Dear Brothers and Sisters, (the website was down yesterday)
Lent is a time for engagement with the Lord. To fall in love with him more deeply and to see what’s in our hearts. Often, we are full of misery. If we think we deserve the love of God because we are good and always go to church or always say our prayers, we are sadly mistaken. If we have the grace to see all our miseries and infidelities, we can have a beautiful Easter.
Every first Sunday of Lent we hear the temptations of Christ. These temptations appear stupid to us. You may think my real temptation is the secretary in the office or something more concrete not these crazy things I just heard. However, we have the same temptations which I’ll explain in a minute, and we submit to them and fall because of them over and over. There is only one who has conquered these temptations and it is Jesus Christ. To be a Christian means that we have Christ within us and if we have Christ then we can overcome these temptations.
The first temptation is about bread, which means money or security. We’re always acting to secure ourselves. Putin wanted to secure his country read and we were acting to secure the safety of Europe. We think money or power will secure us but we look for security in things that are not secure. Money is good to have but what help will it be when we have cancer, what difference does money make? And your millions of dollars how will they restore your marriage if your spouse is unfaithful? Man does not live on bread alone, on security alone, brothers and sisters, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
The second temptation is the temptation of idols. What are the gods of this world? Wars are fought because of money people kill for money, you’re humiliated because of money, injustice is done because of money. All of us are prostrated before money before our idols. We incense it all the time. The third temptation is the temptation of our history the devil said to Jesus you’re just the son of a carpenter who’s gonna listen to you? Throw yourself down and you’ll be like Superman. What’s important is success and applause. If your Father really loved you he wouldn’t send you to the cross. We hear the same temptation all the time: if God loves you why are you suffering?
Pope Francis said a few years ago when you hear these kind of temptations do not dialog with them. Thinking a lot means that we’re speaking with the evil one. If you find yourself talking to yourself, it could be that you’re talking to the devil. His words have a lot of wisdom.
The Church gives us three weapons to fight against these temptations. For the temptation of security and money we need to fast to deny ourselves. For the idols of this world, we need to give alms, especially to the poor to the poor, and the church is always poor. Be generous during this time; being generous helps our heart to grow and God gives us back a hundred-fold. And for the temptation against our history, our weapon is prayer. Speak to God about your life. Nothing there is a mistake. Our temptation is to want the kids to be different or our parents to be different or the spouse to be different. But God doesn’t make mistakes. Christ has power over all of these desires and he can take you out of them.
I like very much the psalm which says: be with me, Lord, in times of trouble!! It’s a beautiful prayer, a beautiful phrase to repeat. In times of trouble with these temptations, with these idols, with the lies of the devil, help me, Lord, be with me, Lord.
