Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God to the test.'"

The final movie of the Bourne trilogy, "The Bourne Ultimatum," presents the good intentions of a good agency, who use evil means to accomplish their goals. Inside the CIA, there was a "black-ops" program that was in charge of "intrusion, rendition, and experimental interrogation." It was taking care of business without the red tape, making sure the "bad guys" were punished without interference from anyone. The movie presents the classic moral dilemma of bringing about some good by means of evil. Can a person use evil to bring about good? The agency answered that it not only could do it, but they could use a highly trained, talented person--David Webb--in order to accomplish their desires. They made David into Jason Bourne, their "operative," telling him to follow their every command, even to the point of killing others, some of whom may have been innocent. When a good program chooses to use evil means, it too becomes evil.

Human beings like to play God. We want to take care of the evil of the world, we want to "fix the situation" by some divine act which would "take care of it once and for all." The agency in the movie "The Bourne Ultimatum" is a good example of what goes wrong with such an approach. Those in charge make themselves gods, and in the process, they hurt others.

The devil's second temptation in the Gospel of Matthew was a temptation for Jesus to be "spectacular" in his approach to doing good, to use his divine powers to command his angels to do whatever it takes to force God to respond to the unusual, the sensational, the extraordinary, to make people believe. Jesus resisted the temptation because he could see that the problem with such a solution is that it was nothing more than playing God.

Even though he was indeed God, Jesus did not "play God." His path to redemption was not centered on himself. It was centered on his Father and what his Father wanted, and the means that his Father chose. As we live our lives, and run into the situations that could be better than they are, we want to "fix them," and even fantasize about how to "fix them." We must understand that we may indeed be called to "fix things," but the "fixing" must begin with the understanding of who God is, and what God requires. There is only one God, and that God calls us never to "play God" ourselves, but to recognize that we can be part of the solution with the real God's help.

THOUGHT
 
PRAYER

Good and gracious God, there is evil in the world that you created, and the evil is our fault. Help us listen and follow your Son who tells us that we can never take over your role as God, but who instead can correct the evil that we can while we call on you for your grace and help. Be with us, we pray.  

Questions, comments? Let me know. Email Fr. Mike

©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America