1st Sunday of Lent 2026 - Three Temptations

 

Each year, on the 1^st Sunday of Lent, we hear the powerful Gospel passage of Our Blessed Lord facing temptation in the Judaean desert. The mere fact that we even know about this story is significant: none of the four evangelists were with Jesus in the desert. So, the details of this story must have come from the lips of Jesus himself. He wanted his disciples to know about this profound experience: “Yes, even I was tempted, just like you.”

The Letter to the Hebrews explains the Lord’s solidarity with us poor sinners, saying: “because he Himself suffered and had been tempted, he is able to help all those who are tempted.” “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.”

Why do we read from this Gospel of the Lord’s temptations each year, at the beginning of Lent? During Lent, as we are confronting our demons and temptations, it is good to hear the Lord’s faithfulness to His Father amidst his own temptations. This strengthens us as we face our own temptations: If he was faithful, and he dwells in us, then we can be faithful too.

Let’s consider each of the three temptations of the Lord, in hope that it will help us.

Firstly, Jesus is tempted, “if you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread.”  Our Lord was certainly hungry after forty days of fasting. He was likely in physical pain as his body, having used up fat reserves, was beginning to break down his muscle tissue to stay alive. Freshly baked bread would sound very good to a starving man. And so the devil tempted the Lord in his hunger, to use his divine powers to spare himself the suffering of the human condition.

Here, the devil is tempting Jesus to abandon the road of the cross. Spare yourself the suffering. This is a temptation each one of us faces. Spare yourself the suffering of your Lenten penances. Spare yourself the suffering that will come when you take the Gospel seriously. You had a hard day, you don’t have time for prayer. You had a hard day, you deserve that extra drink. You had a hard day, you deserve to indulge the lusts of the flesh.

In his faithfulness to this father, the Lord quotes the Psalm: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” helping us trust that by following the will of God, even when that entails suffering, we find life. When we follow the will of God—even when, and maybe especially when, that means turning away from the cravings and weaknesses of the flesh, we will know a peace and joy that nothing in the world can give.

Secondly, Jesus was tempted “throw yourself down from the temple and let the angels catch you.” Here the Lord is tempted to use his divine powers for fame. Using his divine power to have angels float him down from the temple would make his identity undeniable.

This temptation of fame permeates our society today doesn’t it. Society even seems to be structured around social media presence, followers, likes, and views, viral moments; influencer culture and celebrity worship. We are subtly trained to believe, “if it isn’t seen, it doesn’t matter. If it isn’t applauded, it isn’t real. If it doesn’t go viral, it isn’t valuable.” We literally have people throwing themselves off of buildings for internet celebrity.

This temptation of fame strongly effects those whose identity is insecure. If I am uncertain who I am, I will try to prove it—even in illogical, sinful ways. If I do not know I am loved by God, I will try to derive my worth by the applause of men. But, living for fame is a distortion of the way of Christ. For, Christians derive our worth, not from public recognition and adulation, but from our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God.

At the Lord’s baptism, the voice of the Father, declared “you are my beloved Son”. Because Jesus is secure in his identity, he overcomes this temptation. So, too, for us. When we have taken to heart our identity as beloved son, beloved daughter, we will overcome temptations to find our worth in sin.

Lastly, the devil tempts Jesus, showing him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, as if the good that Jesus as come to do could be accomplished with money and power.

And yet, don’t so many of us make this mistake: we allow money and power to dictate our decisions and our worth. How many Christians fear poverty more than they fear sin?

Christians need to remember that our aim isn’t to become rich and powerful in the eyes of the world, but to become rich in the things of heaven: wisdom, generosity, self-control.

Now we often play a game here: when I have accumulated enough wealth, then I’ll become generous. But we are called to generosity now. In whatever state of life, whatever the size of our bank account right now, we are called to be generous with our time, talent, and treasure in service of the mission of the Church.

Jesus goes to the cross and achieves our salvation in poverty, owning nothing, stripped even of his clothing. We do not need a certain amount of wealth to be effective of instruments of God. In fact, our poorest saints, francis, clare and so many others, show us the exact opposite.

The point of this Gospel story isn’t just to teach us that the devil is real. We see the effects of sin on the daily news and the divisions in our families.  This story shows us that the devil doesn’t get the last word.  Temptation can be overcome when we cling to the Word of God.  St. Peter says, resist the devil and he will take flight.  So often, we fall into sin because we put up no resistance and fail to trust in the Lord.

We do well to imitate Jesus in those moments of temptation, to look at the temptation right in the eyes, to look the serpent right in the eyes and so, “No, I will not sin because I am a Christian.” 

This Lent, we practice fasting, almsgiving, and prayer in order to strengthen our resolve for doing God’s will, of turning our hearts a way from earthly pleasure, power, and glory, and to recall that our true happiness is found in communion with Jesus Christ and humbly following God’s plan for our lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

1st Sunday of Lent 2025 - The devil hates Lent

In Old Testament times, soldiers and warriors would be anointed with oil before battle.  Today’s Gospel immediately follows Jesus' anointing by the Holy Spirit at his Baptism.  Like the soldiers and warriors of old, following his anointing, Jesus is led by the Spirit to do battle in the desert with Satan.

