"(Lent) is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with  pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism." (Pope Benedict XVI)

Our spiritual combat is against the Prince of this world, the Devil. From the beginning of his public ministry, the Devil tried to get Jesus to turn away from the mission the Father had given him. Jesus was called to be the Savior of the world, saving us from the eternal death of alienation from God.

The same is true with us. The Devil tries to distract us from the mission God has given us this Lent. "Will you turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel." The Devil does not want us to turn away from sin (and thus turn away from him). The Devil does not want us to draw closer to God, sharing his life in a deeper way. But through prayer, listening and acting on the word of God and doing penance, we will be strengthening ourselves for this "spiritual combat."

As we begin another Lenten journey to the celebration of Lord's paschal mysteries, Jesus gives us in today's Gospel our three main points of reference: Prayer, Almsgiving and Fasting. 

Prayer is not just saying our daily prayers but more intentionally spending time in the presence of God for his sake. The focus of  our prayer is not so much for us to speak to God but to be still so that, if God wishes to speak to us, we can hear.

Almsgiving is not just a monetary sign but a focus on the corporal works  of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, etc. It is being attentive to those in need, not only financially but materially and spiritually.

Fasting is more than from food. What good is it to fast from food and drink and still live in sin. The fasting that pleases the Lord is fasting from sin. It begins with repentance for our sin and then, with God's grace, refraining from sin. It is the call to uproot the core of sin in our life. 

First Sunday of Lent Gospel A

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
· God tests us to draw us closer to him. The devil tempts us to draw us away from God.
· From the time of the baptism until his death on the cross, Jesus is led by the Spirit.

He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. 
· Moses and Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights as part of their preparation for what God had in store for them.
· Here the number forty has another significance. During the forty years in the desert, the Israelites proved that they were not true sons of God by their frequent sinful rebellions and grumblings. Jesus as the Son of God gives us the example of how a true son of God is to live in the midst of temptations.
· Do you see the power of fasting and prayer in dealing with temptations?

The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” 
· The devil picks up on the word of God to Jesus after his baptism: “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The devil wants Jesus to question his identity.
· The focus of the devil’s temptation is to satisfy self rather than be faithful and depend upon God to care for you. Do you see the similarity with the temptation in the Garden of Eden?

He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” 
· Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in response. Jesus knows that he is the Son of God, beloved of the Father. He doesn’t have to use his own power to prove this. Rather, he chooses to be obedient to the Father’s will in all things, even in the time of physical hunger. His food is the word of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” 
· Again the focus of the temptation is questioning whether Jesus is the Son of God and trusts in God. Like Jesus the devil too quotes the scriptures (Ps 91:11-12). Jesus responds as a true Son of God but stating that he does not have to put God to the test as the Israelites did in the desert, complaining against him for not providing food and drink. A creature does not test the Lord. The Lord tests the creature.

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” 
· The first lie is that the devil can’t give all the kingdoms of the world. He has no power or authority. The second lie is that he is not God, who alone deserves worship. Jesus unmasks the devil for who he is—a creature subject to God, but who is separated from God eternally by choice.
· In a sense, Jesus is laughing at the devil when he says, “Get away.”
· Jesus proves himself as a true Son of God, who is obedient to the Father, unlike Adam and the Israelites.
· “Each temptation has one common purpose: to divert Jesus from his mission, to distract him from the purpose for which he came on earth; to replace the Father’s plan with a different one. In Baptism, the Father had indicated to Christ the way of the obedient Servant who saves with humility and suffering. Satan proposes to him the way of glory and triumph, the way that everyone then expected of the Messiah.”

· “Today also, the whole effort of the devil is to divert man from the purpose for which he is in the world, which is to know, love and serve God in this life to enjoy him later in the next; to distract him. But Satan is astute; he does not appear as a person with horns and the smell of sulfur. It would be too easy to recognize him. He makes use of good things leading them to excess, absolutizing them and making them idols. Money is a good thing, as is pleasure, sex, eating, drinking. However, if they become the most important thing in life, they are no longer means but become destructive for the soul and often also for the body.”

Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
· What lesson can we derive from our reflections on this passage?
· How should we respond in times of temptations and in times of test?
· What was the role of the Spirit during the temptations?

