Dear Daniel,
Hello my son! Just wanted to reach out to you in this first week of Lent and send to you my best Lenten wishes.
In our faith, Jesus enters the desert on Ash Wednesday and walks for 40 days. This period is of course symbolic of sacrifice and – in a sense – purification in the face of temptation / trial.
The gospel according to Luke tells us that when J.C. enters the desert, the devil tempts him with three trials. In the first, the devil asks him to turn a stone into bread (then break his fast). J.C.’s iconic answer is: “Man shall not live on bread alone.”
The second trial has the devil taking J.C. to a high place, where the devil offers Him all the lands of the earth, if only He would bow down to the devil. Our hero J.C. shoots back: “Worship your Lord the God and serve only him.”
The final trial has the Bad-Guy-in-Chief telling J.C. to throw himself off a tower and command his legion of angels to catch him before he falls. J.C.’s response? “I answer only to my Dad’s commands. Not yours, pal.”
I was listening to this on Sunday at Mass, and it occurred to me that the three trials in Luke’s account of Lent correspond to three of the seven deadly sins:
The first is gluttony.
The second is greed.
And the third is pride.
And it so perfectly matches the core message of Christianity that the true path out of sin is faith alone in God. So I said a prayer that God forgive me for my own sins. And a little prayer for all the people I love.
Have a wonderful Lent and a delicious and fun Easter.
Love,
Dad
