything is on the verge of bursting.
But this is not new.
What you see playing out in society is the ancient wound of Original Sin. From the very beginning, sin has corrupted communion, poisoned speech, and fractured human relationships. As the Catechism teaches: “By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state” (CCC 404). Satan delights in the chaos of disunity. And Christ still weeps, as He once wept over Jerusalem.
At the Jordan
The Gospel of Matthew invites you first to the Jordan. Watch as Christ descends into the water—not for His sake, but for yours. Listen as the Father speaks: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). That word is spoken over you in baptism: you are beloved, you are cleansed, you are claimed.
Baptism is not a symbol or a public ceremony. The Church insists: “Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life … through it we are freed from sin and reborn as children of God” (CCC 1213). The early Church Fathers called it “illumination”:
“This washing is called illumination, because those who learn these things are illumined in their minds. … We obtain in the water the remission of sins” (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 61).
But baptism does not end your battle with sin. It begins it. Just as Christ was led immediately from the water into the desert, so you too are sent to confront the enemy.
Into the Desert
There, you encounter the three great lies.
The first is about bread: “You cannot live by God’s word alone. You need more.” You hear it every day—in advertisements, in politics, even in your own heart. The lie that you can buy happiness, that satisfaction is enough. But Christ answers for you: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). The true bread is Christ Himself, given to you in the Eucharist.
The second is about testing: “If God loves you, prove it. Make Him act.” You know this voice. It comes in moments of suffering, silence, or doubt. Yet Jesus teaches you another way: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Mt 4:7). Hope is your answer. Hope rests in trust, not in signs.
The third is about power: “Take control. Build your own kingdom. Seize glory.” This lie fuels much of the world’s poisoned discourse. Success, influence, dominance—promises that cannot save. Christ’s reply is absolute: “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve” (Mt 4:10).
St. Augustine reminds you:
For our life in this sojourning cannot be without temptation: because our advance is made through our temptation, nor does a man become known to himself unless tempted, nor can he be crowned except he shall have conquered, nor can he conquer except he shall have striven, nor can he strive except he shall have experienced an enemy, and temptations. This Man therefore is being vexed, that from the ends of the earth is crying, but nevertheless He is not forsaken. For ourselves who are His Body He has willed to prefigure also in that His Body wherein already He has both died and has risen again, and into Heaven has ascended, in order that whither the Head has gone before, there the members may be assured that they shall follow. Therefore us He did transfer by a figure into Himself, when He willed to be tempted of Satan. (Saint Augustine, Exposition Psalm 61)
You are not alone in this desert. Christ has already faced the enemy and conquered.
Why Your Dialogue Feels Poisoned
Look at the conversations around you, and even within you. The hunger for satisfaction, the demand that God prove Himself, the scramble for power. These three lies infect speech, politics, and relationships. They turn dialogue into division. They turn community into combat.
St. Ignatius of Antioch warned early Christians against this poison:
“Do not be deceived by strange doctrines nor by old fables which are worthless. … It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and to practice division” (Letter to the Magnesians, 8–10).
Whenever you give in to these lies, you remain trapped in the desert.
The Way Out
But Christ did not remain in the desert, and neither must you. In baptism, you were united to His victory. You have been armed with grace. You are no longer a slave to sin’s poison. You are free to speak words of peace where there is division, to embody hope where there is despair, to serve in humility where the world clamors for control.
An Invitation
So ask yourself: Where are you still circling in the desert? Which of the three lies entangles you most? Is it satisfaction, testing, or power? How do your words, online or in person, reflect baptismal grace or the poison of sin?
Remember: you are not abandoned. In baptism, the Father named you His beloved. Christ has already conquered the desert. The Spirit equips you even now.
St. Peter reminds you: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:3–4).
This is the astonishing truth: you are not only freed from Original Sin, you are called to share in the very life of God. The Fathers called it theosis: divinization. What Adam lost in disobedience, Christ restores through baptism, Eucharist, and the indwelling Spirit.
Do not remain in the wilderness of lies. Step out with Christ. Live as one who is baptized. Let your words, your prayer, your very life be a sign that you are a “partaker of the divine nature.” Speak peace where there is division, bear truth where there is distortion, and love where there is contempt.
For this is your destiny: not only to escape the desert, but to walk in the light of God’s own glory.
2025, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.
2025, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.
Wow, Lawain; another great devo!