Pope Benedict - On Temptation

Here is a translation of the Angelus address given by the Holy Father this past Sunday:

Dear brothers and sisters!

On this Sunday of Lent we meet Jesus who, after having received baptism in the Jordan River from John the Baptist (cf. Mark 1:9), undergoes temptation in the desert (cf. Mark 1:12-13). St. Mark's narration is concise, lacking the details that we read in the other two gospels of Matthew and Luke. The desert of which he speaks has different meanings. It can indicate a condition of abandonment and solitude, the "place" of man's weakness where there are no footholds or certainties, where temptation is the strongest. But it can also mean a place of refuge and rest, as it was for the people of Israel, who had escaped from Egyptian slavery, where one can experience God's presence in a special way. Jesus "remained in the desert for 40 days, tempted by Satan" (Mark 1:13). St. Leo the Great comments that "the Lord wished to face the tempter's attack to defend us with his help and to instruct us with his example" (Tractatus XXXIX, 3 De ieiunio quadragesimae: CCL 138/A, Turnholti 1973, 214-215).

What can this episode teach us? As we read in the book "The Imitation of Christ," "as long as he lives man is never entirely free from temptation ... but it is with patience and with true humility that we become stronger than every enemy" (Liber I, c. XIII, Città del Vaticano 1982, 37), the patience and humility of following the Lord every day, learning to build our life not apart from him or as if he did not exist, but in him and with him, because he is the font of true life. The temptation to remove God, to create order in ourselves and the world by ourselves, counting on our own resources, is always present in human history.

Jesus proclaims that "the time is accomplished and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15), announces that in him something new is happening: God addressed man in an unexpected way, with a unique and concrete nearness, full of love; God becomes incarnate and enters into the world of man to take sin upon himself, to conquer evil and bring man and the world back to God. But this announcement is accompanied by the request to correspond to a great gift. Jesus, in fact, adds: "convert and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15); it is the invitation to have faith in God and every day to convert our life to his will, orienting every action and thought of ours to the good. The time of Lent is the propitious moment to renew and strengthen our relationship with God, through daily prayer, gestures of penance, works of fraternal charity.

We supplicate Mary Most Holy with fervor that she accompany us on our Lenten path with her protection and help us to impress in our heart and in our life the words of Jesus Christ, to convert ourselves to him. I also entrust to your prayers the week of retreat that I will be begin this evening with my collaborators in the Roman Curia.

Suffering and Grace

Ivan Kramskoi's Christ in the Desert, 1872

Readings for Sunday, February 26: 

Genesis 9:8-15

Psalm 25:4-9

1 Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:12-15

As I hear the story of what happened after the Great Flood and hear about Jesus being driven by the Spirit into the desert where He was tempted by the devil, I couldn’t help but recall those age-old questions: Why would God let this happen? How can a God who is supposed to be good and loving allow suffering?

In the summer of 2009, I spent eleven weeks working as a chaplain at Florida Hospital in Orlando. One of my fellow chaplains was known for his desire to ‘find where God is’ in the midst of things. I, too, reflected on that question, thinking about it as I was with my patients and reflecting upon it afterward. But I found that it was often difficult to see God’s hand in the moment.

When I sat with the father of a 7 year old boy who had drowned, I wondered where God was. As I sat for nine hours with a teenager whose mother was dying and the family refused to come to the hospital to be with him, I wondered where God was. As I sat with people in psychiatric units and suicide-watch rooms, I wondered where God was.

In those times I wish that I would have been able to see clearly where God was and what He was doing, but the reality is that sometimes I just had to trust that the Lord knew what was best and was bringing that to fruition. I couldn’t see what it was, but I knew that in the midst of that suffering God was doing something special.

We hear that from the utter destruction of the Earth in the Great Flood came a renewed covenant with the Lord and new life on the face of the Earth. From the Lord’s temptation in the desert, the knots of sin that Adam and Eve tied so many years ago begin to loosen. And from Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion we have been redeemed and, as St. Peter tells us, led to God. To our eyes, these sufferings often seem to be foolishness and yet it is through them that the Lord brings about great things in our midst. Who among us would think that the way to Heaven would be the nailing of the Lord to a tree? And yet in the wisdom of God it is so.

In the end, the answer to the question of how a loving God can permit suffering is, paradoxically, that it is because He loves us that He permits us to suffer. You see – salvation is wrought through the temptation, suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. The Father permitted all of those seemingly horrible things because He knew what good would come from it, and Christ endured it for that same reason. He knew what would come from it.

