You may have heard of the principle in team sports, “The best defense is a great offense.” It is also true that as Christians we need to go on the offensive against the evil in the world and within ourselves to win. This takes practice, much like sports teams must prac-tice, practice, and practice again, sometimes 3 hours a day 6 days a week in order to have a good team, a good offense that can win the contest. As Christians we also need to practice our faith to win the goal of Eternal Life. During these 40 days of Lent we follow Jesus Christ into the desert guided by his Mystical Body - the Church, and led by the Holy Spirit. In this spiritual de-sert with Christ, we learn to confront and overcome temptations that arise from our broken lives, the devil and the world that pervert good things, even manipulat-ing the Bible and other good things, to confuse people into sinning. To go on the offensive against the evil within us, we are called to fast. Jesus shows us that fasting helps us put our free will into God’s will, and thus we are able to overcome the temptations of the flesh and our flawed human spirit. This takes a prayerful, humble attitude, something like, “God, with your grace I choose you over this other thing, I choose you over this evil thought or bad attitude, because I know you are the ultimate good in my life. You are the true goal of my life, save me.” In sports, this is called “Keeping your eyes on the prize.” Any member of a sporting team might tell you that they do not necessarily like all the practicing, but when they grow strong and help the team win the game, it is well worth it. Of course, if they take steroids or cheat in the game, their winning means nothing to God, nor to their inner-most conscience. If they break the rules they may be penalized, but sometimes they are not caught and rarely are they ejected from the game. Yet, spiritual life is more than a game. Our opponent is the devil, and he does not want us overcome our sins and temptations to make it to heaven, rather, he wants us to be enslaved by him in hell forever. That’s why Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” (Jn. 14:15) for the Ten Commandments of God are not mere suggestions, but are the fundamental rules of attaining heaven. And we read further in the Bible, “Loving God means keeping his command-ments” (1 Jn. 5:3-4) If we keep nine of the Ten Commandments, are we winning or losing? If I live all the Commandments well, except I do not try to overcome using God’s name in vain, am I going to have the strength to attain heaven? No, in fact, when we do not repent and seek God’s holiness it weakens the whole team, especially those closest to us. The spiritual life is not a game, it is our relationship to God, but people sometimes put sports ahead of God, ahead of their family, ahead of school. One of the greatest college football coaches with some of the most wins was John Gagliardi, who coached at St. John Uni-versity, Mn. If you wanted to play football on his team he would tell the players that they had to have their priorities right. Number one priority is God, then family, then academics and then football. He won four national championships. Just as the devil tempted Jesus with food, fame and fortune, he will tempt us to idolize these things, and to idolize them means you seek these things in a perverse way and compromise yourself with the devil. Thus, Jesus correctly quotes from the Bible to defend himself saying, “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” At Sunday Mass, this is what we do. That is why coming to daily Mass if possible is a service to God’s glory and is the best offense to win divine graces during Lent. Some have already decided to come to Mass as much as possible and for that I applaud you since Mass is the greatest of all prayers, and when you are able to receive Jesus Christ worthily in the Eucharist, that is all the more reason to celebrate. That last temptation in today’s Gospel is when the devil asks Jesus to perform a sensational miracle of throwing himself down and letting his angels catch him just before he smashes into the ground. The devil does something very deceptive in this temptation for he uses the Bible to try to convince Jesus to do this. Let that sink in for a moment, the devil quotes from the word of God, the Holy Bible, and tries to convince Jesus to sin. That is perverse, for the Bible should only be used within Sacred Tradition which is guarded by the Catholic Church, of which Jesus is the divine head and guardian to lead people to holiness. Yet, there are many who pretend or unintentionally use the Bible in a way that is contrary to Christ and his Church. Jesus Christ shows us that to go on offense through our fasting, prayers and almsgiving to help overcome evil in the world is pleasing to God, but we also need to know how to look to Jesus Christ and his Catholic Church to help us defend against the snares of the devil and those who are influenced by him, whether they know it or not, by understanding the Bible correctly. Thus, just before the Gospel is proclaimed, our Gospel acclamation quotes Jesus who said, “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus is the Word of God, and only in the Holy Eucharist received worthily are we assured do-ing our best at winning for ourselves and our family the goal of Eternal Happiness.
Peace in Christ through Mary and Joseph, Fr. Thomas McCabe