1st Sunday of Lent

If God the Father Almighty, the creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? Imagine how different the world would be if there was no evil. Our nation would not be on the brink of another war in the Middle East, this time with the Islamic State. Nine-eleven would have been like any other day in Manhattan. Closer to home, we wouldn’t read headlines that speak of lives shattered or destroyed by the selfishness of others.

The Catechism tells us that like angels we are free to move toward our ultimate eternal destination: heaven or hell. God hopes that all peoples will choose to be in heaven with Him but that is a choice we have to make freely. Along the way we will have ample opportunities as Jesus and Satan did to love or not, to do good or not, and to do evil or not.

God didn’t create hatred or evil; they come from Satan who is God’s first adversary. Evil is the consequence of our imperfect world that chooses to go its own way, pursuing its own kingdoms rather than the Kingdom of God.

Temptation itself is not a sin; it’s a test of what really matters to us. As the gospel relates, Jesus was tempted by Satan. No one is immune from the constant force of temptation, which is Satan’s tool to lead us into sin, tailor made to arise from our daily circumstances, struggles and sufferings.

In his version of Jesus’ stay in the desert, Matthew relates that Satan tempted Jesus with some rather plush promises: the lure of power and glory, along with all the kingdoms of the world. Quite likely, his struggle to resist Satan was more challenging than any you and I have ever faced, yet Jesus succeeded by keeping his focus on the ultimate kingdom that would bring lasting joy and harmony, the kingdom created by his father, something no sin can do.

Speaking of kingdoms, the last time I visited the magic kingdom of Disneyland, I actually spent more time in the new park next door, California Adventure. One show there that captivated me was a 3-dimensional view of the world from a bug’s perspective. To provide the 3-D effect, we were given special glasses to wear. They were so effective that at times I wanted to reach out and grab the fly in front of my nose. Without those special glasses, the movie was out of focus.

The same could be said for the Kingdom of God, which Jesus tells us, is close enough at hand for us to reach out and touch right now, yet without a prayerful mindset, God’s kingdom remains out of focus for us.

Despite our plea in the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come,” we often visualize the Kingdom of God as a distant paradise that is light years away, far from this imperfect world we live in now. But Jesus isn’t speaking of a fantasyland. He tells us that the Kingdom of God is at hand but to experience it here and now, he tells us to repent and believe in the gospel; advice many of us heard on Ash Wednesday. Think of repentance as the special glasses we need that brings the Kingdom into focus.

Repentance helps us to see the shortcomings of sin and temptations. For example, how often do we make a remark we wish we could take back? How often do we regret not doing something we should have done? We often regret choices we have made such as reacting before thinking of the consequences. We would like to think that we could easily walk away from temptations when they arise, especially when the temptation is serious and the choice difficult, but that demands a choice to draw closer to God. We can’t avoid temptations nor can we avoid choices. They are as much a part of life as breathing.

As Jesus demonstrated in the gospel, temptations can be resisted more readily when we see that giving into them will do us little good if any. What we can learn from becoming repentant is how to make faithful, life giving choices and to realize the effects our choices will have on others and on us. Repentance entails a change of mind and heart, a life giving transformation that draws us closer to God.

Anytime a temptation arises, we have to make a choice. Jesus’ choice was to take up his saving mission. What is our temptation? What is our choice? They are questions that we must constantly ask ourselves if we wish to participate in Jesus’ saving mission, proclaiming by the choices we make that the gospel determines who we are and how we act.

This is when many of us do spring house cleaning. Likewise, our Lenten journey would be a fitting time to confront those demons that pester us with countless temptations that breed evil, such as greed, a quick temper, impatience, holding grudges, the tendency to waste time, selfishness, sexual obsessions, gluttony, lying, or breaking promises. Giving into any of them doesn’t bring us any closer to the Kingdom of God. Nor does the temptation to become less prayerful or spiritually lazy that will lead us to drift away from the faith.

Repentance enables us to see that Satan’s temptations hinder us from bringing the Kingdom of God into focus. While we can’t make them or evil go away once and for all, God gives us the grace to resist them and thus keep our sight on what really matters in the end, reaching his kingdom, the source of everlasting joy, love and peace.