CATHOLIC MEDITATION: SUNDAY - 6 MARCH, 2022. 1st SUNDAY - LENT, YEAR C.

[Music] wow [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen greetings beloved of the lord and welcome you are listening to catholic meditation with me father blessed today is sunday the 6th of march 2022 it is the first sunday of lent church yes c good morning and thanks for joining us in prayer let us pray grant almighty god through the yearly observances of holy land that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god forever and ever amen the first reading is taken from the book of deuteronomy chapter 26 verses 4 to 10. the responsorial psalm is taken from psalm 91 the response to the psalm is be with me o lord when i am in distress the second reading is taken from the letter of saint paul to the romans chapter 10 verses 8 to 13. the gospel is taken from saint luke chapter 4 verses 1 to 13. i read from the gospel at that time jesus full of the holy spirit returned from the jordan and was led by the spirit for 40 days in the wilderness tempted by the devil and he ate nothing in those days and when they were ended he was hungry the devil said to him if you are the son of god command this stone to become bread and jesus answered him it is written man shall not live by bread alone and the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him to you i will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and i give it to whom i will if you then will worship me it shall all be yours and jesus answered him it is written you shall worship the lord your god and him only shall you serve and he took him to jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of god throw yourself down from here for it is written he will give his angels charge of you to guard you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone and jesus answered him it is said you shall not tempt the lord your god and when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time the gospel of the lord praise to you lord jesus christ [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] the theme for today's meditation is [Music] do not fall for the devil's temptations [Music] do not fall for the devil's temptations dearly beloved of the lord one constant thing we have to do always but especially this length is to avoid sin trying to avoid sin is a constant and daily battle because often occasions for us to sin appear you remember we had spoken about temptations god does not tempt us temptations never come from god if temptations are from god how can god tempt himself because in today's gospel we are told that jesus was tempted temptations are to lead us to sin so does god want us to sin of course not for what if he tempts us and we fall no god does not tempt us as we find in today's gospel rather it is the devil who tempts us but god gives us graces to overcome temptation the responsorial psalm of today says be with me o lord when i am in distress it is the devil who tempts us as we try to avoid sin the devil tempts us to sin his interest is that we sin and displease god so now and again he tempts us one could be tempted over 10 times in a day yes the devil never goes to sleep temptations are enticements to sin temptations are a daily reality temptations are exploits from the devil to lead us to sin and he often tempts us where he knows we are liable to fall and sin the devil never sleeps he is always behind us and always around us to make us sin in the first letter of saint peter chapter 5 verse 8 we read be watchful and be vigilant because your enemy the devil is prowling loud looking for someone to devour stand up to him strong in faith the devil tempts us mostly and largely around material things power money sex food drink our ego or self-pride yes the devil can also use even human beings to tempt us someone may insult you may provoke you or do something to annoy you and the devil quickly uses that opportunity to entice you to sin dear god's good people if we must avoid sin then we must overcome temptations today's gospel presents the temptations of jesus the devil tempted him to sin to pull him away from his mission all three temptations of jesus are temptations we to face in jesus temptations we see ourselves the first temptation the devil told him to transform stones into bread it was the need of the moment seeing that jesus had fasted for 40 days and was hungry the need of the moment was for him to have something to eat so the devil tempted him if you are god transform these stones into bread something jesus would have easily done when the devil knows your need of the moment he tempts you it could be money it could be food it could be a child whatever you need of the moment beloved the devil uses that opportunity to tempt you to sin he uses the opportunity to push you to look for something which is worthwhile but through a very bad means there was nothing bad if jesus had eaten of course he was hungry but see what the devil did the devil tempted him to do something which was out of the ordinary look at the second temptation it was about ambition power i will give you all of these things if only you worship me many times too because we are in need of power how often we fall to the devil's temptations the third temptation was protection yes look at this it is said that when you jump oh his angels will keep you and protect you the devil deceives beloved and there are many persons because they have had money they have had power they start seeking protection and they think the devil can protect them look at the temptations of jesus these temptations are things that come to us daily your temptation can also be a person your parents who push you to sin your friends there are some friends the moment we are with them beloved we will sin it means those friends are our temptation but jesus overcame the devil he stands therefore as an example for us to emulate he too has been tempted as we are but he did not sin meaning that we too must not sin when tempted that we are tempted does not mean we must give in and sin beloved no we must struggle every day to overcome temptation temptations will always come but we must not always fall this is the great lesson jesus teaches us into this gospel now how can we combat temptations as jesus did of course temptations will always come the question is how can we combat temptations first you must quickly identify a temptation when it presents itself if you are not even smart enough to realize there is a temptation in front of you you will quickly fall for it even before you realize the moment it shows up quickly say yes i can see you this is a temptation you will know this and when you are vigilant and prayerful jesus tells us to keep watch and pray that we may not fall into temptation matthew chapter 26 41 they are father prayer we say always we say help us father that we may not fall into temptation jesus himself was able to identify the devil's temptations and he did not submit because he had been praying that moment the devil tempted him he quickly told the devil this is a temptation i know it do not put the lord your god to the test luke chapter 4 verse 12. can we also say to the devil when we see a temptation mr devil this is a temptation but i will not fall for it or do we just let ourselves gladly fall for the temptation beloved we must be vigilant to identify a temptation so that we can stand against it second we must avoid situations of sin if your right hand will cause you to sin block it out if your left eye will cause you to sin block it out beloved we must avoid situations of sin know your weaknesses know your soft spot you cannot be someone who easily and quickly gets sexually aroused yet you always turn around romantic movies or watch pornographic material oh come on then you will get into it you should know yourself man know thyself how often we keep such material i mean pornographic material in our phones and always console ourselves that we will be strong i will never go there i will not look at it yet we fall and get into those very pictures and images what you need to do is simple beloved delete them that is the way to fight temptation the devil keeps encouraging you oh come on you are strong you will resist it is the devil deceiving us you are strong you will not go back to it oh come on just keep it you will not watch but i tell you beloved how often we go back to those pictures delete them the more you keep them the more the devil will take you there and you will fall for his temptations thirdly finally it to all in order to overcome temptations we must know beloved that we must walk with jesus we must cling onto him hebrews chapter 2 verse 18 says he has been tempted so he can help us in our temptations how can you overcome temptations when you are far away from god how can you overcome temptations if you are not strong to walk with jesus we must pray always pray beloved so that jesus will always accompany us when we overcome temptations they make us stronger when we overcome temptations beloved we grow in faith we become masters of ourselves we become better christians and we grow very near to heaven but the more we fall for the devil's temptations the more we move ourselves far away from heaven become a master of yourself become strong glow in your faith not every temptation beloved that you must give into tell the devil you are strong this lent we have made promises i will fast i will not drink i will not eat oh come on the devil will tempt you are you that cheap that the devil uses common alcohol simple beer and you fall a little plate of food and you fall tell the devil you are stronger than that let us resist the devil i would advise beloved get a little book whenever a temptation comes and you identify put down temptation number one and when you overcome think that you overcame the temptation even when you fall put it there that you gave into the temptation at the end of the day make a self-evaluation of the temptations that came your way and how often you overcame or you fail it will help you to grow in your spiritual life oh lord jesus you attempted and did not sin help us also to overcome our own temptations amen the lord be with you may the blessing of almighty god the father and the son and the holy spirit come down on you and remain with you forever happy sunday [Music]

Channel: Fr. BLESSED Ambang Njume

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Length: 16min 52sec (1012 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022