Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
February 10, 2008
Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
For those who have purchased the Holy Father’s book, “Jesus of Nazareth”, which has been out less than a year, chapter two, which begins on page 25, would repay your efforts today or over this next week. Also, in the middle of the book, page 160, the Holy Father is dealing with the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, dealing with “and lead us not into temptation.” The Holy Father does a beautiful treatment of this Gospel today.
When we look at the First Reading we see Adam and Eve in the Garden. In today’s Gospel we see the “New Adam”, Christ in the desert. Christ has been prefigured by Adam and by Job for example, who was a righteous man. On page 162 the Pope treats on Satan mocking Job.
Satan wants to prove his case through the righteous man, Job. Just let everything be taken away from him, Satan says, and he will quickly drop his piety too.[/quote
Just take it all away; he was very wealthy.
“You take it all away and we will just see how holy Job is.”
The fact is that this Gospel today, on this the First Sunday of Lent, applies to us. The Pope says in these two places and elsewhere that the Spirit led Jesus into the desert where He was tempted. What did they do, take a wrong turn; is the Spirit being a traitor to Jesus? It says
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
The Holy Father points out that by Christ going into the desert, by being led by the Spirit, into the desert where He was tempted shows us how we are to act and that He, the Good Shepherd, leads us through the valley of death and through temptations and trials to Heaven. This is very much in keeping with the anniversary tomorrow, the 150th Anniversary of Our Lady’s appearance to St. Bernadette at Lourdes.
This Gospel takes place after the Baptism of Jesus, and the Holy Father points out that the Baptism of Jesus is what begins His public life, like the kings of the Old Testament were anointed with oil, Jesus is Baptized by St. John in the waters of the Jordan River. Who can think of Lourdes without thinking of water? The message of Our Lady to St. Bernadette is equal to that of Our Lord. She says to St. Bernadette,
She asked St. Bernadette, and us, through her to pray and sacrifice, to do penance for the conversion of sinners. That is very selfish because I get to pray for myself, and so do you…and then for others. To pray and sacrifice, to do penance for the conversion of sinners is so very important.I do not promise you happiness in this life, only in the next.
It is also important to see how integrated this Gospel is with our daily lives, our sinful lives, and to see in our first parents an image of ourselves. You notice that Adam and Ever were shown the forbidden fruit and then told not to touch it, let alone eat it, else they would die. It is like parents having a problem with one of the boys running with scissors.
“Put these scissors right here and don’t you even touch them.”
Later on they come into the room and there he is, this close to the scissors.
“I told you, stay away from those scissors!”
” I didn’t touch them.”
Thank you for such compliance, right. He had his eye almost on them. If you read that First Reading, Eve had already made her purchase. She saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes and desirable for gaining wisdom, so finally she touched it. She had already received it into her heart before she ever grabbed it. Adam was not better. The fact is that the serpent is the devil, and the same devil who tempted Adam and Eve, one of the fallen angels is the same devil who is tempting Jesus in the desert, and is the same tempter of you and me.
I have been going through Fr. Hardon’s series on angels and demons; I highly recommend it for the season of Lent. He says something, which the Catholic Church has always taught, but it is very consoling. He says that,
So, they cannot read our minds or hearts, whew! Right? Thanks be to God! Only God can read your mind and your heart. Now, the other side of that is…imagine your worst enemy, who has access to you every moment of every day, even while you are asleep. Right? And they are watching you and waiting for any word that you might say, any eyebrow that might go up, any change in respiration or blood pressure shall we say, and anything that we are doing or saying alone or with others and they are writing it down to be used against us. They are compiling some big archive that I guarantee will be used against us when we are at our weakest. The devil has no problem kicking us when we are down; that is his preferred manner of treating us. Look at what the Gospel says today.The good angels nor fallen angels can read our mind and cannot read our hearts.
Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights and afterwards He was hungry.
Don’t pass that line by lightly. Jesus was able to be hungry.
“Oh, He was God. Yes, He is God and Man, but He didn’t get hungry like I do.”
Look at the Gospel! After forty days and nights He was hungry, then the “other team” jumps on Him. Again, this is the preferred manner of treating us in exactly this way, so when we are that, when we are at our worst, we are tempted, why are we amazed? Think of what the First Sunday of Lent says and what Saint Philip Neri said every morning. Hopefully you have something to say the first thing in the morning when you get out of bed beside groaning and complaining. You could easily just tell God that you love Him. Tell the Blessed Mother and your parents that you love them, even if they are not there. This would be very good as well. The first thing Saint Philip Neri did when he got up every morning was to say,
He lived five hundred years ago and what a great saint of Rome who helped so many of the poor there. This is how he started every day.Lord, look out for Philip today lest he betray you again.
We forget that St. Peter betrayed Christ and the other cowardly Apostles, save St. John, and yet we are so sold on our ability to withstand temptation.
