Father Richmond's reflections: March 2019

First Sunday of Lent-Year C

Dt 26:4-10

Ps. 91

Rom 10:8-13

Lk 4:1-13

Temptations are Opportunities to Prove Our Love for God

Beloved, yesterday I had dinner with one family and something very cute happened. One of my friends in that family is a five-year old; and as we were chatting she said, “oh Fr. I want to say thank you”, to which I responded oh you are welcome but for what? She said, “oh some weeks ago, you gave one homily that was “veeery deepJ”. All at the dinner could not stop laughingJ. I asked what I said in that homily and she said: “I don’t remember but I know is that it was veeery deep and you touched my heart”J Beloved, I did not know whether to take that as a compliment or as a sign that I need to work more on my homiliesJ I know “veeery deep” for a five year old eehhhhJ But what stayed with me in that conversation is the phrase “you touched my heart”! I really pray that today’s homily will be veeery deepJ

Beloved in Christ, God is looking for only one thing from us: Our Hearts! Every opportunity God gives us is meant to help us fall deeper in love with him and those he has placed in our lives. The season of Lent is one of such opportunities. We pray, we fast, and we give alms in order to fall deeper in love with Christ and become more devoted to him and those he has placed in our lives so that our very lives will become an offering pleasing to God and a means of salvation for others. There is great joy in being faithful; and we all experience that type of joy from time to time when we keep our promises. As gold tested in fire, when we are able to stand temptations we become better Christians and we grow in our faith and love for God. We do not understand all about temptations; but when we look at the life of Christ, we get some understanding into why God allows us to face temptations in life.

Our readings today invite us to reflect on temptations in our lives and how we can overcome them. There is a seemingly strange opening of the gospel reading in which Luke tells us “Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil”. This does not mean that God caused the temptation. God does not cause temptation because temptation is an invitation to evil and cannot come from God. Only goodness can come from God. Do you remember last Sunday’s reading? A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. God cannot tempt us, but he permits us to be tempted so that we can prove our love for him in action and share in the joy of being faithful. “Led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil” means the Holy Spirit accompanied Jesus even when he was tempted by the devil and the Spirit helped Jesus to overcome. Beloved, Inasmuch as we desire to please God, you and I know that this is not easy to be faithful. There are storms in life and times that we find ourselves in the “desert” and face all kinds of temptations. However, there is good news! Our readings today assure us that we can overcome temptations.

1. When tempted, remember you are not alone and call on God for help! Our responsorial psalm tells us to call on God when we are in trouble. Our second reading tells us: “all those who call on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved and they will never be put to shame”.

2. Always think of God’s blessings when you face temptations. A grateful heart is a strong weapon against temptations. Moses tells the people to recall the history of what God had done for them and their ancestors. How God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, from all their enemies, and established them as a nation on a land flowing with milk and honey so that they can remain faithful and offer sacrifices pleasing to God. In the gospel, when Jesus faced temptations he recalled what his Father had done and said to his people as recorded in Scripture. Remembering with a grateful heart how His Father had fed the people with Manna in the desert, Jesus was able to tell the devil that man does not live on bread alone. He believed that as his Father fed his ancestors in the desert, he would take care of him so he was not going to disobey God because of his needs. Again, remembering that his Father gave his ancestors a land free of charge and blessed them with property, Jesus refused to bow down to the devil in exchange of any riches, power, or honor in the world. No human need, even when it threatens survival should make us turn our back on God’s law. Indeed, remembering what God has done for our ancestors, our families, and in our personal lives will help us develop the strength to obey God even in times of temptation. Looking at what God has done for us should make us believe that He will take care of us in every need and in every situation. What is separating you from the love of God? What is making you disobey God? Is that thing worth more than your life? If God has given you life, is there anything He cannot do for you?

As we live this first week of Lent, I invite you to take some time, as a family, as friends, and as a church community, to reflect on the blessings that God has showered on you so that developing grateful heart we may have the strength to overcome temptations and offer our lives to God. Let’s us cherish that Old ragged Cross so that we can exchange it someday for a crown.

8th Sunday_Year C

Sir. 27: 4-7

Psalm 92

I Cor 15: 54-58

Luke 6: 39-45

Do Your Words Build People UP?

Beloved in Christ, we thank God for another opportunity to listen to his word, dine with him, and worship him. This coming Wednesday, we will begin the season of Lent with the celebration of Ash Wednesday. There are many ways we can prepare for Lent and our readings today provide us with some biblical principles that can help us prepare for the Season. St. Paul in our second reading reminds us of the need to always approach life with hope and confidence in the power of Christ to save us. He tells us that in life, we will have many troubles but with Christ we shall overcome all things and that even death will not have a final say over our lives. The first reading and the gospel invite us to prepare for Lent by contemplating how we affect people’s lives by the way we communicate with them. The writer of the book of Sirach tells us that we can build or destroy people’s lives by the way we talk to them and talk about them. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel tells us to avoid gossip and rather be charitable in the way we talk to people and the way we talk about them remembering that they also struggle like we do.

The readings remind me of an experience I had with one of my students last semester. He was not interested at all in my course and I kept wondering what might be going on. I know I am not the best teacher, but I am also not a bad one either-:) I do fairly well and students are generally happy and motivated in my classes but this one student I could not even get to smile. He would not answer any question in class and would not turn in assignments. So I decided to call him into my office for a chat. He told me I shouldn’t worry myself about him because he is “useless” and that he will forever be useless. I was shocked but I encouraged him to tell me why he thought of himself that way. He said, the country where he is from if you are born on certain days of the month you will forever be useless, and that he was born on one of those days and his parents believe that he is useless and will remain useless. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and I told him he was not useless and that he should not believe in that superstition. But he kept telling me it is true because his mother and father believe that he will remain useless in life. Beloved, can you imagine that? Anyway, I asked for his permission to talk to his parents. When I did, I was very surprised to hear them confirm what the boy had told me. They actually believed that the boy’s fate shows that nothing good would come out of him. So I asked why then would they spend so much money to bring him to the States for studies and they said they are just doing their parental duties of providing him with the education he wants. So I told them how their words have impacted their child and that if they changed the way they spoke to him, we might be able to work together to help this boy believe in himself because he is actually a very smart guy. The conversation did not seem to go anywhere but a week later the boy came to my office and showed me and email he had received from his parents telling him they believed in him and that he could prove that belief wrong and become whatever he wants in life. The boy was more than happy to hear that from his parents. I shared this with some of my colleagues and we decided to be writing motivational comments on boy’s assignments to help him build his confidence. Beloved, you will not believe the change that these little positive steps had on that student in just one semester. Not only did he begin to participate in class, (in fact, he almost became a talkative in class:-), but he did his homework and did very well at the end of the semester.

Beloved, you can build up your marriage and family with kind and encouraging words, but you can also destroy your family with just one word. You can build up your friends, co-workers, students, parishioners, clergy, and other people God has placed in your life with your words, but you can also destroy them with your words. These days, one danger that we all have to guard against is how we communicate with people especially online when we can hide behind the screen and make comments that we might not make in a face-to-face conversation. Beloved, everybody is going through something and we need to be like Christ for one another, not overlooking people’s faults and things that need to be pointed out, but to point these outs in ways that our words will help build them up but not destroy them. As we prepare for Lent, let’s make time to examine the way we communicate with and about people and strive to lift high the Cross and proclaim the love of God in a way that helps build up his people for his glory. Amen!.

Father Richmond's reflections

1st Sunday of Lent-Year C

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8th Sunday_Year C

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