Why the desert? In scripture, the desert is not only a place of trial and challenge, but the dwelling of the evil spirits and desert predators.  Well, in the desert, Jesus encountered the greatest of predators—the Devil—of whom Saint Peter says “lurks like a prowling lion looking for souls to devour”.  This is the same predator that lurked in the garden of Eden under the form of a serpent.

Why did Jesus go to the desert? After all, it’s the very first thing he does after his baptism in the Jordan. He goes to the desert—into Satan's territory—deliberately—to show us that he has come to defeat evil. In his first New Testament letter, St. John says that Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil. If his baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry, the Lord’s time in the desert shows us that he has embarked on a campaign against the powers of evil.

Now, you might say, well, what kind of fight is that anyway, Jesus who is God versus some fallen angel? There’s no challenge there.  The devil is not God's equal. “By the blast of God his enemies perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed,” and all that.  Of course Jesus is going to be come out victorious.  But Jesus doesn’t confront Satan with a blast of divine lightning, but with his frail human nature.  

St. Lawrence of Brindisi, a good Italian Franciscan saint from the 16th century comments: “Christ came into the world to do battle against Satan…He could have accomplished this by using the weapons of his divinity …but in order that his victory might be the more glorious, he willed to fight Satan in our weak flesh.  It is as if an unarmed man, right hand bound, were to fight with his left hand alone against a powerful army; if he emerged victorious, his victory would be regarded as all the more glorious.  So Christ conquered Satan with the right hand of his divinity bound and using against him only the left hand of his weak humanity.”

Weak humanity when coupled with divine life results in victory. And that’s the great lesson for us all. So often, we excuse sin as simply a result of human nature. Two friends become embroiled in gossip, “it’s only human nature”. Drinking too much and falling into drunkenness, “it’s only human nature”. Giving in to lust or greed or gluttony, “it’s only human nature”. But no, our relationship with Christ changes us. Christians are not slaves to fallen human nature. In the desert, Jesus shows that weak, frail human nature can emerge victorious even in a battle with Satan himself, if we rely on faith and the grace of God. 

Christian tradition has always recognized the spiritual battle as a dimension of the Christian life.   Just as Jesus was tempted and tested, so are his disciples.  Just as Christ was opposed by the hostile powers of evil, so are his disciples.  But, just as Christ was victorious over the powers of sin and death, so, shall his disciples be, when we are in union with Christ. 

One of the reasons the devil hates the season of Lent, is because it is during this season that the Church takes up powerful weapons against evil: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—the very same weapons as Jesus wielded in his spiritual battle.

The prayers on Ash Wednesday alluded to this battle: the opening prayer said, “grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint”. 

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are powerful spiritual weapons, and the devil hates them. 

Why does the devil hate prayer? Prayer cultivates a personal relationship with God, making us more receptive to God’s  grace. The devil—whose aim is to separate us from God—detests seeing us  grow closer to God, for that intimacy dispels the isolation and despair that evil tries to sow in our hearts.

In prayer, we encounter the truth of who God is and who we are before Him—beloved children. This awareness counters the enemy’s tactic of distracting us from our Christian identity and mission. When we pray—especially in times of temptation or hardship—we open ourselves to receive divine help. Jesus calls His disciples to “watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Mark 14:38). Prayer thus becomes a shield, thwarting the enemy’s attacks by keeping us spiritually alert.

The devil hates prayer, and The devil hates fasting. Fasting confronts one of the devil’s primary strategies: to keep us enslaved to appetite, comfort, and immediate gratification. By voluntarily limiting ourselves—be it from food, certain forms of entertainment, or other attachments—we exercise self-denial and grow in freedom. This freedom terrifies the devil because an “unencumbered” soul can focus more wholeheartedly on God and charity.

Fasting disciplines the body and strengthens the will. A disciplined Christian is less easily manipulated by sudden urges or passions, making temptations lose their grip.

By temporarily giving up what sustains us physically, we learn a deeper trust in God as our ultimate sustainer. The devil wants us to think we must rely on ourselves alone. Fasting teaches us that “man does not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4). We rediscover that God’s grace is our true strength, loosening the enemy’s hold on our fears.

And certainly, the devil hates almsgiving. Almsgiving—the practice of giving time, resources, or material help to those in need—is directly opposed to the selfishness, greed, and indifference the devil wishes to sow in our lives. Charity expands our hearts in compassion and generosity.

When we give alms, we participate in God’s love for the poor and vulnerable. Concrete works of mercy bring the presence of God into the lives of others. The devil hates actions that strengthen solidarity and unity among people, because that unity reflects God’s own communion of love (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

And of course, the devil hates almsgiving because it is a reflection, and manifestation of Christ’s total gift of himself on the cross which destroyed the devil’s stronghold on humanity.

Ultimately, the devil hates prayer, fasting, and almsgiving because they draw us into deeper communion with God, free us from the tyranny of disordered desires, and cultivate a spirit of generous love toward others. 

So again, take these Lenten practices seriously. Every day of Lent is an opportunity to take up the weapons of the Lord so that the kingdom of evil may be defeated ever more definitively in our own lives and in the world for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

1st Sunday of Lent 2024 - Noah's Ark and Desert Temptations

 Since the times of the Early Church Fathers, Noah’s ark has been seen as a prefigurement, a foreshadowing, of the Church. Just as the ark was the means by which Noah and his family were spared destruction, so also the Church is the instrument by which Christians are saved from eternal damnation.

