First Sunday of Lent, February 18th, 2018

First Sunday of Lent, February 18th, 2018

In the Fourth Chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, we are told how Our Blessed Saviour went into the wilderness where He fasted for "forty days and forty nights." (St. Matthew 4:1)  And St. Matthew describes what happened to Our Lord when He was hungry.  Of course, the devil came and tried his best to take advantage of Our Lord's condition.  He tempted Our Blessed Saviour a total of three times:  first, he tempted Him by offering to turn stones into bread; secondly, he tried to get Our Lord to prove Himself by throwing Himself off the pinnacle of the temple to show that the angels would save Him; finally, the devil  ". . .  . sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; "  in exchange for His loyalty to Him.   Our Blessed Saviour without hesitation turned down each and every one of these temptations despite His weakened condition from fasting for forty days.  

How many of us are tempted by the devil?  How many of us give in at the first sign of weakness?  Our Lord remained firm in His purpose and resolve for forty days although St. Matthew tells us that Our Lord was "hungered."  I seem to get hungry after forty minutes without eating, let alone forty days.  So certainly He was hungry.  But the point being is this:  Our Lord remained firmly committed to His purpose here on earth no matter how tempting the offers of the devil were.  We need to remain true to ourselves and our purpose is the bottom line.  

So often the devil tries to tempt us as well.  And things don't really change that much, the devil still tempts us with the same things he tempted Our Lord with.  We get tempted with gluttony.  We don't know when to stop ourselves sometimes when it comes to eating.  We eat until we are full and then we eat again, knowing full well that we are full, but we eat again simply because it looks "so delicious."  You ever hear that old phrase:  " My eyes were bigger than my stomach?"  Yes, of course.  We see it.  We want it.  End of story.  That's called gluttony.  The devil tempts us to prove ourselves to the world.  How often are we tempted to prove who we are . . .  to show who we are.  As kids we hear:  "Go on I dare you . . .  "  The world mocks us for who we are.  People mock us for what we believe.  Even loved ones will mock us sometimes.  The world dares us.  But we don't have to prove anything to anyone.   The only thing that we need to "prove" is that we are loyal to Our Heavenly Father.  And, finally, don't we sometimes daydream what it would be like to be rich . . . . to be famous . . . to be a star?  Do we ever ponder what it would like to be a millionaire .. . .  or in charge of a company  . . . . or to live in a mansion?  Sure, all of us have these dreams from time to time.  All of us think about "what if?"   What if I was rich?  What if I was famous?  What if I was in charge?  What if   . . . . what if . . .  what if . . . .  What we need to focus on is doing the will of God in our life.  We need to focus on staying close to Our Blessed Saviour in the good times and the bad.  We need to focus on showing God that we are a loving son or daughter to Him.  Our Blessed Saviour remained loyal.  He remained true to both Himself and His Heavenly Father.  This is the lesson we can learn from Our Blessed Saviour's forty days in the wilderness:  stay true to who we are; stay true to what we believe in; stay true to God in the good times and the bad.

Join us on Sunday, February 18th, at 9:30 AM as we celebrate the First Sunday of Lent.  Mass is celebrated at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.