The first Sunday of lent—March 1
Theme – Resisting temptation in the world today
A basketball team had just celebrated a prayer service before playing in the state tournament. During the service the chaplain said to them ‘the important thing ten years from now won’t be whether or not you won the state championship. Rather it will be what you became in the process of trying to win it.” After the prayer service the coach said to the players: ‘sit down for a minute our Chaplain said something that is bothering me. I wonder what we have become trying to put together a winning season. Have you become more loyal to one another? More loving? Better Christians? I hope to God that we have. But if we have not, we have failed God, we have failed one another and we have failed ourselves.
Every year I have this season of lent. I participate in it very intensely. I reflect about the need of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. In this context I repeat the questions of the chaplain, Have you become more loyal to one another? More loving? Better Christians? But if we have not, we have failed God, we have failed one another and we have failed ourselves.
How do we fail?
The answer is in today’s readings. When we give ourselves into temptation, we fail. In the first reading, Noah and his family overcame all the evil ways. They were innocent and god fearing. The first reading tells us the story of deluge, the floods during the time of Noah. God sees that the world had become very evil, practicing all kinds of abominations that offended the Lord God. God tells Noah to build an ark and to gather his family and some living creatures of all kinds and God saves them.
Second reading-we heard the author speaking to the believers about their suffering and the sufferings of Jesus. Peter tells them that since Jesus had triumphed, they would also triumph.
In the Gospel of today, Mark tells us that after his baptism, Jesus goes into the desert for forty days. And, during that time, he is tested by the Evil One. Mark does not say how he was tested or tempted but Matthew and Luke do. These tests are really examples of the kind of tests that Jesus was to face in the course of his public life and how we are going to be tempted in our life. There is the temptation to change stones to bread so that Jesus satisfies the hunger, to jump down the pinnacle of the temple and present himself as messiah, and finally to worship the Satan and receive the universe as a reward. These temptations can be summarized to say that it was an invitation to be unfaithful to the Mission of the Lord. Satan shows the easy way but the Father wants Jesus to be faithful to his mission of suffering and death to rise again.
For forty days we celebrate Lent, the springtime of the year. For us Christians Lent is a special time during spring time. Moses, Noah, and Jesus were led to isolation by the Spirit. It was not so much their time with God, but rather, God's time with them. Our Lenten observance of forty days is not so much our time chosen with God, but rather God's chosen time with us.It is in the desolation of knowing that only God lasts, only God has meaning that we, like Moses, Noah, and Jesus come to terms with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Nothing should distract us as we prioritize our values, as we discern what is important. We need to check out our temptation1. Our first temptation is to have power over the elements of the earth, the goods of the world. Our first temptation is to have material things. The type and style of our automobile, our clothes, our bank account, insurances, savings; the type and style of our retirement, our home and the location of the neighborhood all dictate status in the community. The power of status will keep us selfish and keep us from being principled, seeking a higher good. Status will help us ignore the people around us, after all they in our way. To recognize the people around us is to know our neighbor. Do we choose power in material things (land, property, money) or do we choose power by loving God and neighbor?2. Our second temptation is to compromise good with evil, to take the devil's part, just a little. Our second temptation is to think and act as if there is no ultimate good and no way to practice good. Everybody is evil and so is everything. From the smallest government, to Wall Street or the United States Congress we will all be scratching each other's back. "You help me, I'll help you." Have we ever thought of helping, doing for another without thought of reward, recognition, or pay back? When we compromise in the realm of evil, when we take advantage of others, and others get hurt. Watch out, we cannot compromise with evil. We must do good for goodness sake. If we cannot operate in our power base from the ideal that there is good and evil, holiness and sin, we will have given in to the devil. But there is hope. People do say no to embezzlement, price fixing, price gouging; people say no to human slavery in Africa and Asia. People do say no to weapons of mass destruction because they, like Jesus, know otherwise that we will be destroyed by our own evil designs. People say no to "the sin of the world." People say no to evil.3. The third temptation is to be a manipulator, a controller of other human beings. We control other human beings with sensations. Adolph Hitler knew how to put on a show of power. He knew how to manipulate the perfectionism of the Germans until they went crazy. What with all the beauty of their Holy Roman Empire, and fostering the Faith, still the Germans were transfixed. They allowed their perfection to go crazy. What a sensation to see an army of over one million; what a sensation to have everybody and everything ordered even ordered toward annihilation and death in the gas chambers. We look at the grandeur and perfection of the Cologne cathedral and the insanity of the brick gas chambers. Our German people were manipulated - - perfection gone crazy. Rather, a tried and true way of human living, and working, and service comes not through a Hollywood wonder or Adolph Hitler but through the patient steps of the cross. Careful Christian living, step by step, little by little, is worth more than any spectacle.
4. We need to fast from: Anger and Hatred:Give your family and everyone you come across ,an extra dose of love Each day.
Judging Others:Before making any judgments, recall how Jesus overlooks our faults.
Discouragement:Hold on to Jesus' promise that He has a perfect plan for your life.
Complaining: When you find yourself about to complain, close your eyes. and recall some of the little moments of joy Jesus has given you.
