First Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent-C
Once a priest who went for a nice walk in the winter was stopped by a thief. He showed the priest a big knife and demanded his wallet. As the priest was unzipping his winter coat, the thief saw his clerical collar and apologized him saying, "O Father, I am sorry I did not know that you are a priest". Then the priest said, "Shall I offer you a cigarette?" "The thief was shocked and said to the priest, "Oh..I am sorry, father, I gave up smoking for Lent".
Today the Holy Catholic Church enters into the first Sunday of Lent. The season of Lent is usually consisting of forty days of fasting, prayer and works of mercy and charity that began with ash Wednesday when  we received holy ashes on our forehead that remined of our dependency on God Almighty. That day we heard the words of the Bible namely ,"O soul, remember, Your body is dust and unto dust, it shall return"  and this lenten season concluds  at sundown on Holy Thursday. The color of Lent is violet.  During these forty days, we closely follow our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died for our salvation.
Once there lived an amazing farmer in the island of Ireland. He was so happy to spend more time in his field and one day as he was dying, he asked his son to take him to the field where he reached down and clutched some soil onto his hands and died a happy man.
As he was entering into heaven, the angel asked him to let the soil go but he refused, so he was let outside.  Thousand years after, the angel again came to him and said, "come into heaven and let the soil go". The farmer again refused.  Two thousand years after, when the angel came to him, he decided to let the beloved soil of Ireland go. When he entered into heaven, the first thing, he saw was, his beloved Island Ireland waiting for him in heaven".
What we leave behind for the sake of others and for our own sake and what we sacrifice for the well-being of others, they will always be counted in heaven.
In today's gospel we see how our Lord Jesus Christ the king of the universe spent forty days and forty nights for our salvation and praying and fasting and at the end of fortieth day encoutered Satan who tempted Him.
Christ our Lord encountered three types or kinds 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 comfortably 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  a 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. There is a saying, "Satan tempts people and idle people tempt Satan". Let us keep ourselves busy of improving spiritually and find God. Amen.