The ark housed a male and female of every kind of animal, and the Church houses men and women from every nation, language, and background. God saved Noah and his family, not by a fleet of ships, but by one ark. Similarly, Christ founded not many Churches, but one Church. The ark of Noah sheltered his family from the storm, and it is in the Church that we take refuge from the storms and floods of life. 

The Ark prefigures the church and our salvation in Christ. The salvific wood of the ark foreshadows the salvific wood of the cross. After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth in the same way. This covenant is seen as a precursor to the new covenant established through Jesus Christ.

In our second reading, Scripture itself sees the eight persons of Noah’s family being saved through the waters of the flood as a prefigurement of baptism. And by the way, from the early Church to this day, it is common to construct baptismal fonts with eight sides, to symbolize the eight people on the ark: Noah and his wife, and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japeth, and their wives.  

We begin the season of Lent with this image of the ark and the waters of the flood because right from the beginning of Lent we are meant to be thinking about salvation and baptism. From the early Church, Lent was a time of preparing for baptism. Those seeking Christ, seeking baptism, would prepare for baptism at easter throughout this Lenten season through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving aid the catechumens—those seeking baptism—to conform themselves to Christ, who fasted, and prayed, and gave his life for our salvation.

But it’s not just the catechumens who pray, fasting, and give to the poor…all of us are to pray, fast, and a give alms during Lent, as a way of offering spiritual support and good example for those to be baptized, as well as a way of spiritual preparation for the renewal of our own baptismal promises at Easter.

We pray, fast, and give alms to help us get back to the basics of baptism: prayer, to remind us of the spiritual intimacy we must constantly nurture with God, fasting to remind us of the self-sacrifice of Christ which is to be the model of our own constant self-discipline and self-sacrifice, and almsgiving, to remind us of the charity which should mark every day of our life as Christians. 

Here at St. Ignatius, we have two candidates for full initiation this year: David & Tyler who will be received into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. This morning, there will be a short ritual called the rite of sending, in which we will pray for these candidates, who will be sent this evening to the Cathedral, to gather with Bishop Malesic and all the other catechumens and candidates from throughout the diocese.

Now David and Tyler are already baptized, and are seeking full initiation, but we still pray and fast for them, and for the thousands of people this year who will be baptized and will receive Confirmation and First Eucharist at Easter—about 150,000 adults each year in the United States—who are getting on board the ark of Holy Mother Church.

So, on this first Sunday of the season of Lent, we have the image of the ark and baptism—we have a glimpse of the destination. But, sort of paradoxically, not only do we have this image of water, but this image of the desert. Christ going into the desert, where he is tempted by Satan. 

This story is a powerful reminder that Lent, and really the whole Christian life, constitute a spiritual battle. The powers of Satan are at work to seduce us away from God—to separate us from God through sin. Just as Satan tempted the Lord, the devil utilizes temptation against us. He makes sin sound like a good idea, he makes self-centeredness and disobedience to God seem reasonable, he emphasizes the pleasures of sin while minimizing the physical, emotional, and spiritual cost of sin. 

One reason that Mother Church gives us this reading of Christ’s temptations each year on the first Sunday of lent is because she wants us to be aware that in reaching our destination there is going to be some resistance. Whether that destination is baptism, or individual sanctification, or heaven—there is going to be some resistance, some spiritual resistance by a being who does not want us to reach that destination. He does not want us taking up those weapons of self-restraint, as the Ash Wednesday liturgy called them—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. He wants us weaponless. He wants to disarm us and create obstacles to faithfulness through temptation. Temptation is real. 

I couldn’t stop thinking about cheeseburgers on ash Wednesday. I swear I am hungrier on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday than I have any right to be. Temptation is real. And as we engage in the Lenten observances, the devil redoubles his efforts to discourage us. 

The devil loves to make evil seem reasonable, and goodness seem unreasonable. He introduces strange thoughts into our heads to convince us to give up on the spiritual disciplines. Fast? Why would you want to fast? You’ll be too weak for work. You’ll starve. You’ll be so weak you won’t be able to think and you’ll embarrass yourself. Pray? You’re too busy to pray. After all you pray just enough as it is. You have other things to do. You don’t want to get behind on your programs after all. God forbid, you miss an episode of Wheel of Fortune. Those TV characters make you feel good about yourself. And Almsgiving? You already give plenty. You’re too poor to give any more than you already do. What about your needs, your wants, your security. Give too much away and you’ll find yourself homeless if you give any more than you are giving.

See, he tells us lies that are just plausible enough to discourage us from what can truly help us to be sanctified. So be aware, you will be lied to this Lent, lied to by the devil who hates you, who hates God, and wants nothing more than to separate you from Him. 

How will we emerge victorious from the desert? By uniting ourselves to Christ, the faithful Son of the Father, and allowing Him to live in us—to be victorious over Satan within us. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, please try to attend daily mass throughout the week as much as possible throughout Lent. Here at Church, Christ feeds us with his body and blood which is the greatest protection against the seductions of the enemy. For when we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we receive the one whose truth pierces the lies of satan—we share in his victory. God allows the devil to tempt us, because those temptations are opportunities to allow Christ to punch the devil in the nose—transforming us weak selfish creatures into the image of the faithful Son of God.

