“When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.” (Luke 4:13)
With the celebration of Ash Wednesday, we have started our Lenten Season, the 40 days penitential journey with our Lord from the desolate desert to the buzzling metropolitan city of Jerusalem, accompanying Him in the ascent to Mount Calvary (“Calvaria” in Latin, “Golgotha” in Greek) to offer up his life for us to save us.
In this Lenten pilgrimage, we remind ourselves of God’s merciful love, the reality of our human sinfulness, the economy and history of our salvation. We are called to repent our sins, to return to God, to deepen our faith, to solidify our personal relationship with Christ by the ancient practice of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. If we unite ourselves totally to Christ, as God has raised Him from the dead, God will also raise us up to experience the glory of resurrection and eternal life. God is the one who tirelessly shows his compassionate love for us and saves us over and over again from the result of sin and its deadly consequences. Hence, our salvation signifies the concrete expressions and actions of God’s love for us in liberating us from straitened circumstances, negative conditions, evils, illness, darkness, pain, suffering, addictions, pessimism, depression and death, transferring us into a state of freedom, security and healing, to enjoy healthy life to the fullest in light, ease, optimism, consolation, joy, satisfaction, love and peace.
Often, we are tempted to reject or jeopardize God’s plan of salvation for us either by replacing or substituting God the “creator” with other entities, the “created,” to take God’s place (which is the precise definition of the sin of “idolatry”) or by denying completely God’s existence, which is what atheists do. Other times we are tempted, attracted, swayed or lured by evil forces that try to jeopardize our journey, preventing us from reaching or arriving to our final destination and goal of attaining the eternal joy, peace and happiness that is waiting for us. Unless we acknowledge the presence of God in our lives, His supreme goodness and priority above all created beings or things, and appreciate what He has done for us, obey his commandments and fulfil his will, we cannot be saved.
God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topics invite us to recount God’s assistance, to live a new life for Christ and to fight against our temptations.
How have we been remembering and acknowledging the presence of God in our lives, His supreme goodness and priority above all, resisting temptations, having total faith in Him?