First Sunday in Lent-A
Good morning every one...Welcome to celebrate today's Holy Mass. Our Special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today.
Once an older man was speeding on 401 and was stopped by the police. The police said, "Why are you speeding two o'clock in the morning. The older man said, "I am going for a lecture". "What lecture at two o'clock in the morning?" The older man said, "It's on evil of alcohol drinking and smoking". The police was kind of suspicious and said, "Who is giving you a lecture at two o'clock in the morning?" The man said, "My wife".
As a group of pilgrim were flying to holy land, they met with turbulence. They all ran to the priest and pleaded saying, " We are all going to die, please do something religious". Do you know what the priest did...he took up a collection.
They say that the devil knows our name but calls you by your sins and God knows our sins but calls us by name.
As we enter into Lenten season today. The season of Lent consists of forty days of fasting, prayers and works of charity. Today we reflect on the temptation of Christ our Lord. It's a testing of Christ...right after His glorious baptism before entering into public ministry, Christ was taken to a wilderness or a deserted place where he spent forty days and forty nights praying and fasting. On the fortieth day, the devil came to test Him.
At Jordan, Christ was revealed to all as the only Son of God and yet, the Son of God in His human flesh spent time with God and was prone to testing and temptation. Though we are all children of God, we are humans and weak. In order to protect ourselves from temptations, we need prayers and keep involved in spiritual practices.
They say that the great wall of China is a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money and labor. When it was finished, it appeared unbreakable. But the enemy breached it. Not by breaking it down or going around it. They did it by bribing the gatekeepers.
What is temptation? Its seduction to evil and its solicitation to wrong.
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 later, the angel came to him and said , 'Come into heaven and let the soil go". He again refused. Two thousand years later, the angel insisted upon him and he finally let the beloved soil of Ireland go. When he entered into heaven, the first thing he witnessed was, his beloved island Ireland was 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, will always be counted in heaven.
In today's gospel we see how our Lord Jesus Christ the only Son of God is facing with three types of testing or temptations namely physical, spiritual and material.
For the physical temptation, Christ our Lord said to the devil, "One does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God".
Once a man wants to become a monk, was advised to do some reflection and meditation on the special call. While he was sitting comfortably to do so, he saw a beautiful woman walking by and he was distracted. The next day, he closed his eyes and was doing his meditation and he could still hear her walking by and was distracted again. The next day, he closed his eyes and ears and this time, he could smell her. So the next day, he covered his head with a brown bag and was doing his meditation on how to become a catholic monk. Time went by, when it was ten 0'clock, his mind began to act out saying, "This is the time. She is supposed to be walking by...where is she? Where is she?"
Physical temptation can easily stop a person from loving God. Through the Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting and works of charity, we are given more strength to face our physical temptation.
Let us remember that we do not have a soul. We are a soul and we have a body and our soul is stronger with Christ. So let us remember we do not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God.
The second temptation is called 'Spiritual temptation'.
As Christ used the biblical verses to answer the Devil. The Devil is using biblical verses to Him saying, "why don't you jump from here and angels will come and protect you and you are just going to be fine"
The devil used the biblical text without context. That's we say "A text without context is a pretext".
Christ says, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test".
Today there are so many people saying, "I come to Church and practice my faith and why my family is suffering. Why do I have this and that problem". The strongest temptations of all is spiritual temptation which leads us to even go against our Creator God".
To the third temptation namely to the material sin, Jesus answered the devil saying, "Worship and serve only the Lord God".
Yes, we are all sent here to serve and worship God alone. So during this season of Lent and every day of our life, let us say "Yes" to God and "No" to our sins
Once two men went to a spiritual Master and said, "we have sinned and want to find God and what should we do". Master said, "Tell me about your sins". The first man said, "I have committed grave sins". The second man said, "I am not like this man. My sins are very small". Then the master looked at them both and said, "This is what you must do. Each of you must go and bring me a stone for each of your sins". The first man brought two heavy rocks and the second man brought about hundred small pebbles. Then the spiritual master said, "go and put them back where you found them". The first man put them back exactly where he found them. But the second man who brought about hundred pebbles could not find the exact place of all those pebbles.
Then the master said, "If a man commits greater sins and is truly sorry and his sins will be forgiven. But if a man is constantly doing small things and is not feeling sorry for his sins...then he remains a sinner".
So it is important to avoid little sins as big ones".
Thus let us enter into the season of Lent. Amen.
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