So please avail yourselves of the Eucharist as often as possible, eat his flesh and drink his blood, that you may not fall for the lies and empty promises of the devil, and that you might make use of all the opportunities to grow in grace that God desires for you. 

Throughout Lent, together we make this journey of faith, that we may prepare ourselves well to experience, after the mystery of the cross, the joy of Easter, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

1st Sunday of Lent 2022 - Desert Temptations and the Road to the Cross

 Each year on the 1st Sunday of Lent, we hear the powerful Gospel passage of Our Blessed Lord facing temptation in the Judaean desert. The mere fact that we even know about this story is significant. For remember, the four Gospels were based on eye witness accounts. Matthew and John were two of Lord’s twelve apostles: they heard him preach and teach, so we know where they got their material. Mark likely received most of his details from St. Peter, and Luke, as he tells us at the beginning of his Gospel, thoroughly investigated the events of the life of Jesus as accurately as possible. 

But, none of the four evangelists were with Jesus in the desert, so the details of this story must have come from the lips of Jesus himself. He wanted us to know about this profound experience. “Yes, even I was tempted, just like you.” 

The Letter to the Hebrews explains the Lord’s solidarity with us poor sinners, saying: “because he Himself suffered and had been tempted, he is able to help all those who are tempted.” “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.”

We hear this Gospel each year, at the beginning of Lent, firstly, because during Lent, we are to be confronting our demons, our temptations. Lent is a time of honesty, acknowledging sin and temptation, going to confession, seeking conversion, and learning to trust in the Lord in times of trial. 

We hear this account of our Lord remaining faithful to God in the midst of temptations, to help us finally come to the conviction that He is with us even in our temptations. The faithful high priest lives in the hearts of all of the baptized. His faithfulness can conquer the devil in our lives, so much so that we can say, “I do have the power to say no to temptation because He lives in me. I can remain faithful to God in my trials because Christ lives in me.”

But this reading plays such a central role each Lent because something else is going. While there are many important events in the life of Jesus prior to his desert temptations, this reading is pivotal for his mission. The events of his infancy and childhood, his activity in the Temple at the age of 12, even his Baptism in the Jordan, serve as a sort of prelude to this event. Those early stories point to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, God incarnate. But it’s this event, which in a sense, is the beginning of his way to the Cross. For his spiritual battle with the devil shows him rejecting the way of earthly power and glory and accepting the way of suffering and the cross. Let’s examine how.

Firstly, the Lord rejects the temptation to turn stones into bread. Why? After 40 days of fasting, “he was hungry” as St. Luke tells us. And since Jesus is God, he could surely transform the limestone rocks of the Judaean wilderness into food for himself. But, the deeper temptation: His divine power could be used to feed others. He could feed the starving of the world. That would benefit the Gospel mission. In a sense, the Devil here is tempting Jesus, not just to feed Himself, but to win people over with material things. “If you want people to follow you, use your wonderful powers to fill their bellies. They’ll follow you if you feed them.

But Jesus rightly says, I’ve not come just to feed their bodies, but to feed their souls with the truth, with the Word of God. And so the task of the Church is not to create some utopia on earth. The task of Christianity is to bring people to faith, that they may live in such a way as to live forever—to be reconciled with God through Christ, that they may live forever.

In the second temptation, the devil tempts Jesus: “I will give you everything you want, if you worship me.” Now again, Jesus knew his mission was the salvation of our souls. And the devil was saying, I can do that for you. I can release souls from hell without all that suffering, without the cross. I can do anything you want, just give me the praise, honor and glory due to your Father. I’ll give you everything you want, all you have to do is compromise the first and greatest of the commandments. And Jesus was tempted by this. 

This temptation isn’t unlike the first temptation of Adam and Eve…I’ll give you everything you want, you’ll be like gods; only don’t listen to God, listen to me. The devil is always offering us this empty promise, tempting us to compromise our faith to obtain some apparent good without paying the price, the cross. But it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his soul. So too, in our lives, in order to achieve some good, we must never compromise the commandments. 

The third temptation Jesus faced was to use his divine powers in such a way that no one could deny who he was: to jump off the roof of the temple like Superman and survive, that would prove to everyone once and for all that he was who he said he was. And the Lord could have done this if he wished; this and more. He could have continued his earthly life for two thousand years and healed everyone who ever entered a hospital without medicine or surgery. He could have performed a miracle a day, inviting the skeptical scientists to investigate them. He could have performed undeniable miracles, just as God could appear to everyone right now—everyone on earth at the same time—and give us undeniable proof of His existence. 

But the Lord resists this temptation. For, it is part of the mysterious plan of God, that God wants us to cultivate faith. He doesn’t want to force us to believe in Him by making his existence as undeniably as the sun undeniably shines in the sky. Rather, God desires that we have Faith, for Faith can move mountains. 

Rejecting these temptations, St. Luke tells us that the tempter departed from Jesus for a time. The Lord would be tempted again before facing the cross, just as each of us is tempted to turn away from our own crosses. 

During the desert of Lent, the devil will no doubt appear to each of us. Likely, he already has. Maybe you’ve already been tempted to reject the call to do penance, to skip out on prayer, to eat meat on Ash Wednesday and Friday, to just go ahead and do what you’ve always done. And what shame if you’ve given in. But, Lent is just beginning. And it’s not too late to recognize the game the devil is playing: trying to keep us complacent and satisfied with mediocrity, trying to get us to harden our hearts toward God little by little. 

