February 18, 2024（First Sunday in Lent）
Father Ken Message:
Good afternoon and welcome to the Catholic Cathedral of Sapporo. And welcome to Lent 2024. Lent extends from Ash Wednesday (February 14th until March 30th) to Holy Saturday, including Sundays 46 days. Usually, we emphasize just 40 of those days by minusing the six Sundays of Lent. We Catholics do Lent because Jesus also did it at the beginning of his public ministry to strengthen his faith by retreating into the desert for 40 days and faced temptations by the devil but he overcame each one.
To start this morning let us examine what is temptation? We all are tempted by things we perceive as good for us: food; clothes; intimacy; career climbing; making a relationship; breaking a relationship; isolation; etc., are some examples. Basically, temptation lures us by a false understanding of what is “good” for us. This is the history of Adam and Eve at the beginning of the Bible and their falling into temptation for the devil’s “delicious apples.” Sadly, those apples were bad apples. Jesus, corrected the mistake of Adam and Eve in the Gospel today by rejecting the devil’s temptations because Jesus knew the higher good in life as God. Jesus found happiness and satisfaction in God as his highest good. This is our homework as Catholics during Lent.
A mistake I make in Lent is making it like a 40-day “New Year’s Resolution” recap to take back control of my bad habits and to come out at Easter more beautiful. In hindsight that approach to Lent is really selfish. That approach makes me Father Ken, the god of my life, as if I can recreate me! That is exactly the way of thinking that allowed Adam and Eve to be tempted by the devil and his delicious apples.
I think we should rather follow Jesus’ approach to Lent. He went into the desert not to find himself, or the devil, or to prove that he could fast from food and reject worldly pleasures for 40 days, but to find God. Jesus knew that only God can change him (us), convert us, recreate us because he made us in the first place. So Lent is about admitting our lack of control in life and admitting God is our spiritual doctor to help us to understand what is “good” for us in every situation. Lent is about going to our doctor in Heaven for a remake.
In the passion story of Jesus, we hear about famous characters who regained their confidence in God by admitting their errors in judgement. For instance, St. Peter who betrayed Jesus out of fear for his own life. But later confesses his error and Jesus makes him the first Pope of the new Catholic Church. And, on Good Friday we meet the “good thief” hanging on a Cross near Jesus who confesses his mistakes to and he becomes the first person to go to Paradise. Also, the brave grieving women who went to Jesus’ tomb on Sunday morning to anoint his body but instead found Jesus alive.
My friends, the challenge in Lent is to let God be in control of our individual “Lents” to change us in the ways that only he knows we need some spiritual tweaking. So Lent is not for “self-improvement,” but for “God-improvement” in our lives. In this frame of mind, the traditional Lenten practices of prayer-fasting-good deeds take on a different role. By doing them we are inviting God to see and hear us and improve us with his love in his own unique manner. Towards that goal I will be distributing ashes at the end of Mass today. Please feel free to receive them even a second time to show your spirit of repentance to our Father in Heaven. Thank you very much.