“Why do I need God’s grace? I can do this on my own!”
Right? Let me give you this scenario, and this scenario is repeated too often I would say. After twelve or fourteen hours of hard work, whether it is at home or at the office, you are just worn out. After the time spent in traffic you get home and you are able to get a shower, put some food into yourself and finally with no energy left you sink into your chair and then you make that tragic mistake of turning on the television. Why don’t you try the same thing, but instead of turning on the television, have yourself handcuffed and walk through the worst part of town at midnight alone?
“I would never do that Father!”
Gee, and then all the images that are going to wash across you as you are flipping channels or not flipping them, you are amazed at the other team and what they are waiting for? Again, respiration, eye movement or whatever can be noticed, he, the devil, will notice and it will be used against you and your family at the worst possible time. Why are we surprised? It is as though we have the devil and then the “devil lite” No, we don’t, but this is part of the cunning of the other team. You and I must recognize how what we say and do has an impact on others and on us. To my shame, as a child along with my brother and sisters, we would say hurtful things to each other or yell at each other. That must have been like a knife right in the heart of my parents.
“Oh honey, listen…they are fighting again, I am so happy.”
It must have been terrible. But the reverse is true as well. Sometimes the things that parents say in the earshot of their children is like a knife. These things are being overheard and not only by the children or by the parents, but also by the other team. Why don’t we just give the complete plans for the defense of our country to the enemy? How did the devil know you disliked someone so? You have only told the person a million times, right? We have to be made of sterner stuff; we have to focus our lives the way they are supposed to be focused.
I will now refer to the back of your bulletins. Here on this day in 1989, Blessed Mother Teresa published a little booklet, “Rosary Meditations from Mother Teresa” and I went to the Internet to buy some and they are $95.00 a piece. Mother Teresa must be rolling over in her grave. I bought a dozen. Father Paul is joking. The Missionaries of Charity must be terrible businessmen. They have not had these out of print books reprinted. I bought one and published part of one of her meditations on the back of the bulletin. What a beautiful meditation. On the front of the bulletin you will see a mosaic that is at one of the outdoor chapels right in front of the shrine at Lourdes. You can see that in her right hand she has rosary beads. Later on you can look at the back of the bulletin and study the beautiful meditation and you will see that Blessed Mother Teresa is so intent on getting us to unite our hearts with the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Holy Communion. Whether you are in Church or at home making a spiritual Communion, or with Jesus in the Tabernacle, it is the goal of our prayer life and is to be fortified.
Today, at the end of Mass you will not hear a closing hymn, instead we recall the words of Holy Thursday or Good Friday. At the end of each night we hear the instruction, “All depart in silence.” So we should be thinking about Holy Thursday right now, the same with Good Friday, lest we betray Him again. Right? Think about what Jesus said to His friends, Peter, James, and John.
Stay awake and pray that you may not be put to the test; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
“Nah, I will just settle in this chair and turn on the TV. And I will be ok.”
And Peter, James, and John stayed awake….yea right! And you are going to defend yourself….right! It ain’t gonna happen, is it? Jesus came back to them and noticed that they were sleeping and asked if they couldn’t stay awake for one hour. What a stinging rebuke it is. He was so disappointed. Here He is doing the “Lion’s Share”, and they could not stay awake even for an hour. This applies to you and to me as well.
“Oh, He is my best friend; I never spend time with Him in prayer, but we are best friends.”
If this is you speaking then you have a weird definition of best friend.
The meditation of Blessed Mother Teresa is one, which leads us into the very heart of suffering, because it directs our heart to the Heart of Jesus. He leads us right into suffering, right into the heart of the desert of trials, not so that He can abandon us, but to lead us from there to green pastures that will never end. Who can think of Lourdes without thinking of Lourdes water? The anointing of our Baptism is to prepare us because the Spirit leads us right from there into the desert where we are tempted, and we put God to the test as if He has abandoned us.
The good news that Fr. Hardon brings out is, yes, the other team is always watching every movement, word, syllable and inflection and will use it against us, but God says to us again and again to pray constantly. Don’t believe the devil in this Gospel when he talks about the Guardian Angel.
It is written that He will command His angels concerning You and with their hands they will support you lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Listening to the devil interpret Scripture is like listening to CNN interpret the Catholic Faith for you. Don’t do it. But, God does send us an angel; every one of us has a Guardian Angel, and if only we would turn to him every moment of the day. He is simultaneously in the presence of God and at my side. This is not mumbo-jumbo or a fairytale; this is a spiritual reality that Father Hardon describes so much better than I. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweat blood and the Apostles were snoring? Right after that the angels were sent by God to console Jesus. The same thing after His trials in the desert; angels were sent to minister to Him. Jesus shows us how it will be for us if we follow Him into temptation and trials.
Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen