Who fails the student?

First Sunday of Lent
Vancouver, March 1, 2020

The Lenten readings for our Sunday and weekday Masses stress conversion.

Come back to me. Return to your God. Repent, and believe in the Gospel. The words of Ash Wednesday.
Conversion mean repentance. And by repenting we can return to God. In fact, conversion comes from Latin, com-vertere “turn around” “to turn back” “transform”

Remember: if we think we do not need to repent or we have no need for conversion, it is the same as saying we do not sin.

We should also reflect on the seriousness/gravity of our sins. When are sins are frequent, and they are the same sin, we start to think this is normal, this is how I am.

We find a way of rationalising our sinfulness so as to diminish if not remove the sin. And the more time goes by, the more the sin becomes part of us, and more difficult to remove.

You can think of health: it’s easier to treat an illness when it’s diagnosed early, and hopefully still treatable.
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But as more time goes by, and you say I’ll wait, and take care of this problem later, it does become more difficult to treat. Our spiritual life is like our health.

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Thankfully, unlike our physical condition, the spiritual one, is also radically different: all sin is always removable.

This is the work of God’s grace. But while sin is removable, the effects of the sin, leave their mark. And we know this because while God forgives us, often we do not forgive ourselves.

Oftentimes, people falsely believe that their sins are not sins and so continue to live a life of sin. Indifferent and apathetic.

A person who obstinately sins. Does not seek forgiveness, goes to hell. Hell is what they choose.
If a student does not do his assignments, does not study for exams, rarely attends class, and fails, is it the teacher who has failed the student or the student who has failed him-/herself?
 
I have had to fail students. I don’t like to. I talk to them and say, if you don’t do the work, and attend class, you’re going to fail. So, when they fail, do I fail them or do they themselves?

When someone is condemned to hell, they send themselves to hell. They have not chosen God, so, why should God keep these sinners with Him for eternity, when they do not repent of their sins, when they show no desire to be united with God.

And God gives us plenty of warnings. It could be in the form of a tragedy, where a person is almost killed and they finally turn to God and gives thanks to God. We shouldn’t have to wait until we get up a call.
Sometimes it could the extraordinary experience of simply having a baby. And when you are in front of this miracle, you can only turn to God and give thanks.

But God calls us, jolts us, in a particular way, especially during this penitential season of Lent. A time to reflect on how we our living our lives as Christians. What changes do I need to make?

We were created to be happy. To be in Communion with God. With each other. With nature. And to possess immortality.

And this is what we had when we were created: Communion with God, communion between man and woman, communion with nature.

The world God created was in perfect harmony.

But our first reading from the Book of Genesis tells us how the first man and woman messed it up.
The chose not to listen to God, but to the deceiving words of the serpent, who, performs the work of satan.

Now God did not create Satan. Everything God created is good. God created angels. But Lucifer, the angel of light, rebelled against God due to pride, and so was punished by being cast out of heaven.
And now this diabolical serpent, Satan, continues to lead people away from God because Satan is filled with pride and envy and hate.

And some people would rather listen to the Satan than to God. And as long as we continue to listen to the deceptions of Satan, there will be human misery.

From the start, Satan is a great liar with false promises.

When we renew our baptismal promises at Baptism or at the Easter Vigil, we always reject Satan and his false promises.

So, Lent is this time to ask God to cleanse us in this spirit of repentance and conversion.
 
Jesus is confronted himself with the weakness of his human condition which he shares with us but He resists. This is his time in the desert: to experience the rawness of human fragility, and yet, overcomes any kind of temptation.

In this experience of the desert before Jesus begins His teaching and healing ministry, He experiences the vulnerability of the human condition: tired, thirsty, hungry, alone
Satan tempts him with bread. Food. Just as Satan tempted the man and woman fruit. But Jesus says we will live by the words that comes from the mouth of God
Satan uses this vulnerable state to tempt Jesus with His Divine power, just as Satan tempted the man and woman telling them they would be like gods with divine knowledge. 

What is interesting in the last temptation is that Satan uses the Scriptures to tempt Jesus; in other words he takes the Word of God, to tempt Jesus to lead Jesus astray.

But Jesus in turn takes the Word of God to show Satan his deception.

Satan tempts Jesus with idolatry, “If you will fall down and worship me,” just as Satan deceived the man and woman so they obeyed Satan instead of God.

This period in the desert of 40 days, is for Jesus a spritual preparation for his ministry: Temptations that stem from his humanity, temptations of his divinity, even on the Cross, Jesus is told, Matthew 27:40, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross.”

Because Jesus fully shares our humanity except in sin, Jesus wants to share in our suffering that is caused by sin; our vulnerability. This is how Jesus carries our sins to the Cross. By being fully human, one of us, so he can suffer with us and for us.

This way we do not fall into the error of thinking Jesus did not really suffer because He is God. Or he did not really experience our human condition or misery.

To be fully human means not only made of flesh, but to experience the fragile condition of our humanity-- EXCEPT JESUS NEVER FELL INTO ANY SIN. He calls us to conversion, to repentance, which means battling against Satan.
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Let us ask the Mother of God to accompany us during our Lenten journey, so we may be penitent, seeking God’s mercy, and strength, that Jesus our Saviour offers us. Amen.