Preoccupations - Second Sunday of Lent C

What are you concerned about? What worries or occupies your mind? What causes fretting and preoccupation over your actions? There are numerous things happening which can weigh upon our minds. They can be the world events such as the war in the Ukraine or the pandemic; they can be closer to home such as concern over the weather or what our elected officials are doing wrong; they can be even closer, with anxiety over how we shall pay for things as prices continue to increase and our wages remain stagnant or perhaps even decrease. There is so much to weigh our minds and our hearts down in this age.

We may also feel the weight of the season upon us as well. We have finished one entire week of Lent. How many are still doing their fasting? How many have kept up with or increased their prayers? How many have indeed given alms of some sort? How many of us have struggled to do what we resolved to do? We may feel weary of our Lenten penances and sacrifices, already eager for Easter to come and things to return to normal. Yet we still have so many weeks of Lent remaining.

How might this compare to our earthly worries? We seem to labor tirelessly for the minimal things we and our families need to get by or to try to live better. Even if we have some saved up, we know in the back of our minds that everything could be turned upside down. We saw that two years ago when we panicked and locked ourselves in our homes for the supposed benefit of “flattening the curve”. How much things have changed and for the worse for so many people since then. How they continue to get worse for so many around the world; not just in the Ukraine or in Africa or in Asia, but even here at home.

With all of that in mind: how do we persevere? How do we overcome all this worry and do what we need to do? How can we sacrifice and give and work until the end? So many people just give up and do the minimum needed to get by. The anxiety is too much and they give in to despair or hedonism: despair in thinking they’ll never be able to do enough, or hedonism in thinking that the only thing to work for is to be satisfied here and now. Despair seems to grip so many young people, while hedonism grips so many of every age. They are satiated with what they get even if it isn’t much.

Holy Mother Church, in her perennial wisdom, seeks to motivate us not only to persevere in our Lenten sacrifices, but to persevere in our earthly life. After entering into the desert with Jesus last week, we hear a different sort of Gospel today in the account of the Transfiguration. We see the full divine glory of God the Son radiating through Jesus on the mountaintop. We should note that this happens not in the midst of the crowds and noise of the valley and flatlands, but above it all, removed from everything by ascending the mountain. Only when we rise above the clamor of the crowds can we begin to see Jesus for who He really is.

Why do we hear this Gospel on this Sunday? Why is it read every second Sunday of Lent? Our loving mother the Church has us hear this Gospel to spur us on towards that which we are meant to pursue wholeheartedly: eternal life and eternal glory shared with God. Why did God create you? God created you not to be miserable but to join Him in the glory of His goodness and joy. But we can be too clouded over by the preoccupations of this world, or the anxieties that come with those preoccupations. Jesus takes His closest disciples, and reveals Himself, so that they may be ready for what is to come.

Tradition tells us that the event of the Transfiguration of Jesus which we hear today occurred forty days before His passion, crucifixion, and death. Many of the ancient commentators saw in this revealed glory and majesty a strengthening of the apostles for what Jesus would endure so very soon. They might lose hope if they do not know that God is with them, that He will suffer with them, and that He will triumph for them. This glory is not just a revelation but a reminder of what awaits those who walk with the Lord in sharing the Cross with Him. The Transfiguration holds the greatest prize before us: to receive a share in that divine and eternal glory if we walk up to Calvary with Christ.

But how are we to make this journey? How are we to walk with Jesus in this life to share His glory in the next life? Saint Paul directs us how to do this: imitation of the saints. The holy apostle calls his readers to follow his own example of holiness given not only in his letters but when he was present to them in his journeys across the ancient world. He calls us to avoid being “enemies of the cross of Christ” in focusing ourselves too much on the pleasures of this age or the anxieties of this world. There is no salvation without suffering: suffering not just in the person of the Lamb of God who takes away our sins, but our own suffering as well. We either pursue comfort in this life or delay it for the life to come.

Why must we suffer? We suffer because of sin, and we suffer to overcome sin. In an age of comfort and pleasure, we must be reminded that our true happiness cannot be found in this life. The hedonistic soul which seeks only its own pleasure will always fret about looking for more pleasure or working to maintain the pleasure it has. But the soul who loves God and desires to share the glory of Christ accepts whatever comes, whether pleasurable or painful. We even willingly renounce some of those temporary goods in pursuit of the good which shall persist forever. This is how we “stand firm in the Lord”, in imitation of all the saints throughout the ages who toiled and suffered in union with the Lord.

There is no class division in the Church: there are not holy people and then those below them. There are either those pursuing Jesus or those who are His enemies, even if they are in our ranks, even if they occupy the most sacred offices. “Our citizenship is in heaven”, Saint Paul affirms, and if we wish to remain citizens, then we must be united to our King who calls us to fight, to pray, to suffer, all for His glory and ours as well.

