Rev. Fr.
Leonard Goffine's The Church's Year
FIRST SUNDAY
IN LENT INVOCABIT
This Sunday is called
Invocabit, because the Introit of the Mass begins with this word,
which is taken from the ninetieth psalm, wherein we are urged to
confidence in God, who willingly hears the prayer of the penitent:
INTROIT He shall call upon me, and I
will hear him; I will deliver him, and glorify him; I will fill him
with length of days. (Ps. XC. 15-16.) He that dwelleth in the aid of
the Most high shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.
(Ps. XC. 1.) Glory be to the Father, etc.
COLLECT O
God who dost purify Thy Church by the yearly fast of Lent; grant to
Thy household that what we strive to obtain from Thee by abstinence,
by good works we may secure. Through our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE (II. Cor. VI. 1-10) Brethren,
we exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he
saith: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in the day of
salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time;
behold, now, is the day of salvation. Giving no offence to any man,
that our ministry be not blamed: but in all things let us exhibit
ourselves as the ministers of God; in much patience, in
tribulations, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons,
in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in
knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in
charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the
armor of justice on the right hand, and on the left, by honor and
dishonor, by evil report, and good report; as deceivers, and yet
true; as unknown, and yet known; as dying, and behold we live; as
chastised, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as
needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all
things.
EXPLANATION The Church very
appropriately reads on this day this epistle of St. Paul, in which
he exhorts the Christians to make use of the time of grace. A
special time of grace is Lent, in which everything invites to
conversion and penance, a time, therefore, in which God is ready to
make rich bestowal of His graces. St. Anselm says, those do not use
the grace who do not cooperate. Let us, therefore, follow St. Paul's
exhortation, and earnestly practise those virtues he places before
us, and especially those of temperance, patience, chastity,
liberality, love of God and of our neighbor. Let us arm ourselves
with the arms of justice at the right and the left, that is, let us
strive to be humble in prosperity and in adversity, confident of
God's help. Let us never be led from the path of virtue, by mockery,
contempt, nor by persecution, torments, or death.
ASPIRATION Grant, O Jesus, that we may
always faithfully cooperate with Thy graces, and employ well the
time Thou hast again given for our salvation.
GOSPEL (Matt. IV. 1-11.) At
that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be
tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty
nights, afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter coming, said to
him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread. Who answered and said: It is written: Not in bread alone doth
man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.
Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him upon the
pinnacle of the temple, and said to him: If thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down; for it is written: He hath given his angels
charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest
perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said to him: It is
written again: Thou shaft not tempt the Lord thy 'God. Again the
devil took him up into a very high mountain, and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and said to him: All
these will I give thee, if, falling down, thou wilt adore me. Then
Jesus said to him: Begone, Satan, for it is written, The Lord thy
God shaft thou adore, and him only shaft thou serve. Then the devil
left him; and behold, angels came, and ministered to him.
INSTRUCTION
I. Christ went
into the desert by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost to prepare by
fasting and prayer, for His mission, and to endure the temptations
of Satan, that, as St. Paul says, He might be one tempted in all
things such as we are, without sin, and so become for us a
High-priest who knew how to have compassion on our infirmities,
(Heb. IV. 15.) and to show us by His own example, how we should,
armed with the word of God, as with a sword, overcome the tempter.
(Eph. VI. 17.) – Let us, therefore, courageously follow Christ to
the combat against all temptations, with His assistance it will not
be hard to conquer them. He has certainly taught us to overcome the
hardest ones: the lust of the eyes, of the flesh, and the pride of
life, and if we overcome these, it will be easy to conquer the
rest.
II. If Christ, the only Son
of God, permitted Himself to be tempted by Satan, even to be taken
up on a high mountain, and to the pinnacle of the temple, it should
not appear strange to us, that we are assailed by many temptations,
or that we should find in the lives of so many saints that the evil
spirit tormented them by various images of terror and vexation. This
we find in the history of the pious Job, where we also find at the
same time, that the evil spirit cannot harm a hair of our head
without God's permission.
III. From the coming of the
angels to minister to Christ, after He had conquered Satan, we see
that all who bravely resist temptations, will enjoy the assistance
and consolations of the heavenly spirits.
INSTRUCTION ON TEMPTATION
To be tempted
by the devil. , (Matt. IV. I.)
What is a temptation?
A temptation
is either a trial for instruction and exercise in virtue, or a
deception and incitement to sin. In the first sense, God tempts man;
in the second, he is tempted by the devil, the world or bad people,
and the flesh, by evil thoughts, feelings, words, or
work.
