Praise God. Praise be to Jesus Christ, forever and ever. Amen.
Friends, We are Pilgrims of Hope led by the Holy Spirit on our journey to eternity. One of the things we are to do this Jubilee year is to proclaim to the we are Pilgrims of Hope.
As pilgrims, one of the things we notice is the dangerous road of our journey that has low points of suffering and high and dangerous places of temptation.
Welcome to life.
How do we stay faithful pilgrims on such a dangerous road?
When I was a little boy, whenever my brothers or I faced troubles, my mother would always tell us to bring our worries to God. Despite my own struggles with weight and my 2 brothers' struggles with dyslexia, she encouraged us to trust in God by asking Jesus for help. She would often tell us “Give all your troubles to Jesus.”
My father was not a wandering Aramian; but, he was a Baptist preacher and he gave me this advice when going off to college on avoiding temptation. “If Jesus is looking for you, don’t be someplace you’d be embarrassed to be found. Remember, Jesus is always with you.”
In life's challenges and my own ambitions, sometimes I may have forgotten my mothers words of faith and my father’s advice. Too many times, I’d find myself physically and mentally in places I would have been embarrassed if Jesus found me there.
But, those words of advice have always remained a part of who I am. I have shared those words with my wife, children, grandchildren, and friends.
And the crux of their advice is this, always trust in Jesus. Always remain close to him. For Paul reminds us, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame."
Now, as a Deacon and Spiritual Director, I truly recognize the wisdom of my mother's teachings and my father’s advice. The sufferings and temptations of life are real and inevitable. They are a part of a daily life and our fallen human nature, and a world influenced by the evil one.
Welcome to human life.
As humans, Catholics, and Christians, we often focus on avoiding suffering and temptations rather than facing them. But perhaps we should confront them head-on, just as one special human life.
The Word became flesh; Jesus was God but also human.
Jesus was "led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted" (Lk 4:1). The Spirit led Jesus into the desert, indicating that this was part of God's plan.
There, Jesus faced suffering and temptations directly, enduring 40 days without food and experiencing hunger. And, Jesus faced his temptations, suffered from them. He endured those temptations as part of His human life.
We rarely explore the reason behind it.
If we did, we would see that Jesus was tempted just like we are tempted. He was tempted where every human is vulnerable: the desire for prestige and recognition, the satisfaction of bodily needs, and the pursuit of power and wealth.
Despite these temptations, Jesus never gave in. He endured and suffered the test. Showing us, He is strength and inspiration in the face of our own temptations.
Jesus is there to meet us in our own deserts, waiting for us, calling to us, and guiding us out. Just as angels ministered to Jesus, He sends angels to minister to us in our times of need.
1 Corinthians 10:13 assures us, "God is faithful, He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure it." Even in our temptations God has established boundaries that Satan cannot cross. So, Satan tempts us when we are most vulnerable, just as he did Jesus after he had completed 40 days of fasting.
Jesus battled Satan using God’s scripture against the great tempter. Satan will find our weakness and customize his enticements to our individual temptations. In our temptations, we need the word of God. We need to find the verses that apply to our temptations.
The prophet Nehemiah proclaims that we find our strength when we rejoice in the Lord. Scriptures are the power and promises of God that fights for us.
Lent is 40 days that we will be tested and tempted. Will fall into Satan's temptations, or will we stay faithful with Jesus? The fact is that it was God's will for Jesus to be tempted reveals these things.
Jesus was tempted for our sake, so we can have the strength to resist sin; our strength is in Jesus.
Another thing is that life on earth is a spiritual warfare, and we must expect to be tempted by the devil;
And finally, we should avoid the near occasion of sin and not lightly expose ourselves to temptation.
Friends, Even times of temptations can be moments of faith. Luke tells us that the Devil waited until Jesus was weak from hunger, thirst, and fatigue to tempt Him. Jesus was again tempted in the garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross, during His most vulnerable moments. Yet, He turned those moments of temptation into moments of faith.
We are Pilgrims of Hope in this human life traveling on roads paved with suffering and temptation.
Yet, as pilgrims we have all we need to turn our times of suffering and temptation into moments of faith and hope.
All we need is God at the center of our life.
We come to the Eucharist, seeking the presence of Christ for strength to face the sufferings and temptations of our human life. The by the strength of Hope that comes from faith in Jesus Christ, we continue, Pilgrims of Hope on a journey toward eternity.
Remember to always put your trust in Jesus, give him all your suffering. Face the temptations of life realizing Jesus and his angels are always there beside you.
My fellow Pilgrims of Hope, be good, be holy, and preach the gospel to the whole world by the way you live your life and love one another.
Praise God. Praise Be to Jesus Christ, 4ever & ever. Amen.
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