Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent.

“Belong to God or be under the evil one.”

February 21, 2021

To win any war, says Peter Kreeft, you need to know three things:

that you are at war,
who your enemy is; and
what weapons can defeat the enemy.

The first line of today’s Gospel (Mk 1:12) helps us to answer Kreeft’s first question, are we at war? It says: “The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert, and He remained there for forty days, tempted by Satan.” Actually, the battle with the evil one started a long time ago. The Catechism tells us: By the sin of Adam and Eve,

“…the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free… Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action, and morals. …This dramatic situation of ‘the whole world which is in the power of the evil one’ makes man’s life a battle” (CCC 407, 409).

This battle was particularly evident in the first days of Jesus’ ministry. That is why, on the First Sunday of Lent, the Church reminds us of the battle that Jesus waged with the powers of darkness, when He was tempted by Satan, greatly tested, but won. His battle with Satan was the first act of His messianic mission from the Father, His first step in redeeming the world.

That Jesus engaged in battle with Satan was clearly the will of the Father and the Holy Spirit, to set aright the fatal mistake of our first parents. Just as Adam and Eve lost the first battle with Satan and were “driven out of the garden of Eden, so “the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert” where He defeated the kingdom of Satan by resisting the devil’s temptations, and then beginning the Kingdom of God.

The victory of Jesus over Satan’s temptations not only teaches us that He had power to conquer evil, but also that He continues to do so in His Mystical Body, the Church. It reminds us of what Ben Sirach told his son as recorded in the Old Testament Book of Sirach, (Sir 2:2), “My son, if you endeavor to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal.” In His love for us, God allows us to be tempted so that we can learn how to win the battle with evil by remaining always in union with Him. So, the first question the Lord Jesus poses to us today is what the Church asks every catechumen just before Baptism: “Do you renounce Satan, and all his works, and all his empty show?” To belong to Christ requires a willingness to be at war against Satan, against his temptations to hatred, lies, impurity, apathy, selfishness and all that stands contrary to the Kingdom of God. Whoever wants to love Christ must be prepared for an ordeal. At the heart of Christ’s love for the world is the mystery of the Cross.

To win any war, the second question we must answer correctly is this: who is the enemy? St. Paul tells us who our enemy is not; he writes (Eph 6:12), “Our battle is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness, the evil spirits in regions above.” May we always keep in mind that our battle against evil is “not against human forces”. To be sure, Satan makes use of human beings to wage His war against God, and makes it seem as if humans are our enemy. We may think, for example, “If only I did not have this father, or this wife, or this brother or this neighbor, or whomever, then I would be happy.” We must resist the temptation to blame other people for our struggles. Unless we know who the enemy is, not only shall we be fighting the wrong foe, but we shall also be blind to the real threat to happiness and fullness of life in Christ. The battle against Satan is much more dangerous than battling a human foe. Listen to St. Peter’s words (I Pet 5:8-9), “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith.”

This brings us to the third thing needed to win the battle: we need to know what weapons can defeat the enemy: The answer is revealed during Mass when the priest lifts the sacred host and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” In the Eucharistic Sacrifice, Christ makes present the victory of His death and Resurrection, by which He redeemed the world, and definitively defeated the forces of evil. We begin to share in this great victory of Christ when we are baptized. In Confession, too, and the Eucharist, we behold this triumph of God’s love coming to us in what seems to the world like weakness, but is, in fact, the power and the mercy of God.

The Lord could have come in the kind of power that sows terror but instead He came as a servant, gentle and humble of heart.

So, how can we win the battle against temptation? The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us (#2849): “Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by His prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter.” When He teaches us to pray in the Our Father, “Lead us not into temptation, Christ unites us to His battle and His agony. He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with His own.” When we remain one with Christ through faith, prayer and the Sacraments, the Lord accomplishes things far beyond what we can ask or imagine.

Let us not forget that the first goal of Lent is to intensify our love of Jesus, to deepen our desire and longing for Him. Our First Reading from the Book of Genesis assures us that our longing for union with Him is nothing compared to His desire for union with us. Six times God repeats the word “covenant” as He promises Noah a sign that every person can see in the sky, “I set my rainbow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” In the Eucharist, we have the new and eternal covenant with God.

On this first Sunday of Lent 2021, let us remember that our Redeemer is drawing near to us, every day, breaking into our lives, bringing to completion His victory over sin and death. That’s why His first words recorded by St. Mark are: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

Indeed, in the Sacraments, especially Baptism, Confession and the Eucharist, the power of Christ’s love is unleashed anew in our world. He offers us the grace to turn our lives away from the darkness and to find in Him the Light and Life of the world. This grace is offered especially to our catechumens but also as fresh renewal of the faith of us all. Indeed, “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand.”