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Commit Ourselves to do Good

Homily by Father Firmansyah, SJ
at 12 Noon Mass
St. Ignatius Church, Tokyo

In this first week of Lent, we heard the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert.


Most of the time when we face temptation, our natural reaction is to resist it. However, our tendency to resist temptation oftentimes makes us believe only in our own power, our own strength of will to say no to the temptation. But saying no to temptation is not about the fight of willingness. Jesus in the gospel today taught us that dealing with temptation are not about us alone fighting the evil spirit. It is about us letting the Holy Spirit guides our willingness to choose God rather than to fall into temptation. In other words, dealing with temptation is not about proving ourselves to God that we can defeat the evil's temptation. It is about testifying our commitment to God that we want to choose good.


This is the point of us spending our time in this Lenten season. Lent can be a meaningful season for us when we can see ourselves more than just a person trying to avoid evil. Lent is meaningful for us when we can see ourselves choosing good and committing ourselves for good deeds. If we only limit ourselves during this lent only to avoid sin, then we only spend lent halfway. Our fasting, our penance in this season are means for us so that we can see the true reality of us: we are created by God to do good and thus to be good. This is our true reality: man and woman created by God in God's own image. Just as God is good, we, as God's creation are also good beings. Our reality as Christian is not only the reality of man and women liberated by Jesus from the power of sin. We are liberated by Jesus from the power of sin so that we can choose good and do good freely. When we encounter temptations in our lives, these are the moments for us to believe more in the liberating power of the Holy Spirit rather than for proving our own misleading self-confidence. Our true conversion during Lent, thus, is more than just conversion from our long lists of sins. The true conversion during Lent happens when we, after being freed from all of our sins, commit ourselves to do good.
My dear brothers and sisters, in this first week of Lent let us reflect deeper on our capacity to do good: What good deeds have we done so far in this Lenten season? When was the last time we can honestly say to our spouses 'I love you'? When was the last time we lend a hand to our enemies? When was the last time we open our hearts and our houses to the refugees? There are so many chances we can do good and Lent is the time for us to make those chances come true.
 

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