The word “lent” comes from the Old English word for spring. It’s during Lent the Church asks us to do spring cleaning in our souls.
Specifically, we look for sin. But what is sin? The Lord’s temptation in the desert shows us exactly what it is: Sin is disobeying God because we don’t fully trust him.
Each of the devil’s temptations tries to persuade Jesus to questions his Father’s will:
1. Jesus had the ability to convince people of God’s love for them, but the devil tempts him to use these powers selfishly by turning stones into bread.
2. Jesus came to liberate the whole world through mercy and grace, but the devil tempts him to take a shortcut by offering him political power and worldly glory.
3. The Father promised to support his Son in his mission, but the devil tempted Jesus to try a miraculous swan-dive from the top of the Temple.
At the end of this Gospel passage, we see that Jesus places his trust completely in his Father’s will. That is how he was able to resist the devil.
Disobedience from lack of trust is at the core of every sin, no matter how big or small. The devil wants to separate us from God, the source of true happiness, so he weakens our trust and lures us onto other paths.
The African Impala
When we don’t trust God more than our-selves, we can’t become what God wants us to be.
If you’re still not sure about this basic spiritual truth, just look at the saints and you’ll see that they were able to achieved so much because they didn’t depend solely on their own intelligence or wisdom. Instead, they trusted in God’s will for them.
A perfect illustration of this principle comes from the African Impala. The impala is only about four feet high at the shoulder, but it can high jump ten feet in the air, and long jump thirty feet with ease.
With that kind of jumping ability, you’d think it would be hard to pen the animal in. But it can be caged by a fence that’s only three feet high. This is because the impala won’t jump if it can’t see where it will land.
This is what happens when sin gets a hold of us. By trusting in ourselves more than God, we put an artificial limit on our faithfulness and obedience. And that is exactly what the devil wants. Sin is like a fence for our soul.
Conclusion: Remember God’s Blessings
How can we keep our trust in God stronger and make ourselves less vulnerable to temptation? Moses gives us a very powerful way.
The reading from Deuteronomy is his last sermon to the Israelites. In it he instructs the people to bring an offering to God once Joshua leads them into the Promised Land, an offering from the first fruits of the harvest.
With this offering, they are to say a prayer that summarizes the whole history of Israel. In this way, every year they will be reminded that their land and its harvest are gifts from God, and that without God’s miraculous intervention, they would still be slaves in Egypt.
Moses knew how easy it is for frail human beings to forget God’s blessings. That forgetfulness makes us vulnerable to temptation. If we forget the good things God has done for us, our faith and love for him grows dim and makes our trust in him waver.
We need to do what Moses told the Israelites to do: remember God’s blessings. In a few moments from now you will see the greatest blessing God has given to his Church miraculously appear on this altar: The Most Holy Eucharist.
This is the power of the Mass. This is why regular Mass attendance can be such a beneficial Lenten devotion: it keeps us focused on God and his many blessings in our lives.