With eyes that pierce every illusion, Jesus saw us drowning in this stupor of gnawing desires and lies. To snatch our attention out of the swamp, he suffered a death of such torture and abandonment that it shocks us.
In college I visited Las Vegas—and I was unimpressed. Sin City markets itself with a swagger that captivates the soul by its provocative spectacle: a city of carousing tourists, luxurious casino hotels in Renaissance Italian style, and hordes of euphoric, attractive young people enjoying its thrills with fellow revelers. But anyone who goes there with a sober mind can see that the city’s pomp is a desert mirage. The illusion is first dispelled when the plane touches down. The city supposedly teeming with hotels and clubs is really a suburban sprawl with only one lively street, which resembles the facade of a Hollywood backlot more than a city. When you arrive at the hotel, closer inspection of the projected cosmopolitan aesthetic betrays a gaudy forgery—a cheap simulacrum of a renaissance palazzo. A stroll past the casino reveals that many of the people playing are alone, and there’s no sign of the casinos’ advertised throngs of casanovas.
So, if Las Vegas is this underwhelming, why do people still visit? I think they go because the city’s pomp is so powerful that in the moment many believe the cheap substance underlying their experience is something more. At night in Las Vegas, when artificial lights glare in your eyes, music blasts in your ears, alcohol stirs your spirit, and the pretty dealer keeps encouraging you to play another hand, your consciousness can be overwhelmed by frantic jolts of passion, seemingly powerless to stop and see things clearly. Once I sat at a Blackjack table as a glassy-eyed man, after drawing several losing hands, finally on a whim bet stacks of chips costing perhaps thousands of dollars just to draw a 15 and lose it all, in two minutes. That brief sample of this lonely man’s night made an objective observer feel pity, not awe, at this Vegas thrill-seeker stumbling away.
Sin City is aptly named, not because sin is actually glamorous, but because Las Vegas and sin both rely on a great illusion to keep us from realizing how cheap they are. Sin appeals through societal errors and the power of passionate movements in our souls which conjure an illusion. Its enticing voice tells us that following our every desire would give us the thrill that Christian life denies us. But when temptations demand control of us, a sober observer sees that sin is like Las Vegas: a cheap forgery of happiness. Giving full vent to anger always hurts, envy destroys the good of others, and avarice enslaves us to insatiable desire for goods which perish almost as soon as they are purchased.
With eyes that pierce every illusion, Jesus saw us drowning in this stupor of gnawing desires and lies. To snatch our attention out of the swamp, he suffered a death of such torture and abandonment that it shocks us. He startled us to draw our eyes to him, allowing us to breathe and see reality clearly through his utter rejection of false pretense. Isaiah prophesied:
Many were astonished at him—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the sons of men—
so shall he startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him . . . .
He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye, no beauty to draw us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain,
Like one from whom you turn your face, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. (Is 52:14—53:3)
Jesus’ marred, crucified Body silences the blaring music of temptation and sobers us up from our sins. He makes our sin-sick minds marvel at this wondrous suffering and reveals to us his captivating love, so that his resurrection may inspire us to seek his supernatural life which contains far greater delights, glories, and fellowship than sin can offer.
At Easter, after commemorating Christ’s conquest of temptation and sin, catechumens and all of us renewing our baptismal vows will renounce Satan’s “empty show.” We will renounce all the fake marble, the boozing, the bright lights, the booming music, and every false pretense which seeks to grip our mind and sever us from God. Recite that vow with fervor! Resolutely reject every interior tug of your soul which remains docile to the seductive voice of Satan and his smoke and mirrors. Jesus’ cross shows that temptations are all lies. God willing, what happens in Vegas can stay in Vegas: so leave all the show behind and don’t look back.
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Republished with gracious permission from Dominicana (March 2026).
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Image: Nicholas Poussin, The Adoration of the Golden Calf
