1^st Sunday of Lent (C) Feb 21st, 2010 There was a saint who used to visit many towns preaching and evangelizing. He arrived at one town where there was a devil that was bored because there was nothing to do. The holy man asked him why he was bored. The devil replied, “because there is nothing to do in this town. Nobody praises God here. All these people are mine.” The man got into the town and confirmed the devil’s words. God was not present in the peoples' lives.

The man then went to a monastery that was famous for the virtue of its religious, and was amazed to see many demons around the monastery. Each of the demons was tempting the religious.

It is said that there are more demons in a religious house than outside it.

Today the Gospel says that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil. It is important to note that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit first, and then he was tempted.

The desert is a place for silence, loneliness, prayer, fasting, and penance. It is like a retreat. It is an ideal environment in which to have a religious experience. In such a space it feels like it will be possible to touch God. However, our time in the desert will not last forever. Sooner or later, we will have to return to our normal lives. We will have to work again, take care of our families, and so on.

After a retreat we feel good, strong, and invigorated, but shortly thereafter problems reappear and we are presented with difficulties. At that time, many things do not look so easy anymore. What is going on? Somebody does not like all of this. Somebody does not want us to be close to God; that someone is going to try anything and everything he can to make us give up. Like the temptations we face after a retreat, we experience a similar battle after making resolutions for the New Year, for Lent, or other changes we implement in our lives.

Temptations are common in normal Christian life. What Christian is not afflicted with wanting to say, feel or think something wrong, selfish, or shameful? Temptations happen constantly. Temptations help us to be and stay strong. They are a kind of a challenge for us. We need to be able to resist them. They can be present in something common and normal like food. We can be tempted through greed. After-all, who does not want to have more?

Another kind of temptation is to think that God has to take care of all our problems in life. Jesus was tempted in just this way in the desert when he was tempted by things he desired and by temptations to call upon God to perform a miracle for him.

Additionally, we should keep in mind that we will always face temptations. If we do not have temptations, it may mean one of two things: either we are in heaven or we are doing something wrong because we will always be tempted and given the opportunity to deny God and choose sin. For example, we are required to attend Mass weekly, but we can concoct any number of excuses to justify missing one Sunday. Maybe the thought was that we would come next week, that nobody would notice our absence, that no one would know we missed, it was just for that one time, or we did not have time to attend.

By meditating on Jesus’ response to his temptations, we realize that we need to act toward our temptations in the same manner that Jesus acted towards His temptations. We need to respond to them with intelligence and strength. Our response should be so good that the temptation disappears. Maybe another temptation will come in its place, but like Jesus, we can react appropriately to our temptations each and every time we face them. We can and should choose to love Jesus more than we love our sins. Our lesson for this first Sunday of Lent is to choose Jesus over sin, to love Him more than we love our sins. We need to learn to recognize the temptations, understand that Christian life is not easy, and fight the good fight against sin and temptation.

In the Lord’s prayer we pray, “lead us not into temptation.” This means Jesus, give us your grace in order not to sin. Give us your strength. Demons will no doubt be busy around us, but they will get nothing because we will give our all to Jesus.