The forty days of lent started on the Ash Wednesday and we are invited one more time to live out the gospel message in these days of Lent.

In this day and age, we are inclined to take the easiest way possible so that we will not have any difficulties. Doing without difficulties sounds good and tempting, I’d rather take it than suffer. But pondering it we realize that there must be a lot of consequences when what we have in our hands or what we possess is not the fruit of our own labor. When we are hungry, we just buy prepared food available in the market, just add hot water or heat it in the microwave and instantly we satisfy our hunger but our health is at risk. Who doesn’t want to get rich? There are easy ways to get rich like winning the lottery, or accepting an illegal job that brings a lot of money. But our dignity is at stake. When we like to gain power; power over the weak, power over the people having post in the politics but our reputation is at risk. All of these we possess will not go far when we get it out of satisfaction.

In the first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, Mosses expressed his prayer of gratitude to God remembering how the Chosen People were brought out from the land of slavery, they were glad that they aexperienced prosperity. The second reading reminds us that we have only One Lord and God though they were Jews and Greek, Catholics and Protestants, we all need to call upon him and our salvation is at hand. In the Gospel, Jesus was tempted three times. The devil identified very well in the weak spots of a human person. Since Jesus feels the hunger, the devil deals the stone that could possibly change to bread. We eat to live, hunger is just a feeling, and Jesus really knew what could satisfy him “One doesn’t live by bread alone.” Jesus is firm to the truth behind his words; the devil, trampled by the words of Jesus, left him. Even though Jesus is experiencing physical hunger, he never gives in to the test just to satisfy his hunger. The second temptation was showing him the vast kingdom that the devil was claiming that it was given to him. Jesus knew the kingdom, where he belonged and his Father; the allurement to power is not his priority, but to give the glory to his Father, that he will not serve anyone but only the Father alone.

The first week of Lent depicts the realities that each one of us could be experiencing or that we passed through when being tempted. Jesus spent forty days in the desert praying and fasting; He knew he needed to gain strength, and courage from his Father. Trusting the will of the father was the food of Jesus all throughout the forty days. This was really a love and sacrifice relationship between them. Unconditional love is what Jesus experienced as he spent the days in the deserts.

In my every day dealings I encountered (and am still encountering) a lot of temptations; bodily, spiritual, emotional and even challenge to my own vocation as a religious. Moments of physical tiredness tempted to rest in the middle of not right time. Tempted to disappear from the crowd, but Fr. Palau in one of his writings reminds me of the hidden virtues of the cross. Several times I fell out from the temptations of not following the lessons he always reminds from one of his letters to the sisters of Aitona; 1st Blind obedience, be humble, submissive, ready, joyful, simple, without reasoning, without forming one’s opinion, without contradicting the sisters who directs. Obey them as you obey God, because they represent God. 2nd Love among yourselves. Make yourselves servants, inferiors and servants of one another; assume the vilest and the most laborious chores; strive for what is hard and painful; consider it a blessing to be the broom and the trash, rubbish of the house, and not only of the house, but of the whole world.

I recognize all of those weaknesses that I show more than my strength. In the desert of my life’s journey may I truly find the courage to live it out fully. When temptations come, I may always trust the Father that he cares for me, and he is embracing me so tightly. May we not stick to the easy and instant way of life, but we stick tightly to the kingdom that we belong not with human power; nevertheless, the glory of God reigns. We may always take the will of the Father as our food.