Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry.
The devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.
Jesus answered him, it is written, one does not live by bread alone.
Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him, I shall give to you all this power and glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours if you worship me.
Jesus said to him, in reply, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you adore.
Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and with their hands they will support you lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Jesus said to him in reply, it also says, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.
The Gospel of Lord.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: It was a couple of weeks after we came back to in person worship. And if you remember, those days, they were peculiar.
We had all kinds of restrictions on how close people could sit next to one another. And while it felt better than the isolation, it still was not quite the same.
But we did our best trying to keep people healthy and protect people.
Well, on that second weekend after one of the masses, a young woman who I only saw that day and never saw again, I can't imagine why, came up to me and basically read me the riot act. How dare I do this?
You don't trust God.
Well, after taking a couple of deep breaths, I looked at her and I said, do you study scripture at all? And she said, yes, I do. And I said, well, the beginning of Lent, we always read the same reading, and that is the story of the devil's temptation of Jesus.
What's that last thing he tells us? Well, she had no clue by the way, I said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
What do you think you're doing if you're not using your brain and you're simply asking God to protect you? Well, she went away sad. And I never talked to her again. And that's unfortunate, but I think it needed to be said.
But anytime we do anything that makes God do something for us that we're not willing to participate in ourselves, not willing to do the hard work, that's exactly what we're doing. We're putting God to the test.
And we can do that when we take risky behaviors, expecting God to protect us, or if we say, well, when it's my time, it's my time.
We're putting God to the test.
Anytime we refuse to change our behavior because we trust so much in God's mercy, even though we know things are wrong, we're putting God to the test.
And if you've ever had anything you do that you deep down know is sin, know is wrong, and if you found out tomorrow you were gonna die, you would stop, guess what you're doing. You're putting God to the test.
Now, I've got a little story to share with you. And people that come to daily mass heard this a few weeks back, but there was a gentleman who was profound in his faith, totally trusted God's presence and grace, but was really having a hard time financially. He could barely make ends meet no matter how hard he worked, and he was about ready to lose his home.
So he prayed profoundly. Dear God, please allow me to win the lottery.
I will only use the money I need to keep my home, and I will use the rest for the poor.
And he prayed this over and over again, trusting that God would be there for him.
Well, one day the bank showed up ready to foreclose.
And when they left, he became furious with God.
He said, God, I have prayed to you. I have trusted in you. I've handed my whole life over to you. Why couldn't you do this one thing for me? At which point in time, the heavens parted and a voice came from heaven. Buy a ticket.
God works in our lives. But we have things we need to do to make sure that those. Those graces can truly happen. We can't simply sit back in our own filth and wait for God to change things. We got to make an effort. We can't put God to the test.
