SPEAKER_00: Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, the church brings us into the desert.
SPEAKER_00: Not as spectators, not as tourists, but as participants.
SPEAKER_00: Because a desert is not a place on a map, it is a place in the soul.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a question waiting for all of us there.
SPEAKER_00: What actually rules your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Not what you say rules your heart, or not what you post on social media, not what you think rules it, but what actually rules your heart?
SPEAKER_00: We often imagine temptation as something crude, something obviously dark, something ugly and destructive.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth.
SPEAKER_00: The devil does not tempt good people with evil.
SPEAKER_00: He tempts good people with good things.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the gospel today is so dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Because it exposes how subtle the battle really is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes into the desert after forty days and forty nights.
SPEAKER_00: He's been fasting.
SPEAKER_00: He's hungry, weak, human.
SPEAKER_00: And the devil comes to him, not with horror, not with violence, but with a reasonable suggestion.
SPEAKER_00: He says to him, Hey, why don't you turn these stones into bread?
SPEAKER_00: I know you're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Well, bread is not evil.
SPEAKER_00: Bread is good.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had some fresh Cuban bread with nice butter and a cafecito?
SPEAKER_00: Food is good.
SPEAKER_00: Pleasure is good.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort is good.
SPEAKER_00: The temptation was not to do something wicked.
SPEAKER_00: The temptation was to meet a legitimate need in a way that bypassed the trust of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: To use power for self before obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answers with words that should shake us.
SPEAKER_00: Man does not live on bread alone.
SPEAKER_00: Translation means your deepest hunger is not physical.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, how many, how much of our lives are spent chasing satisfaction?
SPEAKER_00: We feed our bodies constantly, we feed our egos constantly, we feed our impulses, but do we feed our souls?
SPEAKER_00: That's why the church asks us to fast.
SPEAKER_00: Not because food is bad, but because hunger clarifies.
SPEAKER_00: Hunger exposes what we depend on.
SPEAKER_00: Then the devil raises the stakes.
SPEAKER_00: He shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Power, influence, control.
SPEAKER_00: Again, none of these are evil in and of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Leadership is good and necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Authority is good.
SPEAKER_00: Influence can be very good.
SPEAKER_00: But the temptation is to grasp them without the cross, to win without obedience, to rule without surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Worship me, the devil says, and it all will be yours.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, compromise.
SPEAKER_00: Just a little, and you can have it all.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the same whisper we hear today?
SPEAKER_00: Cut corners.
SPEAKER_00: Adjust the truth a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna see?
SPEAKER_00: Soften the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be so serious, don't be so radical.
SPEAKER_00: It's not such a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody does it.
SPEAKER_00: You can have success, just don't let Christ interfere too much.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, the most subtle temptation of all: throw yourself down from this temple.
SPEAKER_00: Let the angel save you.
SPEAKER_00: The temptation to perform, to impress, to be spectacular.
SPEAKER_00: Again, prestige in and of itself is not evil, reputation is not evil, but living for applause is deadly.
SPEAKER_00: The temptation was to manipulate God's power for public approval, to build a following without fidelity.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus refuses.
SPEAKER_00: He refuses bread without trust, he refuses power without obedience, he refuses glory without sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: But here are some gospel truths.
SPEAKER_00: These are the same three temptations we live each and every day appetite, power, prestige, pleasure, control, recognition, accumulation.
SPEAKER_00: The devil rarely destroys a soul by offering something obviously corrupt and bad.
SPEAKER_00: The good person will discharge it right out.
SPEAKER_00: He destroys a soul by slowly rearranging priorities, by convincing us that good things are the ultimate things.
SPEAKER_00: And when good things become the ultimate things, they become idols.
SPEAKER_00: God then takes a second place.
SPEAKER_00: That's the real battle of Lent.
SPEAKER_00: Not chocolate, not coffee, not social media, not all of those things that you may have given up.
SPEAKER_00: The real battle is hierarchy.
SPEAKER_00: What is first?
SPEAKER_00: Who is first?
SPEAKER_00: You cannot serve two princes, the prince of peace and the prince of this world.
SPEAKER_00: One leads to freedom through the cross, the other leads to slavery, disguised as earthly success.
SPEAKER_00: St.
SPEAKER_00: Pope John Paul II once told the generation, You must choose.
SPEAKER_00: Your choice must be clear and your decision must be firm.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't dramatic rhetoric, it was realism.
SPEAKER_00: Every generation faces that moment where they have to come to a decision.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the sobering truth.
SPEAKER_00: You do not make that decision once.
SPEAKER_00: You have to make that decision every single day, where you wake up in the morning and you say, I choose you, Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I will shape my life, my priorities, all of my decisions, everything that I do based on you.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you choose prayer over distraction, every time you choose integrity over convenience, every time you choose fidelity over applause, every time you choose Christ over comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me say something plainly.
SPEAKER_00: The devil is real, whether you believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00: He hates Christ, he hates the church, he hates marriages, he hates families, and he most definitely hates priests.
SPEAKER_00: And he will love nothing more than to convince you that the desert is unnecessary.
SPEAKER_00: But the desert is where clarity is born.
SPEAKER_00: Lent is not about minor adjustments, it's about reordering the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's about asking with brutal honesty, where have I placed bread before God?
SPEAKER_00: Where have I sought power instead of obedience?
SPEAKER_00: Where have I craved applause more than seeking holiness, serving the Lord quietly?
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is not meant to discourage you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you the good news.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not just resist temptation for himself, he resisted it for you.
SPEAKER_00: He entered the desert so that when you enter your desert, you're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: You know that he's there walking with you.
SPEAKER_00: He defeated the devil so that you could fight with his strength.
SPEAKER_00: The desert is not where we go to fail, the desert is where we go to decide.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll leave you with this.
SPEAKER_00: What will profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?
SPEAKER_00: What would it profit you to win admiration and forfeit eternity?
SPEAKER_00: What would it profit you to feed every appetite and starve your heart?
SPEAKER_00: This is a generation of decision, not political decisions, not cultural decisions, spiritual decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing comes before God, not success, not comfort, not more things, not relationships, not reputation.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing comes before God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you make that decision, that nothing comes before God, truly make that decision.
SPEAKER_00: Lent will not be a season of deprivation, it will be a season of liberation.
SPEAKER_00: Because when Christ is first, I promise you, everything else falls into its place.
SPEAKER_00: Choose clearly this year.
SPEAKER_00: Choose firmly.
SPEAKER_00: Choose Christ today and always.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.