By what are we principally
tempted?
By our own evil
concupiscence and inclination to sin which adhere to us through
original sin, (Fam. I. 14.) on account of which it is said, that the
flesh lusteth against the spirit. (Gal. V. 17.)
Does the devil also tempt us?
He does, and is
therefore called, in this day's gospel, the tempter. St. Peter
teaches us this, having himself experienced it: Be sober and watch:
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring-lion, goeth about,
seeking whom he may devour. (I Peter V. 8.) Not all temptations are
to be ascribed to the devil, however, they often come from our own
corrupt nature, our own incautiousness, or looseness of our senses,
by which we expose ourselves to the danger of falling into
sin.
How does the devil tempt us to
sin?
In a twofold
manner: He incites the concupiscence of man to those sins to which
he sees him inclined, and then seeks to blind and confuse his
imagination, so that he neither reflects, nor properly sees the
temporal injury, disgrace, and derision, nor the shamefulness of sin
and its eternal punishment. Thus the devil seduced Eve, our first
mother, and thus he tempted Christ, with whom he could not, of
course, succeed, for He was incapable of sin. He tempts bad people
to persecute us, or to try us by their wicked vanities, as he did by
the friends of Job.
Can the devil force us to evil?
He cannot; “for as
a chained dog,” says St. Augustine, "can bite none but those who go
near him, so the devil cannot harm with his temptations those who do
not consent to them. Like the dog he can bark at you, but cannot
bite you against your will.” Not by force but by persuasion Satan
strives to injure, he does not force our consent, but entreats it.
Seek, therefore, to subdue your passions and your senses, especially
your eyes, and you will either remain free from all temptations, or
easily overcome them.
Does God also tempt us?
God does indeed
tempt us, but not to sin, as St. James expressly teaches. (Fam. I.
13.) God either Himself proves us by sufferings and adversities, or
He permits the temptations of the devil or evil-minded people to
give us opportunity to practise the virtues of love, patience,
obedience, etc. Thus He said to the Jews through Moses: The Lord
your God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love him with
all your heart, and with all your soul, or no. (Deut. XIII.
3.)
Does God permit us to be tempted by man
also?
He does, and for
the same reasons. Thus He permitted the chaste Joseph to be tempted
by Putiphar's wife; (Gen.XXXIX. 7.) Job by his wife and his friends.
(Job II. 9.) But He never permits us to be tempted beyond our
strength, but gives us always sufficient grace to overcome and even
to derive benefit from the temptation. (I Cor. X. 13.)
Are temptations pernicious and
bad?
No; they are
useful and necessary, rather. “Hard is the fight,” St. Bernard
writes, “but meritorious, for although it is accompanied by
suffering, it is followed by the crown;”
(Apoc. III. 12.)
and Origen says. (Libr. Num.) “As meat becomes corrupt without salt,
so does the soul without temptations.” Temptations, then, are only
injurious when consent is given, and we suffer ourselves to be
overcome by them.
When do we consent to
temptations?
When we knowingly
and willingly decide to do the evil to which we are tempted; as long
as we resist we commit no sin.
What are the best means of overcoming
temptations?
Humility; for thus
answered St. Anthony, when he saw the whole earth covered with
snares, and was asked "Who will escape?" "The humble;" he who knows
his own frailty, distrusts himself, and relies only on God who
resists the proud and gives His grace to the humble; (Dam. IV. 6.)
the fervent invocation of the Mother of God, of our holy guardian
angels and patron saints; the pronouncing of the holy name of Jesus,
making the sign of the cross, sprinkling holy water; the remembrance
of the presence of God who knows our most secret thoughts, and
before whom we are indeed ashamed to think or do that which would
cause us shame in the presence of an honorable person; frequent
meditation on death, hell, and eternal joys; fleeing from all those
persons by whom, and places in which we are generally tempted;
fervent prayers, especially ejaculations, as:
"Lord, save me,
lest I perish! Lord, hasten to help me!" finally, the sincere
acknowledgment of our temptations at the tribunal of penance, which
is a remedy especially recommended by pious spiritual
teachers.
PRAYER O
Lord Jesus! who spent forty days in the desert without food or
drink, and didst permit Thy self to be tempted by the evil spirit,
give me, I beseech Thee by that holy fast, the grace to combat,
during this holy season of Lent, under Thy protection, against
intemperance, and to resist the suggestions of Satan that I may win
the crown of eternal life.
Amen. |