Every Ash Wednesday we start the holy season of Lent, that is, a 40 day period of preparation for the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Paschal Mystery refers to his passion, death, resurrection and glorification which wrought our salvation. Why Ash Wednesday? Because we reminded of our origin, that is, we were created by God through the "dust". "Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return."

Since death is part and parcel of human life and it is definitive. The Church reminds to reflect deeply of its meaning wherein she enjoins all of us to repent. Repentance, that is, turning away from our sins and turning towards Christ by doing the discipline of Lent which are Fasting, Prayer and Alms giving. These religious acts ought to be a genuine expression of "metanoia" or conversion.

As we begin the Sunday of Lent, we focus our attention on Jesus after he was baptized, the Spirit led him to the desert where he fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights. This is reminiscence of the 40 years of the sojourn of the people in the desert before they entered the promised land. This is Jesus way of preparing himself as he is about to start his Public Ministry.

Let's now zero in on the temptations of Jesus. The first temptation. The devil knew that he was hungry so he told him: "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." Jesus can easily change them to bread but Jesus didn't give in to satisfy his appetite and desire. In response, he quoted the scripture: "One does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth." Jesus accepts that God's word in scripture ought to be our daily bread wherein God would feed our soul. The first temptation is intended to gratify our basic and fundamental human need like food through physical satisfaction. Jesus resolutely commits himself in fulfilling the Father's desire then his needs. How many times did we succumb ourselves in fulfilling our pleasurable needs by compromising the will of God?

The second temptation. The devil took him to the city of Jerusalem and made him stand at the parapet of the temple. He told Jesus: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone." The devil was really shrewd when he said, he wanted Jesus to make a miracle in front people by throwing himself down and not hurting himself so that people would believe in him. In response to him, he said: "Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God, to the test." In essence, this temptation is more on trusting ourselves rather than putting our complete trust in God. How many times in our lives that we put more trust in ourselves than the providence and protection of God.

The third temptation. The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the Kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to Jesus. "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me." In response to him, Jesus said: "Get away, Satan! It is written: "The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone you shall serve." In essence, this temptation speaks about the misuse of power. God has definitely given us dominion over creation. This power has to be shared with God not absolutizing it. Pope Francis reminds us: "Once human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble, for instead of carrying out his role as cooperator with god in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature." (Laudato Si, 117) As humans, our greatest temptation is to be completely independent of God, that is, to consider Him as irrelevant and unimportant in our life. Having such mentality will lead us to our complete destruction. Only God is the source of our salvation, nobody else.

In conclusion, Matthew says that the devil departs but his temptations will accompany him until the end. Likewise, temptations will be part of our journey in life as we follow Jesus. Let us stay awake and vigilant as Peter warns us: "Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, be steadfast in faith." (1 Pt 5:8-9)

One final word, I would like to thank you for your graciousness and generosity for attaining our CDA goal last year. I believe that we can reach our goal this year for I BELIEVE IN YOU!

Fr. Jerome

Jesus like us was truly tempted. Satan, the "deceiver" was using and manipulating the scripture to distract and dissuade Jesus from fulfilling the plan of God through his paschal mystery.

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