Hill of Crosses, Lithuania

As we endure sufferings in the midst of our lives and as we endure temptations and sufferings in the midst of this great season of grace, rather than lament these things, we are challenged to see them as signs of love for us. Christ died to save our souls. But the reality is that we too have a part in this great work of salvation. We, too, are entrusted with certain sufferings in order that we might unite them to the suffering of Christ and so gain grace for souls. The sufferings we endure, when united to Christ, could be the source of grace that brings about conversion in a wayward soul or lead a soul in purgatory into the Heavenly Banquet. The sufferings we endure, when united to Christ, can be given to us to help someone else in the future who suffers a similar cross. The sufferings we endure, when united to Christ, can be preparation for a larger cross later under which we would buckle if not first strengthened. To our eyes, especially in the midst of those sufferings, it often seems foolishness. And yet, with faith we know that God is with us in the midst doing something that we may never know but which will certainly be a source of much grace.

As we enter into this season of Lent, let us not endure temptations for the sake of enduring temptations. Rather, let us unite our temptations and sufferings to the Lord that He might make use of them and pour upon the Earth not a Great Flood of water but a Great Flood of Grace.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful,

and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.

Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,

And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Ashes and Graces

Readings for Wednesday, February 22 / Ash Wednesday:
Joel 2:12-18
Psalm 51:3-5, 12-14, 17
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Today we begin once again that great season of Lent. A practice said to have begun in the time of the Apostles, we have always held this time as a special season of grace. Modeling the 40-day temptation of Christ in the desert, where He was led by the Spirit, ministered to by angels, and tempted by the devil, we ourselves take up the yoke of penance and ask to be led by the Spirit into the spiritual desert where our faith is proved in the fire of temptation. 

To aid us in this purification, we turn to those ancient practices of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. These practices are for us a sort of spiritual medicine to heal the soul of its sinful inclinations, especially what St. Paul calls the 'triple lust' - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life. These three lusts are part of our fallen nature, and really are the sins that cause Adam and Eve to fall. If we turn to Genesis 3 and read the account of the Fall, we see that Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was 'good for food' - lust of the flesh. She longed to eat it. Secondly, she saw that it was 'pleasing to the eyes' - lust of the eyes. She knew it was something that she wanted but ought not to have. Lastly, she knew that it was 'desirable for wisdom' - pride of life. She wanted to become more than what she was, thinking this would enable her to do so. And so, the triple lust of the heart led Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit and merit condemnation. 

Temptation in the Desert, 15th Century French work

Centuries later, Christ the Lord was led to the desert to be tempted by the evil one. Interestingly, the devil tempts Him in the same manner as Adam and Eve - a sign that Christ is the New Adam and brings about a New Creation. The devil tempts the Lord, who is indeed hungry from fasting, to make bread out of the stones in the desert. Lust of the flesh. Jesus remains faithful to the Father and resists the temptation. The devil shows Christ the huge landscape and promises great power over it if He would but submit to the devil. Lust of the eyes. Christ sees all that is possible before Him, rejects the temptation and remains faithful. Lastly, the devil tells the Lord 'if you are the Son of God, leap from this tower and let the angels catch you'. Pride of life. The devil tempts the Lord, who could well have done this and all things, to exalt Himself in the midst of the world. Christ rejects the temptation and remains humble and faithful. By rejecting these three temptations of the triple lust, Christ brought redemption where Adam and Eve had sown condemnation. 

As we gather today, we take up that practice of fasting to fight the lust of our own flesh. We give alms to the Lord by charitable giving and works, showing that we are not seeking to build up our own wealth. Lastly, we turn to the Lord in prayer and recognize that God is God and we are not. These things do not exactly come easy, though, as we have likely found in the past. It takes a certain amount of effort, but more than that, it takes a tremendous amount of God's grace. And to help in that we have the recovered practice in Lent of the Prayer Over the People at the conclusion of Mass. Normally at the end of Mass we have the Post-Communion prayer, wherein the priest uses the 'we' and 'us' to include himself in the prayer for God's grace to come upon the community as they have received the gift of the Eucharist. The Prayer Over the People comes immediately after that prayer and does not use the 'we' but rather is the priest praying over the community in the name of the Lord. This practice was used from around the 3rd Century until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960's and now is in use once again since it's restoration by Blessed John Paul II. As noted, the difficulty of keeping our penances - both those chosen ourselves and those given us by the Lord - is sometimes intense and so the Church pours upon the faithful a sort of second-helping of grace in order to persevere and be found faithful as Christ was faithful and so merit for ourselves not condemnation but grace and redemption.