But it’s not too late to recognize that we do not live by bread alone, that we owe God worship from the depths of hearts, that God invites us to trust in Him in times of trouble, to repent and believe in the Gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

1st Sunday of Lent 2020 - "We want God"

Just a few weeks after being elected Pope, Saint John Paul II, a proud son of Poland and former bishop of Krakow, returned to his native land, and stayed for 10 days, June 1 to June 10, 1979. There is a documentary on his visit called “10 Days which changed the World”. Henry Kissinger said that during those 10 days,  John Paul II did for the people of Poland what Winston Churchill did for the people of England during the darkness of the second world war.

World War II essentially began with Poland being conquered by Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union. After the defeat of the Nazi’s, the Communists ruled Poland ruthlessly. Poles were shipped to Gulags, enemies of the Communist Party were arrested and killed. The Atheistic Communist Police State restricted many freedoms, the Church was forced underground, seminaries were closed, priests were killed.

So imagine, the new Polish Pope, who himself was ordained during this period of religious oppression, returns home and begins to speak about God, publicly, openly. Crowds for his masses grew and grew, for the first time in decades, the Poles began to raise their heads and look around. They began to recognize the great strength that comes from culture, tradition, national unity and their Catholic faith. Seeds of hope were planted on that trip, which eventually saw the fall of the Iron Curtain due to the great Polish Solidarity movement that formed after the Pope’s visit.

Well, on the last day of the Pope’s visit, two million Poles gathered in victory square in warsaw. And something happened that day which changed history. As the saintly Pope preached, a few people from one corner of the gathering began to chant three words. And those three words began to spread throughout the crowd, to the point where two million began were those three words in unison. What did they chant? “Russia go home”, “Down with Communism?” No. Nor did they even chant “Long live the Pope”. The people of Poland, two million strong, began to chant “We want God”, “We want God”. Two million people, it went on for 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes. An advisor approached the Pope and suggested that he calm down the crowd, and he said, no way, this is why I’m here. “We want God” for Seventeen minutes, two million people chanting “We want God”

When the iron curtain fell, and the archives of the KGB were opened, a telegram from the Commandant of Warsaw was discovered giving an account of that day. And it ended with the phrase “It’s all over”. The people of Poland had openly and publicly confessed they wanted God, not a totalitarian regime who acted as if they were.

“We want God”, “I want God” is the most ancient, embedded desire in the depths of our souls. We were made by God, we were made for God, we long for God. And yet, rivaling that most profound longing is a counterfeit proposal: “I don’t need God”.

This rivalry, this battle within our souls goes all the way back to the garden of eden, as we heard in our first reading, the ancient temptation which our first parents faced and caved to. Adam and Eve, will you obey God or turn your eyes and face from Him? Will you kneel before the divine will of heaven or put yourselves on the throne? Are you going to let God be God or are you going to play act and pretend that you are God? We know the result, and every human sin in history has been that same choice played over and over.

In today’s Gospel, we hear of Jesus, too, facing temptation, during his Lent, his 40 days in the desert. Jesus, will you follow and obey the will of your Heavenly Father or not? Will you, Son of God, be subject to the Father’s will or seek to supplant it?

One of the characteristics not just of communist Russia, but the growing secularism within our own current culture is the claim that we can build a society without God, we can get along just fine without God, we can create through purely human efforts a utopian state without reference or relationship to God.

But, this error, is the same lie told to Adam and Eve, “you don’t need God, you won’t die.” But godlessness, the failure to recognize the dignity of each human person created in the divine image, only leads to doom.

Now, most americans claim to believe in god or a higher power, still, about 80%... down from near unanimous belief in God not too many years ago. And yet, the first reading and the gospel highlight that believing in God is not the same as obeying Him. The perennial, ancient temptation is to refashion God in our own image, according to our own wants and desires. Yes 80% of Americans claim to believe in God, but for many, that’s a god of their fashioning, a god who doesn’t care if you go to church, doesn’t care if you cheat in business or on your spouse or who you sleep with, doesn’t care if you commit infanticide or kill the baby in the mother’s womb o kill your body and mind with excessive alcohol or illegal drugs. The voice that claims that Christian morality is a relic to be discarded is not the voice of God.

And that voice, the voice of the rebel, fallen angel, the voice of the serpent, speaks to all of us, tempts all of us, “you don’t need God” to be happy, “you don’t need to pray”, “you don’t need to obey”.
But, the Lord Jesus show us that we must and can stand firm against temptations, and shows us how. In each of the temptations, in the Gospel today, we see the Lord resisting the temptations of the devil by recalling the words of the Holy Scriptures.

The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” And so on. After 40 days of fasting bread looked good, just like the fruit of that forbidden tree. In the face of temptation, the Lord recalled the scriptures, and applied them to his situation.

In the second temptation, we see that the devil knows the scriptures, too. He’ll quote them out of context for his vile purposes. So, we need to know them better, always reading the scriptures with the mind of the church

This is why we should know our scriptures well, that when we are faced with temptations and moral dilemmas, we may recall the word of God, and allow that word, not the voice of temptation to guide us. To recognize we need God in order to live, and to live well, to live righteously. We need God, to guide us and give us strength.

During Lent we confront our sins and our temptations. We look at the sins into which we’ve fallen over the past year, we repent of them, and seek God’s word to strengthen us against future sin. We read and ponder the word of God. We do well to meditate upon the readings from daily Mass, and the passion narratives from the Gospels to come to appreciate the great victory Christ won for us through his suffering and death.

As we engage in the Lenten works of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we are united with Catholics around the world, and Catholics of all ages, who in the face of the oppressive powers of darkness and the temptations of the flesh, cry out to heaven, “we want God” …for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

2nd Week of Lent 2019 - Wednesday - Satanic Resistance to the Cross

There are several instances in the Gospels of the Apostles confusion over Jesus’ teaching, or their slowness to grasp his identity and his mission. And sometimes their understanding of Jesus is downright flawed. Peter is usually the spokesman for the Apostles’ confusions, errors, and fears.

The first time Jesus predicts his Passion, in the Gospel of Matthew, Peter, makes an assertion that is bold, even for him. He brazenly rebukes Jesus, the unformed student pridefully rebukes the teacher. And Jesus says, “Get behind me Satan.” And to be honest, Peter’s assertion was Satanic. Jesus came to save us from our sins through the Cross, and Peter was tempting the Lord to turn away from the cross—to forsake his mission of human redemption.

Today’s Gospel contains Jesus’ third prediction of his Passion. He announces that he will be soon handing himself over to be mocked, scourged, and crucified. This time, it is not
Peter who criticizes the Lord. This time it is James, John, and their mother who approach Jesus.

Matthew includes a detail that shows they are off to a bad start right from the beginning: “the do him homage, wishing to asking him for something.” Do you worship God only so that he can grant you requests? Do you treat God like Santa Claus? What should have been a moment of conversion and deeper identification with Jesus and his ultimate mission, James, John, and Mom approach Jesus, with…false worship?

And then, their request reveals something similar to that Satanic resistance displayed by Peter. Their request is not, help us Jesus to bear the cross with you, but is as removed from the cross as anything possibly could. They request an earthly throne. In the desert, it is Satan who is the one who offers earthly thrones, promises of earthly glory, in exchange for false worship.

Jesus’ disciples are not to be known for their pursuit of earthly thrones and earthly glory. “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” Rather than pursuing wealth, power, fame, and pleasure, Jesus’ disciples are to be known for their pursuit of service, their embrace of suffering for the good of others.

Sometimes like Peter, James and John, we put up an almost Satanic resistance to the cross, embracing pride right when we should be embracing humility, embracing greed and lust for power right when we should be embracing generosity and self-abandon. Right when we should be embracing prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we turn to earthly distractions, gluttony, and spending money on ourselves.
May our Lenten observances help to deliver us from all that keeps us from embracing the cross, and from Christian service for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Christians will experience the graces of profound renewal during this season of Lent.  We pray to the Lord.
That God will rescue all those who live at a distance from him because of self-absorption or sin, that this evening’s diocesan wide celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation will bring about a return of many hearts to communion with God.
That all families will recommit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness.  We pray to the Lord.
That this Lent we will be faithful to fasting and to all the ways that the Lord sanctifies us.  We pray to the Lord.
For generous giving for the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, victims of natural disaster, terrorism, war, and violence, the grieving and those most in need.  We pray to the Lord.
For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  We pray to the Lord.
Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

2nd Sunday of Lent 2018 - Desert & Mountaintop

Last week, the Lenten liturgy presented us with the Gospel of Jesus' temptations in the desert; we reflect this week on the extraordinary event of the Transfiguration. Pope Benedict once commented, that these two episodes serve as “pillars on which to build the entire structure of Lent until Easter, and indeed, the entire structure of Christian life.”

On one hand, Jesus’ struggle in the desert, shows us how Jesus shares in our humanity, even in our human temptations. He hungered as we hungered, he thirsted as we thirst, and he was tempted, as we are tempted.

Now, his temptations were on a bit different scale than ours. We are not tempted to turn stones into bread, or to use divine power to become a sort of world ruler, like Jesus. But we are tempted according to our situation in life. A 5 year old is tempted to do what he knows is wrong, stealing the toy from his sibling, obstinately refusing the wishes of his parents. A 15 year-old is tempted with 15-year old sins. Spouses and parents are tempted with sins against the patience and kindness and faithfulness for spouse and children which should rule over their hearts. Politicians are tempted to misuse their power and influence for selfish reasons.

But the Lord’s temptations were real, just like ours: to misuse the power, the time, the goods, we have for selfish means. And this struggle against temptation is the great struggle of the Christian life.
But the Lord was prepared for his desert temptations because, over those 40 days, he had fasted and prayed. And so the Lord sets the model for us, his human brothers and sisters, he sets the pattern for our own Lenten journey. We too are to fast from earthly pleasures—snacks, desserts, entertainment, rich food and drink—in order to remember that “man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

Some people think that they don’t have to fast during Lent, they’ll just perform extra acts of charity. But that is not consistent with our Catholic Tradition, the scriptures, the prayers, the writings of the saints and the Popes, or the example of Our Lord Himself, who Himself fasted, and taught that his disciples would have to fast, as well. Lenten fasting helps us to deepen our hunger for the “true food”, which is doing the will of God.

The first sin of the human race involved food and grasping for power that didn’t belong to us. And so, If Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command, that he should not eat the forbidden fruit, the believer, through Lenten fasting, submits himself humbly to God. And that humility is a bedrock basic attitude for the Christian life.

So, the Lord going out into the desert, to fast and pray and face his temptations serves as the first pillar of Lent.

The second pillar is the Transfiguration atop Mt. Tabor, which we read every year on the Second Sunday of Lent.

The Mountain Top in scripture is always the place of divine encounter. It is where faithfulness is exercised and God is revealed. On Mount Moriah, Abraham showed his faith, and God revealed that he did not desire human sacrifice, he desires something greater, the total surrender of our hearts. Abraham was to be the father of the holy nation of Israel, a people who offered their whole hearts in surrender to God’s will, God’s plan.

So too, Moses encounters God on Mount Sinai. Moses, who faithfully led the Israelites in their exodus from Egyptian slavery to the promised land, encounters God, who reveals his law, his commandments, that his people may refrain from evil and sin, which are another form of slavery. God desires that his people be free not just from physical slavery, but spiritual slavery as well.

Elijah, too, with whom Jesus converses during His Transfiguration also encountered God on a mountain. On Mt. Carmel, the faithful prophet Elijah confronted the priests of the false Canaanite god Baal, who did demand child-sacrifice by the way. Through faithful Elijah, God reveals he is the One True God, and the futility of the false religions.

So, now Jesus and his closest disciples ascend Mount Tabor. And we see that same pattern again. Jesus, shows himself to be the faithful Son of his Father, willing to undergo suffering, crucifixion, and death. Then God’s glory is revealed. Jesus becomes transfigured, the dazzling glory of his divinity shines forth, and the voice of the Father speaks from heaven, “This is my beloved Son.”

If in the Desert Jesus showed his share in our humanity, on Mount Tabor he shows that through Him, Humanity will share in His divinity. That the cross is not the defeat of God, but rather the royal road of heaven for man; that our sufferings and the fortitude we exert in resisting temptation, when united to Christ leads to life.

So, the Lord’s white garment on Tabor prefigures the robe of his glorious resurrection, as well as the white garment of the baptized. For through baptism, we receive the white garment of the saved; we are united to Christ in his saving death, and are promised that we will rise with Him, in glorious resurrection.

Two pillars of the Lenten season: Desert and Mountaintop. In Lent, we are to be desert travelers with Jesus, fasting with him, turning away from creature comforts and earthly pleasures, to strip away the non-essentials that we may trust all the more in God. And in Lent, we are to be fellow mountain climbers with Christ, seeking the face of God and the will of God in our Lenten prayer, strengthening our Hope in Christ’s promise of resurrection and an eternal Easter.

So every day, we must climb the mountain of prayer. As we heard on Ash Wedneday, each day we are to go to a secluded place, shut the door, and listening to the Word of God. Our prayer will sustain us as we carry our crosses and encounter our hardships and face our temptations, our prayer will bring us the sweetness of God in the bitter times of life, the refreshment of God in the arid times of life, the peace of God in the chaotic times of life. Pope St. Leo the Great said, “when it comes to obeying the commandments or enduring adversity, the words uttered by the Father should always echo in our ears: This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”

After facing temptation once again in the Garden of Gethsemene, on Good Friday, Jesus, the faithful son, climbs the final mountain, mount Calvary. God’s divine love, God’s love for us sinners, is fully revealed on that mountain, the mount of the cross. May His Divine Life, that radical aversion to sin, that burning desire to do the will of the Father, fill our hearts and lives as well, for the glory of god and salvation of souls.

1st Week of Lent 2018 - Tuesday - Interiorizing the Word

When tempted by the devil to forego his desert fasting, Our Lord responded, “It is written, 'man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God'".
And really, the temptation wasn’t simply to break his fast. The devil was tempting Jesus to turn away from the difficult road that the Father willed for His Son.

Here Jesus reminds us of one of the Christian life’s most important lessons: that God’s priorities are more important than our own, that our physical needs are not our greatest needs. The Word of God is more essential than bread.

Our Lenten fasting, fasting from chocolate, or video games, or social media, or snacking certainly helps us to build up self-discipline towards these earthly pleasures. Yet, more essential our fasting reminds us that we don’t need these things to survive, and we certainly don’t need them to thrive spiritually.

Jesus responded to the devil’s temptation by quoting a passage from Deuteronomy. Throughout the Gospels Jesus quotes directly from the Old Testament about 80 times, and the logic of the former scriptures permeates his teachings. Jesus overcame temptation by drawing upon the truth, the words of the Scriptures.

And as we prayed on the first Sunday of Lent, his “forty long days” in the desert set “the pattern of our own Lenten observance.” The word of God is meant to permeate our Lent, and our life. Pope Benedict wrote, “In the trials of life and in every temptation, the secret of victory lies in listening to the word of truth and rejecting with determination falsehood and evil.”

Our reading from Isaiah, speaks of how God’s word is meant to permeate us like the rain permeates the soil and makes the soil fertile.

So, if we are to be able to draw on the word of God in times of temptation, if the word of God is meant to fertilize our souls to bear new life, we must expose ourselves to it, we must meditate on it, we must take it into our hearts and let it live there. Many people can quote baseball statistics, movie lines, or a catchy new song, but barely a line from scripture.

