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Sunday, February 21, 2010

1st Sunday of Lent, Year C, 21-02-10

Deuteronomy 26:4-10
Roman 10:8-13
Luke 4:1-13

Last Wednesday was a special day for the Church. Because last Wednesday we began the season of Lent and we call that day Ash Wednesday.

Although it was not a day of obligation, it was a day of obligatory fasting and abstinence.

Although it was not a day of obligation, yet most of us came for Mass, and the 4 Masses on that day were generally well attended.

On Ash Wednesday at Mass, we were marked with ashes in the shape of a cross on the forehead.

This custom of marking with ashes on the forehead is from the Old Testament practice of putting ashes on the head as a sign of repentance.

Now, besides being irritating on the skin, the ashes also make a person look rather ghoulish.

Just imagine, with ashes on the head and face, a person would look like he went for cremation and was only half-done.

He would look ghostly or would even look like a ghost.

But that was the idea of the Old Testament practice of putting ashes.

Because to sin is to turn away from God. And without God, one would look like a ghost.

Hence the putting on or smearing with ashes is a sign of repentance.

But on Ash Wednesday, we didn’t have to smear ourselves with ashes; just some ashes on the forehead in the shape of a cross.

Yet to non-Catholics, it may raise some eyebrows.

A couple told me that after evening Mass on Ash Wednesday, they went back and were waiting at the lift-lobby.

Another lady came along to the lift lobby, she glanced at them, she looked alarmed and immediately turned and hurriedly walked away.

The couple looked at each other and realized that the ashes were still on their foreheads.

But the ashes on our foreheads are not meant to frighten people. They are meant to frighten us.

They are meant to remind us of our mortality and our finality.

“Remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return”

Yes, ashes is also a powerful reminder of what will finally become of us.

Ashes is also a powerful reminder of what will eventually become of everything we see around us.

That is also what Jesus is telling us in the gospel as He faced the temptations of the devil.

Jesus is telling us that all temptations have the objective to make us grab the temporary, and to throw away and forget about eternity.

Taken together, the 3 temptations were to lure Jesus to take control of the here and now.

What was at stake was what will control the heart of Jesus.

Because whatever controls the heart of Jesus, that will also control His actions.

The first temptation has to do with control over things.

The devil says: You are hungry. Use your power to turn stone into bread. Control your situation, no need to control your hunger.

The second temptation has to do with control over people.

The devil says: Just bow down to me, and you will have these hordes, these multitudes, bowing down to your whims and fancies. Don’t let people control you – you control them.

The third temptation is to control God, to put God to the test, so to speak.

The devil taunts Jesus: Come on, take a leap. If you are the Son of God, then God must save you, isn’t it?

Oh yes, the temptations are all about control, about what controls our heart.

We want to have control and a say over our things.

We may not admit to being control freaks, but yet we use the word “I want…” so often.

Just imagine the control and power we have over people, when we can tell someone: I want you to do this now! And he gets it done.

Or when we have a trump card in our hands, we might just say this: I want to bring this up, and I want to put all those people down. I want to show them some colour.

Such power and control makes us feel high and mighty about ourselves.

But for what? And for how long? Do we want control over the temporary and yet lose hold of our eternity?

Throughout his ministry, Jesus was faced with the choice, the temptation, to use His divine powers for His own benefit and to win the crowds for Himself.

Jesus could have taken control over what His life would be like, He could have a life of fame, power, prestige, wealth,

But Jesus surrendered this control to His Father and the most profound occasion was at Gethsemane when He said: Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from me; yet not my will but Your will be done.

To do the will of God means that we surrender control of our lives to Him.

Because at the core of our temptation is this little word “if”.

For Jesus, it is: if you are the Son of God… For us, it will be this: If God really loves me…

So we might say things like:
If God really loves me, then He will answer my prayers, He will solve my problems, He will remove my difficulties and tribulations, He will heal my illness, He will give me what I want.

And what if God does not?

The evil is in the “if”. With God, it is not an “if”, or a “but”, or a “maybe”.

God is love, and He loves us with an everlasting love.

Everything will turn to dust and ashes. We ourselves will turn to dust and ashes.

Only in God is our life and our destiny.

So let us surrender our lives and hearts to God and let Him be in control.

Let us pray that we will always do God’s will while we are here on earth, so that even while our bodies will turn to dust, we will be with God forever in heaven.