Resist temptation to skip over Lent

This week, we begin the solemn season of Lent. As we commence this annual Lenten journey, I am mindful of the tendency many of us have for procrastination.

We wait till the last minute to do our homework, write a term paper, file our income tax or do our Christmas shopping. We postpone doing house repairs, answering letters or visiting relatives and friends because there is plenty of time to get around to it.

Very often, however, time slides by, and our good intentions remain unfulfilled.

Temptations

Lent, which is six weeks long, is a lot like that for all of us. At the beginning, the end seems far away, so we are often slow to embark upon this spiritual journey.

If we're not alert, however, we'll arrive at the Easter feast before we know it, and a great opportunity for taking stock of our lives, and for spiritual growth and renewal may be missed.

The whole purpose of the Lenten journey is to learn more about Jesus. It is a journey where we must examine ourselves on contemporary variations of the temptations Jesus experienced during His 40 days in the desert, about which we hear in the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent.

Living simply

The first temptation the devil devised at the end of Jesus' long fast was to turn stone into bread. To which Jesus responded, "Not on bread alone does man live."

We face the same temptation today: to give into the materialistic, consumeristic culture in which we find ourselves...to allow our lives to be driven by money, by the fads and fashions of the moment, by the newest techniques and the "must-have" gadgets...to indulge in luxuries we don't need and bromides that feed the body but starve the soul.

To follow Jesus, then, we must learn to live more simply and spiritually, in ways that distinguish between needs and wants, and we must feed upon that Word of God and Bread of Life, which will never perish.

Idolatry

Second, Jesus was tempted to idolatry -- to prostrate Himself before the devil in exchange for the power and glory of an earthly kingdom. To that, Jesus responded: "You shall do homage to the Lord your God; Him alone shall you adore."

We, too, are often beset by this seductive temptation. Not so much to become political leaders or international power brokers, but to control our own destiny...to settle for pursuits that seem more safe and secure, ones that allow us to remain in our own comfort zone, that protect us from risk and that blind us to what God may be asking of us.

A contemporary idol is that of conformity and complacency, of refusing to shed our old ways and take on new ones, of timidly following the paths of least resistance, of succumbing to peer pressure and the status quo, rather than surrendering ourselves to our unpredictable God, who is predictable only in the call to lead us from where we may have comfortably settled.

Me first?

The final temptation to which Jesus was subjected was to believe in a different kind of Messiah than the Father wanted -- to take the path of spectacle and power rather than that of humble service.

That was a temptation that would plague Him throughout His ministry up to His death, when He was taunted to come down from the cross.

We are similarly tested in our society of narcissism and individualism. We are told repeatedly that fulfilling our own needs, wants and desires should be our number one priority.

Ours is a society where personal choice is the supreme value; where the Frank Sinatra ballad, "I Did It My Way," has become the national anthem; where the "self" reigns and other people become things to serve one's needs. The moral norm is efficiency; the means are whatever works, let the chips fall where they may, be these the chips of abortion, adultery, pornography, corporate greed or political corruption. Solidarity and the common good are replaced by the mantra: "What's in it for me?"

Roadblocks

Those perennial temptations -- and others that could be cited -- are obstacles or roadblocks on the journey of Christian discipleship.

But Jesus' example, the Spirit He has bequeathed us and the community of believers He founded (the Church) can help us to recognize and avoid those pitfalls, and provide us with the pastoral and spiritual resources we need to live a supernatural life in the midst of this natural world in which we find ourselves.

Together, let us move forward on this Lenten journey with a spirit of repentance and conversion. Let us embrace the traditional Lenten practices of prayer (especially the Eucharist), fasting and almsgiving as the time-tested and track-proven ways to deepen our relationship with God.

Like the Samaritan woman, the man blind from birth, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, whose stories we will hear during our Lenten pilgrimage, may we be buoyed up by the deeper awareness of God's boundless compassion, mercy and love so that we can enter into the paschal mystery of Christ's Passover from death into life, which we will celebrate at the great Easter feast, with a renewed mind, heart and spirit.

May God bless you -- and have a great Lent!

(02/07/08)