{"id":1308,"date":"2014-03-09T14:44:54","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T18:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1308"},"modified":"2014-03-09T14:44:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T18:44:54","slug":"homily-1st-sunday-in-lent-year-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-1st-sunday-in-lent-year-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – 1st Sunday in Lent, Year A"},"content":{"rendered":"

1st<\/sup> Sunday in Lent, Year A<\/a>
\nGenesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
\nRomans 5:12-19
\nMatthew 4:1-11
\nMarch 9, 2014<\/p>\n

Temptation!\u00a0 We all know what it feels like to be tempted.\u00a0 Jesus also knows.\u00a0 The devil, aka the \u201ctempter\u201d was so bold as to tempt Jesus.<\/p>\n

The \u201ctempter\u201d knows when to strike.\u00a0 Jesus had been fasting for forty days and forty nights.\u00a0 So, he was hungry.\u00a0 Knowing his hungry could make him vulnerable, the tempter comes to Jesus and invites him to use his power as Son of God to turn stones into bread.<\/p>\n

It would seem like a reasonable thing.\u00a0 Jesus needs <\/i>food doesn\u2019t he?\u00a0 Why not turn the stones into bread?<\/p>\n

But Jesus does not.\u00a0 He will not use his power for selfish reasons.\u00a0 He knows his power is not given for his earthly needs but for a much greater spiritual purpose.<\/p>\n

Do we use power\/authority for selfish gain?<\/p>\n

Jesus had a great faith and trusted the Father completely<\/i>.\u00a0 The \u201ctempter\u201d tries to use that against Jesus by telling him to throw himself down, believing that God will protect him.\u00a0 The \u201ctempter\u201d actually quotes scripture here.\u00a0 Jesus quotes scripture too, \u201cYou shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do we put ourselves in situations that we shouldn\u2019t, expecting God to bail us out?<\/p>\n

The \u201ctempter\u201d offers Jesus the world but Jesus isn\u2019t interested in it if Jesus just worships him.\u00a0 Jesus won\u2019t because he is more interested in the heavenly kingdom and the Father.<\/p>\n

Is there a price where we would \u2018sell our souls to the devil?\u2019<\/p>\n

As we enter this first full week of Lent, we hear how Jesus is tempted and successfully resists the temptation.\u00a0 Jesus shows us it is possible to resist temptation but it is something we struggle to do.<\/p>\n

Jesus knows it is hard for us to resist temptation so in the end, Jesus gives his life for us on the Cross for the times when we fail to resist temptation.<\/p>\n

Still, we must strive to resist temptation to show that we are genuinely interested and committed to be Jesus\u2019 disciples.<\/p>\n

The \u201ctempter\u201d is \u201ccunning\u201d and knows how to strike.\u00a0 He knew to strike Jesus after fasting. \u00a0The \u201ctempter\u201d knows when we are weak.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean just weak from physical hunger.\u00a0 I\u2019m thinking more of when we are stressed over something.<\/p>\n

We all face temptations.\u00a0 Each one of us can find our struggle lies in different places.\u00a0 What is tempting for one person may not even be inviting to the next person.<\/p>\n

There can be times when we find it hard to resist temptations that normally don\u2019t them that hard.\u00a0 As I said, the \u201ctempter\u201d is cunning.\u00a0 He will attack when we are stressed and\/or exhausted over an unrelated event and our guard is down.\u00a0 We can be so busy fighting another struggle in our lives that we never see the \u201ctempter\u201d coming.<\/p>\n

None of what I have said should be used to make excuses or to make it sound like it is OK to fall to temptation.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t but it is important to know how the \u201ctempter\u201d works so we can be better able to resist him.<\/p>\n

Regardless, we fail at times.\u00a0 The good news is that God wants to forgive us for our failings.\u00a0 If God didn\u2019t stand ready to forgive us, He won\u2019t have sent his son Jesus to redeem us.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s forgiveness is a gift<\/i><\/b> we see expressed in Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion but it is not enough just to know about the Crucifixion.\u00a0 We need to be repentant for our sins.\u00a0 Part of repentance is to be willing to admit our sins.\u00a0 When we admit our sins, we open ourselves to God\u2019s gift of forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Jesus has given us the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a means of showing repentance and receiving the gift.\u00a0 We offer this sacrament every Saturday from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m.\u00a0 Our diocese is again offering a Day of Penance this year on March 25th<\/sup> from 12:30 to 7:30 p.m.\u00a0 Last year, some many people came that I didn\u2019t finish till almost 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

What temptations have you failed to resist?\u00a0 Not sure where to begin?\u00a0 Start with an examination of conscience that can be found hanging outside our confessional or on my website.\u00a0 Not sure how to go to the sacrament?\u00a0 We have a handout on that too.<\/p>\n

What is your greatest temptation?\u00a0 What do you need forgiveness for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1st Sunday in Lent, Year A Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 March 9, 2014 Temptation!\u00a0 We all know what it feels like to be tempted.\u00a0 Jesus also knows.\u00a0 The devil, aka the \u201ctempter\u201d was so bold as to tempt Jesus. The \u201ctempter\u201d knows when to strike.\u00a0 Jesus had been fasting for forty days …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – 1st Sunday in Lent, Year A’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-l6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}