Mardi Gras with the MC's

Today I had the joy of going with some friends to join the Missionaries of Charity at St. Agnes Parish in preparing and serving food for the poor and homeless downtown. We got there a bit early and found that the meal for the day was pizza, which required little prep work. We prepared it quickly and then the sisters began showing us other jobs that could be done - two people mopped a hallway, another took out recyclables, another prepared the tables. So there I was standing in the hallway next to the sister waiting for her to give me a chore to help with. Fully expecting to receive a task of mopping, sweeping or some other form of manual labor, I asked, "Sister, what can I do?". She looked at me for a second, turned around and opened the chapel door, turned back to me and said, "Father, you can pray." For half a second I felt like I had just been given a break.  Everyone else was doing various tasks around the place and there I was simply sitting with Jesus. As I sat there, though, I began to think that maybe that little sister might have had a dozen other things that could have been done but that she felt it most fitting that I do what I've been consecrated to do and offer one of the greatest gifts I can by interceding on their behalf. And so I prayed. Maybe she was just taking it easy on me since it was my first time there in a long while, who knows. But in that moment, I came to realize a bit more clearly just what it is that others see in me and expect of me as a priest of Jesus Christ. And so I pray...

Being Evangelists

Readings for Sunday, February 19: 

Isaiah 43:18-19,21-22,24-25

Psalm 41:2-5,13-14

2 Corinthians 1:18-22

Mark 2:1-12

If you follow the addresses and writings of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, you will likely have noticed that he is constantly addressing the need for a New Evangelization of the world – to let the world know the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. The interesting thing is that this message of a need to evangelize our world is not limited to just cardinals, bishops and priests. Rather, this seems to be the message he speaks to every person he meets, everywhere he goes, because evangelizing the world isn’t something that priests or bishops do. It’s something everyone does. When Christ gave His last commandment to go out to all the nations, teaching them all that He had commanded, it was a commission given to the Church, not just the disciples. It is our task – yours and mine personally – to bring others to know Jesus Christ and His teachings.

In our Gospel today we have a beautiful story of a paralytic being brought to the Lord by four men. These men are the embodiment of what we ought to be doing in the midst of the world. There are many poor and broken souls in the world around us – at home, at school, at work – and they simply need someone to bring them to Christ that they might be healed. But this doesn’t happen unless we ourselves first have faith that Christ can and will heal them. The men in the story bring this paralytic to the home of Jesus, tear open his roof, and then lower him down at Jesus’ feet. These aren’t the actions of guys who thought Jesus might do something with the guy. They are the actions of men who had seen or even personally experienced the healing power of Christ and knew that if Christ willed it, the paralytic would walk home that day. Their own personal knowledge of the Lord gave them faith to bring the paralytic to Him. They were evangelized and then went to evangelize.

We sometimes think that to be a good Catholic we just have to come to Mass on Sundays, avoid mortal sin and live a decent life and that’s good enough. But the problem is that we can do all of those things and never actually encounter Jesus Christ. My brothers and sisters, we’re not called to be good enough. We’re called to be saints. And saints are men and women whose lives have been touched by Jesus Christ and radiate the Lord’s presence. Sadly, there are many in the world and in our Church who have not really been evangelized.

We can see it in the fact that less than 30% of Catholics attend Mass regularly and many of those leave Mass early because it seems that they have more important things than to stay after Holy Communion and give thanks to God for the gift they’re received. We can see it in the number of Catholics who claim to follow Jesus but do not believe His teachings – especially on key doctrines such as the Real Presence in the Eucharist, the need for the Sacrament of Confession, the immorality of contraception and abortion, and the reality of marriage being the union of one man and one woman. If we ourselves are not faithful; if we ourselves are not in love with Jesus Christ and His Church, trusting in their power at work in the world – how can we expect others to join us?

To evangelize, we must first be evangelized ourselves. The season of Lent is a special time each year where the Lord has much grace stored up for us, waiting and hoping that we will ask Him to pour it out on us. Why not let Him do so? Let Him strengthen us in our faith. We have Masses each morning and at noon throughout Lent, and have adoration on Wednesdays. Come experience Him in the Eucharist. We have Confession available on Saturdays as well as every Wednesday night of Lent. Come experience His mercy in Reconciliation. We have numerous faith-sharing programs. Come and experience Him in the Scriptures and teachings of the Church. If you can’t make these programs, pick up your Bible and pray. Find a good Catholic book and read it. Find a meditation book and spend a few moments each morning with the Lord.

