“Jesus is Lord” believe and be saved! This is our Lenten journey to be “led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days” and overcome the temptations of the devil to hunger for this world when we are called to hunger for God alone. It is when we are without that we learn that “One does not live on bread alone.” The power and glory of this world from the devil cannot compare to the power and glory of God when we confess with our mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in our heart in the resurrection of Jesus. We “will not be put to shame”.
Moses was led by the Spirit for forty years to arrive at the “land flowing with milk and honey”. This journey by the most direct means would have taken only eleven days something to be grasped and understood. Why forty years for an eleven-day journey? We ask was the Spirit misguiding the people or were the people’s spirit misguided by the temptations of the devil in their hunger for an earthly kingdom in this world? By their actions and stubbornness of heart a generation would be lost in the desert. The Lord’s promise to us of a land filled with milk and honey is a heavenly kingdom just beyond our sight but we may find ourselves wandering for years trying to create our own little kingdom of earthly riches and a lasting legacy of bricks and mortar that will return to dust. The lasting legacy of life is a faith that endures in the lives we impacted during our time that continue to give testimony to our personhood in the image of God.
In tribulation and times of distress do we cling to the Lord or in despair “dash your foot against a stone” in fear of this world. “Be with me Lord, when I am in trouble” that I may not stand in your way of delivering me against the enemy. In the name of Jesus, we will “trample down the lion and the dragon” because we cling to the Lord. Now is a time of tribulation with war on the horizon and the evil one taking possession of weak souls. Be strong in our confession of faith that the angels be commanded to guard God’s people in all our ways. Pray for those whose lives are already in danger as they battle the enemy and call upon the Blessed Mother, the army of angels and saints for the miracle that will bring to an end war and deliver peace.
Jesus is Lord of the heavens and earth, Jesus is Lord of the people who are ordered to bear arms against their brothers and sisters for an unjust cause, and Jesus is Lord of the persecuted fighting for freedom and peace. Only Jesus can deliver us from the enemy who has already been defeated and is only trying to take others with him into the pit of hell. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for peace in the midst of war and evil. Blessed are the sorrowful who suffer the unjust cruelty of war theirs is the promise of the land of milk and honey.
When the Israelites went into the desert, they were saved from the Egyptians but they lacked in faith to be saved from their sin. They desired to control their destiny rather than trust in the Lord. They confessed their lack of faith with their lips and their actions and were put to shame. Let us not be put to shame but rise in our faith that Jesus is Lord.
The Lord was tempted and each time he outwitted the devil but he only “departed from him for a time”. We must meet the persistence of evil with our confession of faith and have a well-trained soul in the Word of God for the evil one departs only for a time to return with a greater legion of demons in hopes of defeating us in our faith. The army of Jesus must always be ready for the enemy with the weapons of spiritual warfare, prayer, fasting, a well-trained mind and body in communion with the Lord. Even the body and perhaps most especially the body can be a source of weakness accustomed to the indulgencies of the world unaccustomed to being denied its passions. Fasting and abstinence is a test for us that even our bodies belong to the Lord and to be kept holy as a temple to the Lord.
In past times the battle was fought face-to-face with a breastplate to protect yourself from enemy’s weapon. In order to protect your back-side the warriors stood back-to-back. Our breastplate of prayer and the Word of God defends us in the battle but it is when we come together standing side by side and back-to-back “where to or three are gathered together” in the name of Jesus with the Church that we are protected from the blind side. The sacramental life of the Church is our blind side protection against the enemy. Alone the enemy will find our weakness but together with the Church the enemy can only flee from the power he cannot defeat.
Lent is our time to immerse ourselves into building up our weapons for battle as the militant church on earth. It is a call to put ourselves to the readiness test by training of our minds in the knowledge of the Word, our bodies in the discipline of the flesh, and our spirit in the love of other. If God is with us who can be against us? We must not become the one who is against his very self by remaining in the darkness of sin. We are called to be the light of truth, goodness, beauty and unity. We are called to be living in the image of God. We are called to be the best God created us to be. Authentic disciples who walk in faith, not in fear of the enemy but in the power of God’s love and mercy. When we proclaim “Jesus is Lord” all the angels and saints rise up and join us in the battle already won.
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