"God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy." (Pope Francis) 

As we enter this grace season of Lent, we are invited by God to bring to the cross our areas of sin. It is at the cross that we will hear those words of mercy from the mouth of Jesus: "Father, forgive them." If we listen attentively we can imagine him saying further: "Father, I give you the pain of my sacrifice for their forgiveness. I choose to give my life as an offering to you so that your life may once more be evident  in them. Without your mercy, Father, there is no hope for them. But  your mercy is freeing, healing and life-giving. Wash them clean in your mercy and love. Set them free to be your adopted sons and daughters once more. As often as they sin and are repentant, let your mercy flow upon them from the blood and water from my pierced side." 

Lord, Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

One of the things that saddened and angered Jesus was a hardened heart. Some of the Pharisees and Scribes had a hardened heart, when it came to understanding, let alone accepting Jesus. They were closed to his words, to the signs and wonders that they saw and ultimately to the person of Jesus.

Do we have a hardened heart? Most of us would say no. Do we commit our lives to Jesus as Lord, or are there aspects of our life we withhold from him? Isn't this what we are dong when we allow any habit of sin to remain as a normal part of our life? Is there any un-forgiveness  in our heart? Is that not a sign of a part of our heart that is hardened?

Lent is a grace-time of change and conversion, allowing the mercy of God to soften and renew our hearts. Here is a suggestion. Find a small pebble or stone and carry it in your pocket or purse. As you touch it at various times, let it remind you of those areas in your heart that are hardened. These are the areas that need to broken down through the mercy of God.

Seventh Sunday Gospel A

Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
· Jesus forbids the misuse of Mosaic civil law to justify private vengeance.
· For his followers, Jesus rejects any retaliation as a way of life.
· Eventually, he will state that the proper response of a disciple is love not hate or revenge.
· In each of these sayings, Jesus is setting a new standard for his disciples, one that will lead to union with God.

 When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles.  
· At the time Roman soldiers reserved the right to recruit and compel their Jewish subjects into temporary service. Simon of Cyrene, for instance, was forced under this right to carry Jesus’ cross.
· Jesus instead stipulates generosity beyond any obligation, again out of love.

Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
· Again, give out of love, because God has been generous to us.

"You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?
· To the Jews of his day, all non-Jews, that is Gentiles, were considered enemies because they did not worship the one, true God.
· Jesus includes all as neighbor, even their Roman overlords.
· In other words, As God invites the unjust to respond to him through the evidence of
his love, so the disciples of Jesus must be the bearers of the same love toward their enemies.

 So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
· We are to follow the lead of our Heavenly Father in his treatment of each person. He treats all with mercy.
· We will never be perfect in this life but we can strive for perfection, following the directions of Jesus for his disciples.
· This is a call to holiness. Be holy for the Lord is holy. There is no relationship with God unless one is striving to be holy, striving to love as God loves.

The Book of Ecclesiastes says there is a time to die and a time to live.  If Easter is a time of resurrected life, then Lent is a time of death to sin. What sins must be put to death in us, if the resurrected life of Jesus is to bear new life in us?

Many times when we go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we rattle off our grocery list of sins. What is missing? Two things! We have not identified the root of our sins and we don't have a spiritual game plan to begin to overcome our sins.

It is like the person who has weeds in his yard and his mode of operation is to mow them down every week. He doesn't get rid of the weeds, only exasperates himself. He needs to attack the core of the weed.

Have we identified the core of our sins? Do we have a spiritual game plan that is concrete and attainable in uprooting these sins? This is the grace we need to ask for before Lent and the action we need to embark on during Lent.

In little over a week we will begin our annual Lenten pilgrimage of preparing to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Look over the past Lents. Were we any different for a period of time after Easter that on Ash Wednesday? That's the purpose of each Lent: metanoia which means change. 

When Jesus preached repentance and the invitation to believe in the Good New of salvation, he was calling for a more permanent change in life. It was not just for forty days and then "business as usual". 

One of the formulas I like using on Ash Wednesday is "Will you turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel." This turning away from sin is a call to focus on an area of our life which Jesus is calling us to uproot so that his love and life may make a difference. What is that area in your life? This is the time to ask Jesus to reveal to you his desire for you this Lent. What does he want you to work on?

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined,he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested: "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied: "But I can see you and that's all that matters."

In those times of darkness in our life, we don't see the Father with arms outstretched ready to save us. All we see is what looks like being hopelessly alone. But the grace of the Father tells us he is there, ready to embrace us, if we but leap into his arms. It is truly a leap of faith not into nothingness but into the All in All that matters. If we hesitate, the darkness will truly envelope us. If we trust, the light will break through.