And as we go through Lent, why not make a special effort to speak to others about your faith? We have tons of opportunities from the ashes we receive to the fasting we do, but why not try other ways such as making the Sign of the Cross and praying before meals, talk about the faith in conversations, inviting someone to Mass each weekend, or sharing faith experiences or quotes on Facebook or Twitter. These are just a few things that we can do that will permit us to speak about the faith and Jesus Christ to others. Let us not miss these moments of grace.

And if you haven’t heard one word of the homily, I ask you to listen keenly now to words of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict:

Dear friends, being evangelizers is not a privilege but a commitment that comes from faith. To the question the Lord addresses to Christians: “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” answer with the same courage and the same trust as the Prophet: “Here am I! Send me” (Is 6:8). I ask you to let yourselves be formed by God’s grace and to respond in docility to the action of the Spirit of the Risen One. Be signs of hope, able to look to the future with the certainty that comes from the Lord Jesus, who conquered death and gave us eternal life. Communicate the joy of faith to all with the enthusiasm that comes from being driven by the Holy Spirit, because he makes all things new (see Rv 21:5), trusting in the promise that Jesus made to the Church: “and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).  

For further edification: Catholic Guide to Spiritual Makeover

Lepers and Sinners

St. Damien - Patron of Lepers and Outcasts

Readings for Sunday, February 12:

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46

Psalm 32:1-2,5,11

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

Mark 1:40-45

When two of our four readings this weekend talked about lepers and leprosy, I got a bit curious and started researching the topic. I saw pictures of those suffering from it and learned about the symptoms and means of contracting the illness. And while it’s not something so commonly seen today, it does still exist and can be a terrible thing if untreated. It attacks the nerves and causes severe pain and loss of the ability to sense heat or cold. It causes significant muscular weakness throughout the body. It also tends to be thrive in cooler places and so it attacks the face, hands, feet, eyes, and other extremities of the body, sometimes leading to the loss of fingers and toes, as well as blindness and disfigurement.

The more I read about it, the more I began to see that what Leprosy does the body, sin does the soul. Sin attacks something that is within us – our spiritual nerves in a sense – and causes us pain. We suffer from guilt, shame, and regret. As we experience that pain, we often turn to sin to help us numb the hurt we experience. As a consequence of Original Sin and our own choices to sin throughout our lives, we have an inclination to sin; like the weakness of muscles to move, sin weakens our will to do good. Like Leprosy, sin also attacks the places where we are weakest – the desires of the flesh, our need for acceptance and love – and exploits them, leading us to do things that we think will bring us joy and completeness but only leave us empty and looking for the next thing that might bring us that joy we seek. Lastly, sin disfigures us. It alienates us from others, as we turn in toward ourselves and begin to do things that our friends and family recognize are not really who we are.

All of those things are serious, but I think the thing that is most serious here is the isolation. In the Jewish culture, as we hear in the reading from Leviticus, to be a leper meant that you were unclean. To be unclean isn’t necessarily to be in sin, but rather a state impurity, often by the contraction of a disease or contact with things that could carry disease.  Imagine having to walk around crying out “Unclean! Unclean!” so that everyone knew not to touch you and thus become unclean themselves. Talk about not feeling like an outcast! And if that was not enough, because they were unclean, they were not permitted to enter the Temple and worship the Lord in the larger community. They were not only separated from people, but also from their God. And is this not the true effect of our sin? That by doing sinful things we desire and not what we ought, we turn away from God and we turn away from our community.

This place of isolation is not what the Lord desires for us. Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God to be part of a community and ultimately to be joined to Him for eternity in Heaven. It was true dignity of the man that Jesus saw when He looked upon the leper in pity. He knew that the man was called to greatness and knew deeply the emptiness the man was experiencing. So Jesus reached out to him and, literally taking his hand, restored that dignity and wholeness and brought him back into the community and back to God. And the Lord desires to do the same with us.

Jesus Healing a Leper

During the season of Lent, just ten days away, we will have the Sacrament of Reconciliation available each Saturday at the normal time from 230-330, as well as on Wednesday evenings from 6 until 730pm. And as we mentioned before Mass, yesterday was the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and in her honor we are making the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick available at all Masses today.

My brothers and sisters, let us heed the words of Christ. Let us show ourselves to the priest, that Christ might restore the beauty of our soul, and bring us the healing and reconciliation that our hearts desire.

Face-Melting Quote of the Day

"We belong to the Church militant; and she is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass her destruction. Not only in the far-off centuries of the early Church, but down through the ages and in this our day, the enemies of God and Christian civilization make bold to attack the Creator's supreme dominion and sacrosanct human rights." 

-Venerable Pius XII


h/t to Fr. Z