Temptation

I've been wanting to write this blog since Sunday because I'd like to contemplate in what I have written on my blog and to remember what I've heard from the gospel reading. This is about the Homily given by Fr. Mario in the Sunday's Mass, which was also happened to be the first Sunday of Lent. The Gospel reading was taken from the Book of Mark 1:12-15:

"¹²At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, ¹³and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. ¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!"

According to Fr. Mario, and he quoted this statement from Rick Warren (the author of the Purpose-Driven Life), "Temptation is a tool, either to make you fall or a stepping stone, to make you a better person." He also added that there are four ways of "four D's" to be tempted. I'm going to make a summary of what Fr. Mario said in his homily.

1. (inordinate) desire - this includes engaging in sexual act outside the Sacrament of Matrimony, being a womanizer, etc.
2. doubt - to doubt the love of God for us. As the Lord said, "There is nothing you can do that will make me love you." God is full of love, and He loves us than we could ever imagine.
   
3. deceit - the evil, being present in this world roaming and patrolling to deceive people, will always deceive us with material or earthly things/desires. Thus, we should always vigilant and always pray unceasingly to God for guidance, strength, and to deepen our faith to Him; deceit is synonymous with "friends of lies"
4. disobedience to the will of God - "If God seems so far away, guess who move away." Who move away? I think you know the answer.

The Holy Spirit sent Jesus to the desert for forty days and was tempted by Satan. What is in the desert?

A desert is a hostile and potentially a deadly environment for unprepared humans. During daytime, the temperature would go as high which causes rapid loss of water due to sweating. The absence of water sources can also result to dehydration and death within a few days. A human being should also adapt to sandstorms. This makes surviving in the desert quite difficult for humans. During nighttime, the temperature would go down as loss as 0 degree centigrade. Imagine how life would that be for 40-days for Jesus, but He surpassed it all.

Additionally, the Spirit knew that Jesus was going to be tempted by Satan, but still, the Spirit sent Jesus to the desert, and Jesus didn't succumb to the devil's temptation.

We may not face "wild beasts", but we do live in a dangerous world and face forces beyond our control that can cause us physical harm. We are also confronted by temptation from Satan who uses fair sounding arguments to lead us down paths that end in our own spiritual destruction. He uses every good thing to evil purpose and we must constantly guard ourselves and those weaker from the worst of these opportunities to become victim to him. (taken from Deacon's Bench)

Fr. Mario concluded that we, as human beings, are not perfect. But during this time of Lent, we are asked to repent, go to confession, to fast, to do penance, and to practice almsgiving. May God keep us and guide us in our journey. :)