WEEKLY REFLECTION by Father Omer Prieto 1st Sunday of Lent (Year A) No. 015 March 9, 2014 2013-2014 Dear brothers and sisters, Ave Maria! On the Word of the Lord and the Message of Our Lady A Guide on Living Our Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary The Lenten Season has just begun. It is a beautiful period that prepares us to celebrate the Paschal Mystery - the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord - the very foundation of our faith. Following the Easter tradition of the Church, i.e., the renewal of our baptismal promises, the Sunday readings for Lent serve as catechesis on how we can live our baptismal commitments fruitfully. For the first week of our Lenten preparation, our readings echo the invitation of the liturgy for Ash Wednesday: “Repent.” The abundance of grace won for us by Jesus’ obedience, which made him victorious over all tests, moves our hearts to deep repentance. Related to this, we will read Message 374, taken from the book, “To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons.” Our Lady calls us to live well the time of Lent through conversion and return to the Lord. I. GOSPEL READING (Matthew 4:1-11) At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written: You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him. Points for Reflection 1. The Temptations Jesus, who was just proclaimed Son of God at his baptism, is subjected to triple temptation. Typical of Matthew, the temptation account is filled with Old Testament references. The forty days and forty nights is reminiscent not only of Moses’ fast but also of Israel’s forty-year struggle in the desert. Whereas, Israel who was called “son” by God failed each of the tests, Jesus showed steadfastness and perseverance and proved his worthiness as the Son of God by responding to each test with single-heartedness and resolute faithfulness. For this Sunday’s Liturgy, the temptation story is paralleled with the story of the Fall of man in the First Reading (Gen. 2:7-9,3:1-7). Adam was a “son” of God par excellence. Created in the image and likeness of God, he was crowned with glory and given dominion over the world. However, he gave in to the temptation, trying to seize for himself all that God had already given him. Where Adam failed, Jesus prevailed and drove the devil away with fierce loyalty. 2. Grace outmatches sin. In the Second Reading, Paul explains what these parallel accounts of temptation mean for us. Adam’s transgression meant death for us all. The choice he made was for himself and all his children. Reading further, however, St. Paul says that just as Adam’s disobedience, in which we had no personal part, was counted for us, so Jesus’ obedience, in which we likewise had no personal part, also counts for us. Jesus undid the damage done by Adam. The consolation of the Second Reading lies in Paul’s declaration that grace outmatches the fecundity of sin. Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more. Grace is abundant and more powerful than sin. Divine Mercy is stronger than our misery. 3. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned. With this assurance won by Jesus’ obedience, the readings for the First Sunday of Lent invite us to immerse ourselves in repentance. King David is a great inspiration. He was Israel’s brightest son, “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:13-14), yet even he fell victim to the rebellion that lurks within our hearts and which makes us so vulnerable to temptations. Jesus, the new and eternal King of Israel, makes God’s mercy abundantly available to us. He is the answer to David’s prayer and ours: “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” II. OUR LADY’S MESSAGE: “Be Converted and Return to the Lord” (Message 374) February 17, 1988 Ash Wednesday Mexico City, Mexico Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil a. From this land, so ensnared by my Adversary, where, especially in these last days, many of my children have become instruments of the reign of Satan, who is seducing all the nations of the earth with the cup of impurity and of lust, I direct to you my repeated and concerned invitation to conversion. b. Be converted, and return to the Lord along the road of sincere repentance and of personal confession of your sins to the priests. c. Be converted, and return to the Lord along the road of a conscious and serious resolve to flee sin and to keep far away from every occasion that can lead you to fall into sin. d. Be converted, and return to the Lord along the road of mortification of the senses, of penance and of fasting. e. There begins today the season of Lent of this Marian Year: a period when the Church entreats everyone to carry out works of charity and of penance. I, your heavenly Mother, am calling upon you to live well the time of Lent of this year which is consecrated to me. f. The period of time granted by the Lord to humanity for its conversion is about to come to its end, and so, respond to my anxious call which is urging you to do what I am now asking of you for the salvation of all humanity. g. First of all, I desire that each one of you take upon himself, with greater force, the obligation of living in the grace of God, renouncing Satan and all evil works and the world and all its numerous seductions. Walk always along the road of purity, of love and of a greater holiness. h. And, then, I am asking of you personal works of mortification and of penance. Offer to my Immaculate Heart each day a crown made up of many little and hidden mortifications, accomplished for the salvation of many of your brothers, who are habitually living in sin and are bound slavishly to Satan. i. Lastly, I ask you to remove yourselves far from anything that can contaminate the purity of your heart and the chastity of your life. Do not take part in profane shows. Do not waste time before the television set, which is the most powerful instrument in the hands of my Adversary in spreading everywhere the darkness of sin and of impurity. Television is the idol spoken of in the book of Revelation, built to be adored by all the nations of the earth, and to which the Evil One gives shape and movement so that it might become, in his hands, a terrible means of seduction and perversion. j. If you do what I am asking of you today, you put in my hands a powerful force of intercession and of reparation. And thus I am able to present myself before the throne of the Lord, great and terrible, just and holy, to implore for you his divine mercy: Pardon, O Lord, the iniquity of your people, whom You have acquired at the price of your most precious blood. k. And before that time which has been conceded to you for your conversion has come to an end, you will already be able to see the signs of the triumph of the merciful love of Jesus in the first extraordinary interventions of the Immaculate Heart of your heavenly Mother. Points for Reflection: 1. Live well the time of Lent. Our Lady invites us to live well the time of Lent through conversion and return to the Lord. This call has been her constant message in her different apparitions. She finds particular urgency in it, as “the period of time granted by the Lord to humanity for its conversion is about to come to its end” (374 f). 2. Simple Lenten Acts Thus, she urges us to do two simple Lenten acts: confession and mortification. She recommends sacramental confession with a conscious and serious resolve to flee sin and to keep far away from every occasion that leads us to fall into sin. She also asks of us personal works of mortification in order to remove anything that contaminates the purity of our hearts and the chastity of our life. In particular, she warns us to be cautious before the television set, “the most powerful instrument in the hands of my Adversary in spreading everywhere the darkness of sin and of impurity. Television is the idol spoken of in the book of Revelation, built to be adored by all the nations of the earth, and to which the Evil One gives shape and movement so that it might become, in his hands, a terrible means of seduction and perversion.” (374 i) 3. A Powerful Force These simple Lenten acts are a powerful force of intercession and reparation. Placed in the hands of Our Lady, she is able to implore for us the mercy of God: Pardon, O Lord, the iniquity of your people, whom You have acquired at the price of your most precious blood. (374 j) God bless you all! Yours in the Immaculate Heart, Fr. Omer Note: This reflection is shared with all cenacle and other prayer groups (priests and laity), communities and Marian organizations within and outside of the Philippines, with Our Lady’s words transcribed verbatim for those who do not have copies of the blue book. This may also be shared with private individuals for their personal use. Our Ladys message is taken from the book: To the Priests, Our Ladys Beloved Sons, a compilation of 604 messages in the form of locutions given by the Blessed Virgin Mary through Fr. Stefano Gobbi of Italy. Imprimatur: Bp Donald W. Montrose, D.D., 1998 Abp Francesco Cuccarese, 2007
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 05:57:48 +0000
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