First Sunday of Lent

Atacama Desert, Chile

For the past few months, I've been attending Mass in Spanish at St. Peter's, a parish in the diverse and dynamic Main South neighborhood of Worcester. Today I was particularly struck by the lyrics in the entrance hymn, "La Alegria del Perdon" (The Joy of Forgiveness):

La alegría más hermosa es la alegría del perdón
Que en el cielo hay mucha fiesta, cuando vuelve un pecador.
Si la oveja se ha perdido a buscarla va el pastor
En el cielo hay mucha fiesta cuando vuelve un pecador.

The most beautiful joy is the joy of forgiveness

There is much celebration in heaven, when a sinner returns.

If the sheep has been lost, the shepherd goes to seek it

There is much joy in heaven, when a sinner returns.

As I've written recently, one of my main Lenten efforts is rooted in return and renewal– whether it's my prayer life, my relationships in the community and the workplace, or my own sense of confidence and faith. In reflecting on today's readings, I'm struck by the subtle treachery of temptation– inviting me to satisfy, by my own imperfect and misguided efforts, the desires that God will fulfill in a far more graced, authentic, and beneficial way. In the Gospel account of Christ in the desert, Satan's temptations appeal to physical hunger, prideful daring, and worldly authority. Instead, Christ asserts that it is God who satisfies all hunger, instills confidence for holy boldness, and grants the power that each of us needs to take our place in the broader community as servant leaders. I am all too familiar with my own needs, yet my vision of how to meet them is far narrower than that of God. Resisting temptations, great and small, thus becomes more than just an internal struggle to overcome vice with virtue, but an act of faith in divine grace and providence, and a willingness to be found and tended anew by the shepherd of souls.

Atacama Desert, Chile