Lec
# 24- 1st Sun of Lent- Feb 17, 2013- Fr. Bresowar
My
brothers and sisters in Christ,
We
are now four days into Lent! I hope you have not broken your Lenten fast too
many times yet. I have managed to make it four days so far, only 36 days to go!
If
you haven’t really made a Lenten fast, or a commitment to do some sort of
sacrifice, some sort of taking on new prayers, or almsgiving, then it is not
too late. We still have a long way to Easter, so get with it!
We
want the reward of Easter, we want the resurrection, but we don’t always want
to put in the effort to obtain the reward. We can’t save ourselves, but at the
same time, we need to be open to the possibility of being saved. Grace is
necessary for us journey through life.
Life
is very difficult as many of you are aware. It does not always work out the way
we want it to, people hurt us, we hurt others, we lose our loved ones sometimes
earlier than we want, we struggle financially, we go through broken relationships,
broken families, we struggle with illnesses, sins, addictions, and we wonder
sometimes why God puts us in these situations? Or maybe we wonder why God
allows things to get so bad.
One
thing is certain, if things are going relatively well right now, it’s only a
matter of time before there will be some sort of suffering in our lives. We
can’t avoid it, no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we run from it, WE
CANNOT AVOID SUFFERING.
So
the question then becomes, what do we do about it when it comes?
God
clearly gives us our answer. Many people do not think to turn to God when
things are going good, but often times, they will turn to him when they realize
they do not have control over a situation. Prayer then, becomes a plea for
help.
However,
God does not want us to come to him simply when we have problems. He wants us
to come to him in the good times and the bad times.
If
we learn to come to him all the time, then when a crisis comes our way, we will
be better able to handle it. Responding to God’s grace at all times, trying to
make it a priority in our life, will enable us to be at peace, even when things
are rough, emotionally or physically. Spiritual health feeds our emotional and
physical health.
If
we are not healthy spiritually, we will not handle nearly as well our physical
and emotional health. This has been my experience.
In
the first reading, God reminds us to give our first fruits to the Lord, not the
leftovers. This could be applied to any talent we have been given. Not just to
money, but every gift in our life. Seek first to give what you have been given
back to God. Everything that is good comes from Him, we need to believe and
live this Truth, seek to give it back. Let it go, you can’t take it with you
anyway. Give it back to God. This will go a long way in helping us prioritize
and be receptive to his Grace. Grace, which we desperately need to journey through
this life to our final destination.
Then
in the Gospel, we see Jesus, on purpose, submit himself to suffering. Jesus
does not need to go to the desert to beat Satan. He created, with his father,
the Heavens and the Earth, the universe and all the angels. Satan has no power
over him. Yet, Jesus goes into the desert to allow Satan to tempt him. It’s
true, Jesus does have a human will along with the divine will, he needs to
strengthen his human will so that he can complete his mission to destroy sin
and death and show us the way to the resurrection. Yet, he also has total power
over Satan in his divinity. And he possesses all knowledge, past, present and
future. Jesus submits himself to temptation because he knew exactly every
problem, every struggle, every sin, every temptation that you and I were going
to have to deal with, and he desperately wants to show us how to overcome it.
He
doesn’t go to his Father only when things get bad. No, he goes into prayer and
fasting even when he doesn’t have to, and he invites us to do the same. He says
in another place, “I have told you this so that you might have
peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have
conquered the world.” In another place he says, “Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you
will find rest for your selves.”
And yet, we look at this sometimes
with skepticism in our hearts. We doubt, we fear, we refuse to change our ways,
we blow him off, and dismiss certain individuals as religious nuts, and thus we
suffer the unnecessary consequences of being tormented, and blaming our worldly
problems on others instead of keeping the prize in front of us.
We seek comfort where it cannot be
found, and then become desperate for more, only to find that it is never
enough.
Jesus is the only person who can
fulfill our every longing and desire; and in order to experience what he is
trying to offer us, we need to be willing to work for it. The more we die to
our selves, our pride, the more we fast, the more we pray, the more we detach
from this world by giving alms, the more we seek to serve and not to be served;
the more we will come to experience joy, peace of mind and heart, unity, firm
purpose, happiness, and not as the world gives it, but as Jesus gives it.
Until
we are willing to let go and enter into this way of life, we will always be
searching and never accepting. The fool is the one who rejects Grace because of
silly pride.
God
Bless you, and may he give you the strength you need this Lent to continue to
die to yourself and your pride so that you might experience joy and peace which
does not go away, even with new and old problems arising every day.
