a fresh start - 1st sunday lent B 2018

Last Thursday I was invited by a group to talk about fasting and I gave them 4 reasons.  Today in connection with our gospel I would like to share the fourth reason why we fast.  So why do we fast?  So that I can know myself better.

When you take seriously your fasting kis-a nagatakaw-takaw man kita, indi bala?  May upod ako anay sa parokya nga palakaon nga pari.  Sang time sang fasting, sang nagapamahaw kami apat gid ka pandesal ang kinaon niya.  Wala sia kabalo gina-isip sang parish priest ang iya ginakaon.  Gani namunuhan sia, Father, siling sang parish priest, puasa bala subong.  Siling sang pari, Msgr. tunga man lang subong ang ginakaon ko. 

Ti ang apat ka pandesal tunga pa lang na.  This usually happens during days of fast.  Some of us will even rationalize saying, “Oh, I’m not really obliged to fast.  Or sometimes we say, this is just a little of what I normally eat, I am working anyway, doing physical work, so I can eat.”   Stop justifying yourself!  Relax, it’s ok.  You will not go to hell just because you ate one more pandesal during fasting.  The point is this - now you realize what hunger can do to you.  Now you realize what hunger can turn you into.  You see fasting is not just penance or self-discipline.  Fasting is also a self-discoverer.

One time I was already very hungry and so from Jaro I went to Oton to eat lunch.  It was their fiesta.  The traffic was terrible.  Cars were double parking everywhere even in streets that could barely accommodate two cars.  Traffic rules were no longer obeyed and we were stuck in there for God knows how long.  And little by little as I sat in the car I can sense that my anger was slowly rising.  I began to look sternly at drivers passing the wrong way.  I began to imagine what I would say and shout to people who have double parked.  I began to be irritable even sa sound sang busina.  There you go.  And it’s all because I was hungry.

Jesus was tempted after he fasted for forty days and nights.  The hunger induced the temptations.  Although our gospel today from St. Mark only briefly narrates the temptation of Jesus, we all know what those temptations were.  Temptations are not yet sins.  Actually they can help us in many ways.  For example temptations remind us where we are weak.  You will not be tempted where you are strong.  Temptations will always attack our weakness.  Kon dira ka pirme ginatentar ina tungod kay dira ka maluya.  And in a way it helps because now you discover your weakness, now you know where you have to work double-time, now you know where you need to grow and improve.  That is why temptations are tests.  I am a teacher.  Examinations help me assess the weakness of my students and also their strengths, they point to me the areas that probably need further focus and explanation, and perhaps because of these tests, I can even change my approach in teaching. 

Temptations also help us clarify our values.  It gives us a choice.  This morning probably half of you here today were tempted to get back to bed and sleep.  Anyway it’s a Sunday.  But if you are here today celebrating mass, it’s because your values are clear, your priorities on a Sunday are sure.  Kon napilitan ka lang diri nga magsimba kay basin kigan ka ni nanay mo, ti at least klaro sa imo nga nahadlok ka pa kay nanay mo.  But if you succumbed to temptation to go back to bed, then probably, just probably, attending mass is not a priority.  At least klaro sa imo nga wala ka na gid man gana magsimba.  Then at least ask yourself why?. 

Temptations clarify and mirror to us our values.  If you accepted or gave a bribe then you know your values, you know where you stand.  If I lie and make up stories each time in order to escape consequences then with this temptation I am confronted with my fears and insecurities, I am confronted by what I consider important.

Temptations allow us to know ourselves and this is a good starting point for lent.  Fasting too like Jesus can also help.

Our first reading today speaks of new beginnings with Noah.  After destroying what He, God, had so powerfully created by the great deluge, God now promises the survivors, Noah and his family, a new covenant and a fresh start.  Lent is also a fresh start for us and it helps to know the sources of our sin and the sources of our goodness.  Diin na nagahalin ang akon kadalok, diin na nagahalin ang akon kaakig.  And not only the bad, but also what goodness did I discover in me because of my fasting and because of the temptations I faced.

Making a fresh start.  This is the invitation of lent.