Daily throughout Lent, we do well to sit down with the scriptures open upon our laps, to speak the words allowed, to allow them to echo in our minds and hearts.

Again to quote Pope Benedict, “It is therefore urgently necessary in these forty days to listen anew to the gospel, the word of the Lord, the word of truth, so that in every Christian, in every one of us, the understanding of the truth given to him…may be strengthened, so that we may live it and witness to it. Lent encourages us to let the word of God penetrate our life and thus to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, which road to take in life.”

May our Lenten fasting clear out and make room for the prayerful encounter and interiorization of the word of God in us, that we might live it out in lives of Christian purity and charity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring purification from sin and selfishness to all people.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

1st Sunday of Lent 2018 - Noah's Ark and the Lenten Desert

Since the times of the Early Church Fathers, Noah’s ark has been seen as a prefigurement, a foreshadowing, of the Church. Just as the ark was the means by which Noah and his family were spared destruction, so also the Church is the instrument by which Christians are saved from eternal damnation.

The ark housed a male and female of every kind of animal, and the Church houses men and women from every nation, language, and background. God saved Noah and his family, not by a fleet of ships, but by one ark. Similarly, Christ founded not many Churches, but one Church. The ark of Noah sheltered his family from the storm, and it is in the Church that we take refuge from the storms and floods of life.

But it gets even more interesting. St. Paul calls the Church, the Body of Christ. And St. Augustine noted how even the very ratio of the dimensions of the ark to each other suggest a human body, the Body of Christ. The dimensions of the ark were 300 by 50 by 30 cubits. St. Augustine writes, “For even its very dimensions, in length, breadth, and height, represent the human body in which the Lord came… For the length of the human body, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is six times its breadth from side to side, and ten times its depth or thickness, measuring from back to front.” So the ark is a vessel with the dimensions of the human body which saved a family from destruction, and the Church, the Body of Christ, which saves us from eternal destruction.

The wood of the ark foreshadows the wood of the cross, and the waters of the flood foreshadow the waters of baptism.

Here at St. Clare, our baptismal font is three-sided, to represent the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity. From the early Church to this day, it was also common to construct baptismal fonts with eight sides, to symbolize the eight people on the ark: Noah and his wife, and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japeth, and their wives.  We even heard in our second reading how Scripture itself sees the eight persons of Noah’s family being saved through the waters of the flood as a prefigurement of baptism.
So why do we begin the season of Lent with these scriptures talking about baptism? Again, from the early Church, Lent was a time of preparation for those preparing for baptism. The prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of Lent, are important spiritual practices especially for those preparing for baptism, to help them conform themselves to Christ, who fasted, and prayed, and gave his life for our salvation.

Those already baptized pray, fast, and give to the poor, as a way of supporting and offering good example for those to be baptized, as well as a way of spiritual preparation to renew our own baptismal promises at Easter

Here at St. Clare, we have three candidates who will be received into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. Following the homily, there will be a short ritual called the rite of sending, in which we will pray for these candidates, who will be sent this evening to the Cathedral, to gather with Bishop Perez and all the other catechumens and candidates from throughout the diocese.
Though the candidates we send to the bishop are already baptized, we are certainly conscious of the need to pray for and set good example for them, and to pray and sacrifice for the thousands of people who will be baptized and will receive Confirmation and First Eucharist at Easter.

And so, on this first Sunday of the season of Lent, we get a glimpse at our destination: the saving waters of baptism through which we die to sin and rise to new life in Christ. We pray, fast, and give alms to help us get back to the basics of baptism: prayer, to remind us of the spiritual intimacy we have with God, fasting to remind us of the self-sacrifice of Christ which is to be the model of our own self-discipline and self-sacrifice, and almsgiving, to remind us of the charity which should mark every day of our life as Christians.

With our destination in mind, our Gospel reading reminds us that as Christ went into the desert and was tempted by Satan, so too we are in a constant spiritual battle. The powers of Satan are at work against us, to separate us from God through sin, to seduce us into ways of worldliness.
Before we can reach the springs of new life, often we must travel through the desert. And in the desert we face challenge and temptation, but also purification, enlightenment, and deep communion with God.

How will we emerge victorious from the desert? By uniting ourselves to Christ, the faithful Son of the Father, and allowing Him to live in us.

After being delivered through the waters of the flood, we read today how God placed a bow in the sky as a covenantal sign, of his divine protection. So too, Christ spoke of his body and blood, as a covenantal sign, the sign of the new and everlasting covenant. The Eucharist, which is lifted up for us to see at every Mass is the sign that God is with us, in all of our hardships, in all of the dry-desert moments of life; in the Eucharist God strengthens us and nourishes us throughout our desert journey.

If at all possible, please try to attend daily mass throughout the week as much as possible throughout Lent. As we engage in the spiritual practices and penances of Lent, the enemy rolls up his sleeves as well. If he can tempt Jesus in the desert, he can tempt us as well. So please avail yourselves of the Eucharist as often as possible, that you may not fall under temptation, and that you might make use of all of the grace God has in store for you, for the purification and transformation of your minds and souls.

Throughout Lent, together we make this journey of faith, that we may prepare ourselves well to experience, after the mystery of the cross, the joy of Easter, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.