A Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

+ Non tentabis Dominum Deum tuum : Do not put the Lord your God to the test. These words of the Holy Gospel of this Mass of the first Sunday of Lent are a stark warning, for from childhood we are wont to do exactly that with our prayers – which can become more of a contract than a petition: “God, if I am really good, please give me this, or that…” The implication, utterly Pelagian, that my goodness merits God’s benevolence is nothing short of heresy, howsoever piously dressed up.
 
This error can be a particular temptation in Lent when I decide that this Lent I shall pray, fast or give alms more fervently and generously in the expectation that Almighty God will give me this or that particular grace. Certainly, it is Lent, and prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the order of the day. They are the weapons which we take up in order to do greater combat with the world, the flesh and the devil, after the example of our Blessed Lord Himself in the desert.
 
But we do not take up these weapons so as greedily to gather kudos for ourselves. Rather, we pray, we fast and we give alms because we are creatures wounded by sin and need to open ourselves to the healing grace of God. We embrace our Lenten disciplines with fervour and energy because God is God and we are not. We castigate our bodies, detach ourselves from material goods and seek to purify and elevate our souls because of the teaching of the Holy Gospel: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies – you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve.
 
It is a temptation for us all, indeed in some places it is an entrenched vice if not an established article of faith in the secular, that “I am number one”; that I am the sole focus and end of my life and activity. My interests, and the interests of those I hold to be important, come first. Hence, even in people of faith, the childish attitude masquerading as prayer perdures: “God, I want… God I need…” we insist so often, adding our offering of this or that effort almost as a bribe!
 
It even happens – and not infrequently – that a young man or woman asks about entering a monastery because they themselves have decided, even calculated, that this is the way to obtain what they want. Almighty God can – and does! – use such imperfect motivations, of course, but they needs must be tested and purified like gold is refined in the fire (cf. Eccl. 2:5). For we come to the monastery to seek God, and His Will for us, not our own. And often His Will is radically different from ours!
 
Mutatis mutandis, this truth applies to all vocations. For a vocation is a call from God to become something new, to become he or she whom Almighty God wills us to be, for His glory and for our salvation. And yes, whom and what He wishes us to be may be utterly different from whom we are at present or what we would ourselves wish to be in the future.
 
In holding fast to our own will, in bargaining with God or in futilely proffering Him contracts to sign, we forget the teaching that we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all the things that we truly need shall be ours as well (cf. Mt. 6:33). Yes, we do have needs. Yes, we rightly aspire to heaven. And yes, we need God’s grace to get there. But let us not fall into the sin of presumption whereby I attempt to save myself by our efforts, however worthy and good in themselves they are.
 
Rather, we must seek God first, and adore Him first, above all things. The Church’s classical liturgical rites teach us this (in a way, alas, that the reformed ones often do not): we are here to worship Almighty God at His altar, to offer Him the best of which we are able in humble supplication, not to celebrate ourselves or our achievements. And in doing this, yes, we receive grace in abundance in return.
 
So too, our Lenten disciplines are to be undertaken out of love for God and in worship of Him, including in our neighbour, certainly. Because God is God I must pray. Because I am a creature and not the Creator I must fast. Because my neighbour in need is made in the image and likeness of Almighty God I must give alms. And in so doing, in ways that are at present unknown to me, God shall bless and reward me – not because I deserve it or have earned it, but because He is a loving, beneficent Father who gives us all that we need in due season.
 
My brothers and sisters, it is Lent. It is time for concerted efforts on our part – not somehow to negotiate with Almighty God, but out of humble love and worship of Him as God. He will provide for our needs according to His plan, which we must not presume to dictate by putting Him to the test. For the grace of perseverance in these efforts, and for the humility necessary to know and do His will, let us beg Almighty God in this Holy Mass. +

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