First Sunday in Lent
Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Today we celebrate first Sunday in Lent. Lent means spring time in old English and during this season, we are called to become new like spring and leave behind our old self. Dear friends, it is God our Father makes us new each and every day in Christ our Lord and it is Christ who helps us to leave behind our old self such as short comings, failures and sins. Every time we come to Church, we celebrate our new self in Christ.
In those days two Irish men came to New York city and one day they decided to travel by train and see the city and wile they were sitting on a train, they saw a fruit vendor and they recognized apples and oranges but not the strange fruit. The vendor told them that it was banana and he showed them how to peel and eat it. So they bought some bananas. while one man had a bit of the banana, the train was going through a tonal and he screamed saying, “pat, don’t eat the banana?’ why? because I had a bite of it and now I can not see, I think I became blind.
In life, we are all going through the tonal of pain and suffering; rejection and guilt. And today we are blessed with forty days of lent to see the light at the end of the tonal. Why forty day? It is a biblical number, during the time of Noah, there came down rain for forty days and forty nights. Moses who was chosen by God to lead Israel went up to the mountain and be there for forty days before receiving the ten commandments. The prophet Elisa walked with the strength of the food that was fed by God for forty days and our Lord Christ the Savior of the world prayed and fasted for forty days and forty nights before His public ministry.
At the end of the fortieth day, He was tempted. We are all being tempted every day but those who pray and fast and observe the spiritual disciplines recognize the tempter and are given the courage to say “ NO” to him.
Like any other ordinary human being, Christ our Lord encountered three types of temptation namely physical, spiritual and material.
For the physical temptation, Christ our Lord said, “One does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God”.
Once a man who wanted to become a monk was adviced to do some reflection and meditation on his special call. while he was sitting comfortable to do so, he saw a beautiful woman walking by and was distracted. The next day, he closed his eyes and was doing his meditation but he heard her walking by and was distracted again. The next day, he closed his eyes and ears and as she was walking by, he could smell her. So he covered his head with a brown bag and was doing his meditation. Time went by, when it was ten o’clock, his mind began to act out saying, this is the time, she supposed to walk by. where is she? where is she?
physical desire can stop us from loving God and his immense glory. And this season helps us to rethink our physical desires and if they stop us from going to God, we should improve ourselves during this season.
The second one is spiritual temptation. And Christ our Lord said, “Do not tempt God your Father”.
Once there was a religious man who prayed five times a day and fasted three times a week and did every thing according to the commandments of the Lord and one day as he was walking on a river bank, he fell in the water and cried to God saying, God help me. Then came fire fighters and then police and people to help him but he refused saying, ’God will come and help me”. But God did not come, he drowned. when he went to heaven, he said God how come you did not come to help me. God said, I was the one who sent all those people to help you but you refused. Do not tempt your Father. The difference between religious and spiritual people is religious people look for miracles but spiritual people become miralcles for others.
The third temptation of Christ is the mateiral one and to that Christ said, ’Worship the Lord and serve only Him”.
one day a man met with his friend who looked sad and he asked why. He said you know my uncle who died a week ago and left with me million dollar. yes you suppose to be happy and why are you sad because the other uncle who died two days ago also left me a million. wow now you have two millions and you should be happy and why are you looking sad. The man said I am sad becasue I do not have any more uncle to die.
material things will never fill the heart of a person. When we serve God and God alone, we will be given everything. Let us take advantage of this season and fill our hearts with love and kindness; with happiness and joy and thus become new and say no to our old self. Amen.
