What Is Your Discipline For Lent?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The gospel prior to the temptations of Christ in the desert was his Baptism in the Jordan where he heard the voice of the Father saying, this is my beloved Son, listen to him.  After a high time like that Jesus enters a hard time (Luke 4: 1-23).  The same thing happens to us.  When you come off of some very good times and everything is going well, beware of the temptations that can come at those times.  The devil is very shrewd and knows when to strike.  This is why we need Lent so that we are not always going up, and then down.  Lent can help us to be more consistent.

Adam was in paradise and was cast into the desert.  Jesus Christ goes into the desert so that we can enter paradise.  Lent comes to bring us to paradise or to show us a bit of paradise, to show us our final destination.  I was struck the morning of Ash Wednesday thinking I really need this time of Lent, this time of self-denial.  Little by little I have been staying up too late, watching worthless things on Netflix, etc.  This time comes as a grace to help us get back on track.

Luke is theological in his telling of the temptations.  Jesus lives in his own flesh the Exodus experience of Israel who spent forty years in the desert as a punishment for their lack of faith.   He uses this time to prepare for his own Passover from that awful death to a completely new life.  This is the purpose of Lent to prepare for our Passover, our Easter, so that we are not afraid to die, and not afraid to live.

At the end of the gospel Luke says when the devil finished every temptation he departed.  It can also mean that Jesus having been perfected by all these temptations that devil left him.  Jesus by this time in the desert perfects himself humanly and this Lent can do the same for us.  Not that we be perfect but maybe after forty Lents we are more like Christ, we are more of a Christian, if we take it to heart.

You know when a young person goes to college it is to study a discipline: nursing, or business, or English, or computers.  He or she has to really focus on that discipline.  What will be your discipline this Lent?  What is the one thing you need to focus all of your efforts and prayers?  Not something of your husband, but something for you.  Something that is more fundamental and important for your holiness.

Then there is a verse (v. 6) not seen elsewhere in the Bible where Satan says that the kingdoms of the world will be handed over to him.  Which kingdoms?  I don’t think he means Rome or Athens.  Could it be Syria, Russia, Haiti, and North Korea?  It might even be New York that just passed one of the most aggressive abortion laws in the country.  What individuals do you know who might be part of his kingdom?   How evil was the man who killed President Lincoln just days after the Civil War ended.  His intention was to kill Ulysses Grant as well.  This event in many ways changed the merciful reconstruction that Lincoln was unrolling.  The devil is alive and active, brothers and sisters.  Let us learn to fight against him.

The gospel shows us the devil’s playbook.  He tempts us by the lust of the flesh, by the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.  He is very smart and uses these tricks over and over to trip us up.  Christ is strong enough to fight against him; he will help us to do the same.   These temptations of Christ are yours and mine.  Let us ask the Lord for wisdom to fight against them this Lent.

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