2026-03-07
Dear Friends,
Lent comes from an old English word meaning spring; it is the liturgical season where we seriously reflect on the death and resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ. It is based on the forty days of fasting by Jesus. Lent is tailored for our fallen nature; it is meant to be a physical, mental, and supernatural journey to facilitate our intimacy with God by expiating our sins and reminding us of God's never-ending mercy. When we sin, we wound the mystical body of Christ, as well as to our personal being. By doing penance and mortification, we can expiate or "remedy" the wound. Divine Mercy gives us unceasing hope and affirmation of God's patient love! Temptation is actually a spiritual forge; the early Fathers of the Church help us to understand it better.
The great bishop and Father of the Church St. John Chrysostom (died 407AD) preached: "God does not impede temptations, first, so that you may be convinced of your strength; secondly, that you may be humble, not proud; thirdly, that the devil, who may doubt whether you have really abandoned him, will be certain of that fact; fourthly, so that you may become as strong as iron, understanding the value of the treasures which have been granted to you."
God's grace and a will that is formed by self-denial are crucial factors in battling temptation. The many dangers of the modern world include the billions of ways we can self-indulge without sin. We buy and become dependent on different electronic gadgets. We allow them to absorb much time in stimulating our senses towards pleasure or distraction. We also live in cultures that dramatically indulge ego by affirming us in our sinfulness, making countless jokes of all seven deadly sins, which only harm persons and families. The devil can use societal apathy towards sin via temptations that tantalize the senses and affirm our ego rather than demand our self-sacrifice. Society should rather exhort us like a great coach towards excellence in virtue, especially chastity and the need for confession. Virtue through struggle is true peace.
As St. John writes above, temptation if rejected serves a great purpose. That is, if we choose self-denial, even with non-sinful things, such as scripture meditation instead of an innocuous movie, going to daily mass, fasting for the love of God, we grow closer to Our Lord. Then, with His grace, we strengthen the will. Ironically, temptation can make us humble, remind us that we are fragile: we can fall, we can lose heaven. Rejecting temptation, while sometimes causing suffering, may initially encourage more attacks from the devil, but this also means we are over the target! We grow in greater holiness by perseverance.
In the end, Lent lovingly underscores the infinite Mercy of God! The Passion of Our Lord emphasizes the extraordinary lengths God goes to rescue us in our frustration and despair. We fail and fall, but the Lord still awaits us; He will embrace us and reset us back on track. God never dispatches hope! Prayer and confession are crucial. Only with Christ can we master temptation, but with Christ we only grow in peace of soul; that amidst suffering we find the joy of deeper unity with Christ on earth, and eternal glory in paradise.
In Christ,
Father Brian Gannon
Executive Director
https://couragerc.org/