Lent: Wild Beasts And Waiters

Lent1B

Wild beasts and waiters.

He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

1). Wild beasts-

A comic said, “I have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. I'm also deaf in one ear.”

During lent, in the wilderness, we may spend time doing battle with what we call our “animal passions.” St. Teresa of Avila said beware of the poisonous reptiles which are bad thoughts and aridities which assail and test us.

“Did it hurt when you fell down from heaven?” someone asked, referring to Satan.

The answer is “yes’! Because now the devil and the other fallen angels try to convince us, human beings, to rebel against God too.

Here's how the Catechism explains it (#414): "Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God."

Lies you hear in the wilderness:

Old habits and lifestyles resurface—Satan loves us to have a selective memory about the past—things like smoking, drug abuse, excessive drinking, visiting questionable bars or clubs, or indulging in the flesh, or cheating, stealing, lying, and being unjust towards others. The temptation begins by romancing or idealizing the past. When Moses led the people of Israel out of the Egyptian slavery, every time they encountered a little hardship, they complained and wanted to go back—to slavery!

Temptation is meant to enable us to prove ourselves and make us stronger. As long as we are determined to take no pleasure in temptations, we can never offend God.

St. Augustine even wrote that we progress by means of trial. None one knows himself except through trial and temptations.

2. Angels ministered to him-- The catering service in the desert was done by angels.

The good angels help us by praying for us, by acting as messengers from God to us, and by serving as our guardian angels.

Feel the brush of an angel's wing.

Our guardian angels help us by praying for us, by protecting us from harm, and by inspiring us to do good.

(a) It is a matter of faith that angels are deputed as the guardians of men.

(b) It is commonly held that each individual has a special guardian angel

Baptism also strengthens us against temptations to sin.

God said He was well-pleased with Jesus right before He led him into the desert to be tempted.

St. John Chrysostom explains that we shouldn’t be troubled by the fact that baptism precipitates spiritual attacks, because it is for this very combat that we have received spiritual arms.

The most important effect of the sacrament of Baptism is to have the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, dwell in our souls. That is the power of God within us.

A Lenten tweet: Trip to desert = #40days of temptations, beasts & angels. #ThanksAlotHolySpirit

1 Peter 3:21 from our Second Reading says, “baptism saves you now.”

In our First Reading about Noah.

Need an arc? I Noah guy.

There was a sign outside Countryside Christian Church, in Leawood, Kanasas, that read: “Noah should have swatted the two mosquitoes.”

If you have been baptized and, confessed as the case and need may be, than baptism is saving you right now.

As Pearl Buck wrote, “Inside myself is a place where you renew your springs that never dry up.”

Our Second Reading says “a few persons, eight in all” were saved through water.”

Visualize being saved in the arc. Visualize his love, love for you, counting you as a remanent. Imagine at the time of Noah, men no longer wanted to repent.

Inhale these words fo God and exhale with prayer: “baptism saves you now.”