But there is another type of wisdom, which comes from God. This wisdom is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, given by God to us in Baptism and renewed in Confirmation. What is this wisdom? Paul says the Spirit reveals to us the depths of everything, even the depth of God. This gift of wisdom enables us to know and to see things as God does; in other words, we are able to know in a given situation the will of God.

To avoid a sense of loss of sin that is prevalent in our culture, we need to remember that the root of sin lies within us. That root goes back to the sin of Adam and Eve and we name it concupiscence. 

Jesus speaks of the various concupiscence within us in the Gospel. For many of his day, it was thought that a person became ritually defiled by contact with something that was considered unclean, such as eating unclean animals or touching a leper or a corpse. Jesus rejected this. Instead, he said what makes a person unclean is acting on that which leads us to sin from within, such as lying, stealing, murder, etc. These areas of sin are within each of us. The Evil One tempts us to act out in these areas and thus we sin. 

The adage "the Devil made me do it" is not true. the Devil tempts us, but we made a conscious choice to act out.  As St. Paul said: I do the things I don't want to do; and do not do the things I should do. Why? There is a law of sin within me. 

Am I hopeless? No! For the grace of God through Jesus' death and resurrection is given to me to turn away from the temptation and to choose to do what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect. It is my choice to sin or not to sin.

Sixth Sunday of the Year Gospel A

Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 
• The law and the prophets stand for the whole of the Old Testament. Jesus came to fulfill the Mosaic Law and the OT prophesies. The New Covenant includes and concludes the Old Covenant; it both perfects it and transforms it.
• Jesus’ teaching does not reject the old law and the prophets; instead, it illumines the meaning God intended the OT ultimately to have.

Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

• The righteousness that Jesus is talking about is that holiness which is based on love and not following the rules out of obligation. The scribes and Pharisees were seeking righteousness through strict observance of every detail of the many laws imposed by tradition and interpretation. Jesus is calling his followers to do all out of love of God and love of others.

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment;
and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.

• Jesus begins a series of contrasting ways the righteousness of the religious leaders and the righteousness of his disciples will be different. He underscores his own authority as the Son of God, as the new Moses and Lawgiver.
• Not only is murder wrong but so is the anger that seeks revenge and other unloving hurtful words towards a child of God.

 Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.

• How often do we celebrate Mass with non-forgiveness in our heart! How can our offering be acceptable to God with such a block within us. We need to forgive in our heart so that God may forgive us.

"You have heard that it was said,  You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.

• Adultery is a serious sin. But so is the lust of our heart and eyes and the lingering impure thoughts of our mind.

"It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife -  unless the marriage is unlawful -  causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

• In another area, Jesus said that divorce was permitted in the Old Law because of the hardness of heart of the people. But that is not God’s plan and purpose for a marriage that is sealed before him.

"Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one."

• Jesus forbids oath swearing for private purposes. Many times we name God as part of our swearing. This is against the Second Commandment.
• We should speak the truth at all times.
• How do we relate our life against these actions? Where do we fall short? What needs to be done to bring about the righteousness which Jesus seeks in the lives of his disciples?

Even thought Lent is a few weeks away, it is not too early to begin to prepare ourselves to enter into the true spirit of this sacred season. A major focus of this penitential time is the uprooting of sin in our lives. In an October 1946 Radio Message to the Participants in the National Catechetical Congress of the United States in Boston, Pope Pius XII spoke a prophetic word: "Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin." 

Early in his pontificate, on January 1, 2014, Pope Francis echoed his predecessor in a homily, when he said: "When you lose the sense of sin, you lose the sense of the kingdom of God."

Personally, have I lost a sense of sin? Have I allowed the infection of sin to cause a spiritual cancer in my life, which I leave untreated? Have I become comfortable with certain habitual sins in my life? Have my moral standards changed to fit the current cultural acceptances of previously inappropriate behavior? Is there an objective moral truth or is morality left to subjective interpretation?

Lent is a time to confront the reality of sin in my own life, seeing sin for what it is: an abomination before God.

"When you insist on doing things  your own way in the face of the Lord's will, you are an idolater, because you prefer what you think, that idol, to the will of the Lord."(Pope Francis) 

Those are strong words! But they are true. It was the will of God that Israel would not have strange gods to worship, but they fashioned a golden calf to represent their god. We do not want to think that we have idols in our lives, but many of us do. If God is not first in our life; if his will is not what I desire the most to follow no matter the cost, then what I choose in place of God is an idol.  My will at the moment is more important than the will of God.

