Archive for February 26th, 2023

Lent with Jesus in the Desert

February 26, 2023

1st Sunday in Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

Welcome to the season of Lent. Lent is a time to repent, a time to be reconciled, a time to say I am sorry, and a time to make our lives right with God. This is a time for us to remember what Christ went through for us. Christ came to live with us, to love us, and to serve us. Christ came to die for us because of everything we do wrong. Our forty days of Lent are a reminder of Jesus’ forty days spent in the desert before His public ministry. It is also a reminder of the life, passion, and death of Jesus Christ.

The first reading today describes the original temptation by the devil. Satan told them they would be like gods. He made them believe that they did not have to depend on God. We don’t like it when our freedom is limited and to be dependent on anyone. We don’t want to be responsible for the consequences of our choices.

In the second reading, St. Paul compares the old Adam with the new Adam, who is Jesus Christ. Adam did not resist temptation. He believed in the lie that the devil said that he could be like God. Jesus Christ came to save us from ourselves. Jesus did not give in to the temptations of the devil. The first Adam brought disobedience, sin, and death. The new Adam brought obedience, righteousness, and eternal life.

The temptations that Jesus faced in the desert are temptations found in our everyday lives. God has blessed some people with material resources, some with spiritual powers, some with political, and others with social powers. Use the powers and resources that God has given you for the greater honor and glory of God. Use this Lent to overcome the temptations that could harm you or others. Jesus performed miracles of healing and cast out devils to help people. Christ never used His gifts for Himself, only for others.

Jesus serves as a model for us in overcoming temptations by strengthening himself through prayer, fasting, penance, almsgiving, and speaking the word of God. By resisting temptations, we become more powerful soldiers for Christ. God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our power! During this Lent, let us try to be more prayerful, come to daily mass, receive the Sacrament of Penance, try reading some of the Bible, Pray the Rosary, and maybe bring a friend to church. By doing this, we will be able to overcome some of our sins.

Little changes in our lives can help us grow in holiness. The more time we spend with God, the closer we will be to God. Living the gospel of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness will make us better Christians. Lent is the time for the desert experience. We can set aside a place and time to be alone each day with God. We need time to distance ourselves from the many daily noises in our lives. We need time to hear God’s word and rediscover who we are before God. We need time, to say yes to God and no to Satan.

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Behold the Tree of Life

February 26, 2023

1st Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

God grew many lovely, fruit-bearing trees in the Garden of Eden, but only two trees are mentioned by name. In the middle of the Garden the Lord God placed the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Tempted by the Devil, Eve ate from the forbidden tree and “gave some to her husband—who was with her—and he ate it.” If only Adam had been willing to confront the dragon-serpent and protect his bride, perhaps even to lay down his life for her! But the first man did not do this and the whole human family fell. (Let men called to lead and protect their families take note.)

Then our Triune God said: “Behold! The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil! What if he now also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the Tree of Life, and eats of it and lives forever?” For this reason, God banished our first parents from the Garden. This was not from divine jealousy, but from divine concern for us. Imagine everlasting human lives lived in unending sinfulness; that would be a hell on earth. “Through one man, sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men…” But God promised Adam and Eve a redeemer who would crush the serpent’s head and save us from sin and death.

In today’s Gospel, that Savior undergoes the Devil’s temptations not in a paradise but in a desert. The ancient tempter approaches Jesus and says, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread… If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (from this temple rooftop)… All (the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence) I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” Jesus refuses each of these diabolical suggestions.

If the Christ conjures bread for himself when hungry, then how can he refuse to fill every hungry mouth? But what good would our filled stomachs be if we are never delivered from sin and death? And if the Christ demands that God his Father protect him from every harm, then how could he ever offer his life’s blood as our saving sacrifice? And if the Christ submits to our enemy’s rule over this world, then how could we ever be free? Jesus Christ understands his messianic mission and where it will lead him. It will lead him to the Cross.

Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom, and St. Paul calls him the second and final Adam. Unlike the first Adam, Jesus Christ the New Adam willingly and courageously lays down his life in battle with the Devil to save us, the Church, his Bride.

“[T]hrough one transgression
condemnation came upon all,
so, through one righteous act,
acquittal and life came to all.

[T]hrough the disobedience of the one man
the many were made sinners,
so, through the obedience of the one,
the many will be made righteous.”

One beautiful Mass preface for Sundays in Ordinary Time praises God with these words: “[W]e know it belongs to your boundless glory, that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself, that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation…”

St. Paul’s tells the Galatians, “Christ ransomed us from the curse… by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree…’” In the tree that is his Holy Cross, we now see the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life combined.

During this Lent, contemplate the crucifix. Meditate upon the crucifix to know goodness, to behold God’s love for us. And gaze upon the crucifix to know evil, to see our sins at work. And ever-faithfully eat the fruit from this Tree of Life, which is Jesus Christ himself given us at Holy Mass. As Jesus taught in the synagogue at Capernaum, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life… For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. …Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” God once said in the Garden: ‘You shall not eat of the Tree or even touch it, lest you die.’ But now Jesus invites us, provided we are well-prepared: “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body… given up for you.”

Posted in Adam and Eve, Homily, Jesus Christ, Marriage and Family, Passion, Salvation History, Satan, Sunday Homilies, Typology | 1 Comment »