by Fr. Tommy Lane
We began the season of Lent on Wednesday. Lent is a gift to us, a time to refocus our lives. We take photographs with our phones but before smart phones, those with expensive cameras focused the lens for a better picture. Lent is a time to refocus, to refocus so that the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are clear in the center of our lives and everything else is around Jesus. The destination and goal of Lent is our celebration of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus at the end of Holy Week.
Today and every three years we read Mark’s account of Jesus in the desert (Mark 1). It is the shortest account in the Gospels. Every three years we read Matthew’s account (Matt 4) and every three years we read Luke’s account (Luke 4). They are longer and tell us of Jesus’ battle with Satan in the desert. Jesus was tempted but kept his focus firmly on the will of his Father and overcame the temptations by quoting Scripture back to the devil. Jesus quoted Scripture to overcome evil and we can also take specific steps to focus better on Jesus during Lent.
Apart from Sunday Mass, attending Mass on weekdays if that is possible would be a great spiritual help because Mass is the best place to meet Jesus. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus met Jesus when he explained the Scriptures to them and then broke bread with them and breaking bread meant the Eucharist (Luke 24).
We need to feed our bodies and we can also feed our prayer and enrich our prayer by reading the Bible. The Bible is God’s word to us, God reaching out to us to feed our minds with good thoughts instead of the negativity that could come at us in so many different ways. Reading just a little of the Bible every day helps us to pray to Jesus with the heart.
Praying to Jesus with the heart is meeting Jesus in prayer instead of just saying words, allowing Jesus to touch our life and heal our thoughts, a great way to focus on Jesus.
We also need to have Our Lady and the saints in our life. I had an email conversation with an exorcist in another country a few days ago and this is part of what he wrote in our exchange. “I found out in time that the demons or damned souls who possess are petrified of our dear Blessed Mother, just mentioning her Holy Name, as she is so pure and without sin. Also some of the Saints make them squeal and leave, such as Saint Joseph; they can’t stand when he is mentioned in holy prayer during an exorcism.” So, we need Our Lady and the saints in our life. Spend time with Our Lady every day—obviously the best way is to pray the Rosary with our heart and every Hail Mary is a gift of a rose to Our Lady.
We learn how to be a Christian from others and studying the lives of the saints is a help and inspiration because we see how the saints focused on Jesus and that helps and inspires us.
To be able to focus better on Jesus, we can fast from things that would distract us from Jesus. We can fast from things besides food during Lent, things that would blur our focus on Jesus. Maybe we should consider less television or a different choice of viewing or turning off the radio for some time every day so that we have silence in our lives. For some, fasting may mean fasting from social media or the internet or the phone for some time. Our world is afraid of silence but there is healing in silence. The negativity of TV, radio, and other media, and the frequent unchristian viewpoints expressed, do not uplift the soul. Fasting from all that negativity could only be good. You really don’t want all that rubbish in your mind. You may have withdrawal symptoms but stick with it and experience the benefit.
Sometimes people ask me how to overcome something with which they are struggling such as foul language or some other vice they are battling to overcome. Depending on what it is, I may suggest something like this: set a goal to abstain from whatever it is for part of a day or day and then make a new goal for two days, and then a new goal for a few days, a goal for a week, two weeks, a month and so on until finally they have overcome the issue. Every time you achieve one of these goals, perhaps you might want to reward yourself in some way such as having desert or some other way. Whatever the issue is, you will have a better and more enjoyable life if you can conquer it and you will have more room for Jesus in your life.
Jesus kept his focus on the will of his Father when tempted in the desert and Lent is a time for us to refocus, to refocus so that the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are clear in the center of our lives and everything else is around Jesus. At the end of Holy Week after this season of refocusing on Jesus, we will be more united with Jesus when we celebrate his passion, death, and resurrection.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the First Sunday of Lent Year B
Setting our navigation system towards God 2021
There is One Lord and Savior: Jesus Christ 2018
Related Homilies: From ashes to new life with Jesus 2020
Overcoming temptation and sin during Lent because we love Jesus 2008
Dying and rising with Jesus during Lent
Reliving the temptations of Jesus
Praying, fasting and almsgiving during Lent
Jesus’ call to repentance: Repentance meets the mercy and love of God 2024
Repent and be happy! 2018
stories for Lent
Old Testament Readings during Lent