The different idols that we have in our lives, are whatever leads us into sin, choosing them rather than God. If we thought of sin in this way, it may help us to choose differently. But because we don't see this thing we want the most at the moment as an idol but as a good for me now, I choose it rather than the will of God for me. In that act I have substituted something for someone, God.

What are your idols? Where do you prefer your will to the will of God?

"Do we have an attitude of spiritual tepidness, transforming our lives into a cemetery where there is not life? If so, God calls us to conversion and we say yes but tomorrow." (Pope Francis)

I like his analogy of the cemetery. Spiritual tepidness is another way of saying spiritual lukewarmness. Some spiritual writers see this to be a silent killer of one's spiritual life. They liken it to what high blood pressure is to the human life, a silent killer. Untreated it can be too late.

The Book of Revelation addresses this spiritual lukewarmness in Chapter 3. “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write this: ‘The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God’s creation, says this:'I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.'" (Rev 3:14-16)

What does lukewarmness look like? Our heart is not in growing in holiness. We go through the motions but our focus is elsewhere. We are comfortable doing the bare minimum. There is a sense of spiritual laziness. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes lukewarmness in these words. It is a "hesitation of negligence in responding to divine love," adding that it "can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity" (2094).    

Fifth Sunday of the Year Gospel A

Jesus said to his disciples: "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
   • Jesus uses two ordinary household items to teach about discipleship and what does God expect of us.
   • Today, salt does not have the same preciousness and uniqueness that it had at the time of Jesus. But in          Jesus’ day salt was used as payment for work. The word salary comes from salt.
   • It was used to p reserve food and give it a more pleasing taste.
   • Newborn babies were rubbed with salt for medicinal purposes.
   • Salt was added to clay pottery and tiles in the firing phase would provide the glaze.
   • Agreements of friendships were sealed by taking salt together.
   • Salt that remains in a box doesn’t do any good.
   • Salt used moderately is beneficial; too much salt is toxic and potentially fatal.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light 
a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house.   
• The symbol is a candle or a torch, which dispels darkness; gives warmth; gives a sense of direction;              draws people together around it.
   • The light of a candle gives of itself; it burns itself out. If it is never lit, it doesn’t fulfill its purpose.
   • To think that being a Christian is to focus only on God is like hiding once light (life). We are called to              love God and others, to serve God and others, to be a light to others for the sake of God.

Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father."

   • Both salt and light have a mission. So to do we.
   • Just as salt and light do not focus on themselves but have a purpose outside, so we are called as             disciples to bring the good news of Jesus love and life to others. We are called to make a difference in the life of others.
   • What kind of a disciple am I? Am I using the gifts God has given me to make a difference in my life and  in the life of others?

"Is our faith unconditional or conditional, total or partial? Is our faith based on conditions. Are we like Christians who say 'I am Christian but on the condition that things are done this way'''. (Pope Francis) Am I a smorgasbord, cafeteria Christian, picking and choosing what I will believe and passing over what I do not accept? Is my faith in God or in myself?

Jesus in the scriptures demanded a faith reflective of total commitment to him, even when what he said was not understood and hard to accept humanly. Take for instance Jesus' teaching on the gift of his Body and Blood. Many of his disciples could not and would not accept this teaching of Jesus. They walked away because their faith was not in him but in what they could accept, what was comfortable for them. 

Faith is a commitment to a person, because of who he is. I believe in what Jesus says because Jesus said it. This was the response of the Apostles to the same teaching on the Eucharist. "To whom shall we go, you have the words of everlasting life. We believe that you are the Holy One of God." They didn't understand either. But understanding wasn't the issue. Jesus was.

In other words, faith needs to be unconditional and total, centered in the person of Jesus our Lord and God.

What was the will of the Father for his Incarnate Son? Was it primarily the death of his beloved Son on the gibbet of the cross? Or was it obedience to the will of God in love, even if it included giving his life, so that we may be justified?

St Paul expressed this mystery of Jesus' total gift of himself to the Father for our sake in his Letter to the Philippians. "Thought he was in the form of God, (Jesus) did not consider equality with God something to be seized. Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and accepting the state of a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, eve the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:6-8)

By embracing the will of the Father, Jesus was glorifying him in contrast to Adam and Eve who surrendered the glory of God for empty self-glory. In thus glorifying the Father, Jesus in his humanity depended on the grace that comes from the Spirit to do the will of God. In doing so, he teaches us by word and example that we too will be able to embrace the will of God for us in any given moment only with the grace given by the Holy Spirit.