Brethren, let us marvel at the God who dwells among us and joins us in our suffering. Let us not preoccupy our minds with the anxieties of the age but place our trust in Him and carry our crosses with Him. Let us continue our Lenten penances-our prayer, our fasting, our almsgiving-so that we may fight the good fight and imitate the saints who imitate Jesus. Let us open ourselves to His healing grace so that He may conform us to His glorified body, which has already won the victory for us and calls us to fight for our share. Let us not be enemies of the Lord by despairing of God or giving up for pleasure, but believing, hoping, and loving the God whose glory is not lost even in suffering and death. May we receive the grace to stand firm in the Lord in all times, especially in the difficult days that are to come, so that we may receive the full citizenship that awaits the faithful, the saints who persevere unto eternal life. 

The Desert - First Sunday of Lent C

Once more we enter into the desert of Lent. Once more we begin these forty days. Holy Mother Church, in her perennial wisdom and tradition, has us hear the Gospel passage of Jesus journeying in the desert before His public ministry. This is meant to be a reminder of the reality of this sacred season even if we did not assist at the liturgy of Ash Wednesday. We are walking with Jesus in the desert.

What is the desert? It is an inhospitable place to live. There is no water or so little as to support regular plants and trees. It is barren, extremely hot, and extremely lonely. The desert is an assault on our bodies; unless we take precautions against the heat and the sun and the lack of water, we will die. Not only that, but one can be tempted to think there is water there due to the mirages which make it seem like water is just over the next sand dune or hill. It is a harsh place to be.

Why does Jesus enter the desert? Why spend so long in a place so inhospitable? We should see this as Jesus entering into our weakness. We celebrated the Incarnation of the divine Word on Christmas, when God the Son joined us in receiving flesh and becoming man along with us. But we might be tempted to think that Jesus knows nothing of our struggles or weaknesses since He is still divine while becoming a man. Hence, His journey in the desert shows that He is truly compassionate with us in our frailty.

Not only that, but we ought to see in this time in the desert as an analogy for our lives in this world. For the desert is a metaphor for the sinful world in which we live. The world is an inhospitable place for a Christian to live. The temptations which surround us and even exist within us can leave us feeling spiritually parched. We can be tempted by the mirages of pleasure and comfort around us to think that we are satisfied, when our souls are thirsting for the living God who alone can satisfy us. We are in a spiritual desert, and we must not forget how Jesus walks through the real desert as we daily walk through our own deserts.

At the end of the forty days, Jesus is tempted by the devil. The Lord receives three temptations that summarize every type of temptation we receive in our lives. The first and most basic is the temptation of satisfying the flesh. Jesus is hungry, and the devil calls Him to make bread from the stones. We should note that the rebukes of Jesus are not some divine power exercised through His humanity, but His recollection of what God has revealed in the Scriptures to believe and live out. Jesus thus recalls the word of God that says, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God.”

The devil then shows the Lord all the kingdoms of the world and tempts Jesus to adore the devil in exchange for those kingdoms. How easily we can form false idols in this world in the place of the true and living God who rules above all and in all. Whether it is the false idols of the false religions which have obscured the Gospel, or things of this world, or the ideas which run counter to the revelation of God, we can all too easily give in to devising a god we want to worship instead of the true God who calls us to something greater and better. Jesus rebukes the devil with the simple words of Scripture: “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.”

The last temptation Jesus receives is for the devil to take Him to the highest point in Jerusalem-the parapet or very top of the temple-and tempt Him to make a fantastical display of His divinity by throwing Himself off the temple and being caught by the angels. This gets to the root of our sinfulness, which is pride. We think we know better. We think we can do better than God. We work and toil at doing what we want to do instead of exercising humility. But Jesus rebukes this last temptation with the simple command of the Scriptures, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” With the trials of temptation finished, the devil departs for a time.

We may be tempted to say that it is easy for Jesus to overcome all these temptations. However, we should recall how it is He achieves victory: not in great displays of power and authority, but simple recollection of the word of God and living it out simply. It is not impossible for us to do any of this. The witness of the saints throughout the ages show us it can be done as well. All that holds us back is our pride, our arrogance, our unwillingness to hear the Word before us and live it out. Do you want to be saved? Then you must confess with your mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe that He is risen from the dead in your whole heart, as Saint Paul commands in the letter to the Romans. This is not merely an external act, but the result of a full interior conversion from sin and temptation. Unless you do this, you will not be saved, and you will perish forever.

Brethren, let us willingly enter the desert with the Lord in beginning this Lent. Let us ponder our weakness and our frailty, and call out to the God who is with us in our times of trouble. Let us beseech Jesus for every grace we need to be able to overcome temptation in our spiritual journey so that we may survive the spiritual desert of our lives. Let us not forget that we too are on a journey while we are alive, that we will not remain here forever, but that we shall return to dust all too soon and be accountable for all our actions. Let us not tremble in the face of the devil and his hellish legions seeking our ruin, but exercise simple trust in the Lord who walks with us in our desert journey and shows us the way to overcome all enemies, so that we may fight well with Him and be worthy of the endless victory banquet which He prepares for all of His faithful soldiers.