Why Are You Afraid?: Sharing in the Joy of God and in His Power Over Evil

This is a Lenten Mission that was originally given at St. John the Apostle Church in Ottawa, Ontario. More specifically, these are reflections on the three temptations in the wilderness, the victory of Good Friday, and the humour and playfulness of God. In the wilderness, Jesus accomplishes what the first parents of the human race were unable to accomplish, and in doing so, he now renders each one of us capable of rising above sin and temptation so as to achieve our salvation. This really is rooted in the mystery of inheritance. We inherit dispositions from our ancestors. Because they made certain choices in the past, which led to the acquisition of certain habits, we too are now able to begin where they left off, especially if those were good choices. Because someone in our ancestry achieved a certain level of musical and artistic perfection, music became much easier to some of us. And because Christ, the Word made flesh, defeated the evil one and rose above these three specific temptations, every member of the human race is now capable of rising above these very specific temptations, the sins of which have brought ruin to the human race: the temptation to live for the goods of this world, the temptation to sell your soul for the glory of power, achievement, and success, and finally the temptation to doubt the word of God and to put God to the test. And when we achieve a certain level of perfection in the spiritual life, we influence others we don’t necessarily even know personally, who may not even be in our immediate vicinity, who may not even exist right now, but will next year or the year after, etc. It is very mysterious how this works, but there is so much about the nature of reality that we know virtually nothing about.