Good afternoon everyone.

I am Sherwin, a disciple of Verbum Dei.

I’ve met Verbum Dei way back in 2013 when I was still studying in college. It is also in Verbum Dei that
I’ve met Lichel, my beautiful wife.

I’m currently working in Radio Veritas as the person in charge of Catholink – Radio Veritas' Catholic
Information Hub.

Once in a while, you will hear me on the AM radio saying “Sumainyo ang Katotohanan.”

So last week, Ate Beth shared with us her reflection on last Sunday’s Gospel. I was able to pray on the
part where Jesus was asking, Can I blind person guide a blind person? Because as you know, I’m already
a husband and as well a father and in guiding our family, I know Lichel and I should have a clear vision of
our family’s future. So that was my prayer. And how about you? How was your prayer this week?

This week, we observed Ash Wednesday and we already entered the season of Lent.

We are now in Kwaresma which means 40 days of fasting and penitence in preparation for the
celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection – 40 days, except Sundays, counting from Ash Wednesday
up to the celebration of Easter.

Tomorrow we will be observing the first Sunday of Lent. The Gospel was taken from Luke 4:1–13.

In the Gospel, we see Jesus hungry because of fasting for 40 days. He was tempted by the devil to make
bread out of stones, Jesus resisted saying that One does not live on bread alone. The devil tempted Him
again by showing all the Kingdoms of the world offering power and glory. Jesus again resisted saying
that “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” On the third time, the devil
brought him to Jerusalem on top of a temple and challenged Him to jump saying that He will be fine
since He is the son of God and surely angels will come to save him from harm. Jesus then answered to
not put the Lord to the test. Then the devil departed from Him.

Jesus experienced temptation as much as we do.

Imagine Jesus fasting for forty days, then he was offered free food.
He is the most powerful one, and he was offered power.
He is the beloved Son of God, he was dared to jump just to prove Himself.

All of it so much just to tempt Jesus.

Now imagine ourselves fasting on a Friday of Lent then our friend offered a Samgyupsal dinner treat just
to Thank God it’s Friday after a week full of work!

How about at work, imagine yourself being offered a quick promotion with a higher salary to relieve the
position that a co-worker resigned to.
And lastly, imagine yourself rushing to work and waiting on a pedestrian lane with more than 1-minute
timer but no cars are passing.

Easy to decide right?

Again, Jesus experienced temptation as much as we experience it.

At times, temptations come to our lives in ways we would think of it as a benefit or a win-win situation.
These times, we are called to have a discerning heart so we would know the right thing to do.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2847), “The Holy Spirit makes us discern between
trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and
death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment
unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable,
when in reality its fruit is death.

Let’s go back to the scenarios earlier.

On a Friday, after a week full of work, a friend offered a treat for Samgyupsal. Of course, everyone
deserves a treat after working hard for a whole week. But it’s lent, and you would be unfaithful to your
practice of fasting.

The quick promotion scenario earlier is a trap. Of course, it’s a delight to hear a higher salary, but the
load of work – not reasonable.

And the scenario in a pedestrian lane, obviously it would mean death if you go on a red light without
anticipating a speeding car.

The way of the Lord is hard but it is worth journeying because it is in His way that we would go through
the necessary growth that we need. Through perseverance with prayer, we achieve a discerning heart
that enables us to unmask the lie of temptation.

This Sunday’s Gospel reminds us that temptations are always present in our lives. And it’s not all the
time we have a calm disposition to discern. At times we become naïve because of the rage of emotions,
convenience of time, or inevitability of the situation. This is real because our minds can only do so much
and we are limited to seeing only the past and the present, so we miss the vision of the future. The
limitations of us being humans.

I remember, in a sermon of our parish priest in Malate, he said that most of the time we resort to
reasoning that we are only human. So if we make mistakes, it's easy to say that we are only humans as if
it totally justifies our fault.

This is human nature to say and most of the time it is actually easy to accept the limitations of the flesh
than to keep up with the spirit.
Let me share with you a scenario my wife and I experience at night. Some of you know the dynamism of
a toddler's mood right? Let's say my son Ali, my very adorable son Aliandro Simeon. He is adorable when
he is happy and laughing and smiling and all sorts of fun. Now the dynamic part, if he is overjoyed now
you would expect him later to throw fits of tantrums and not only tantrums, physical tantrums. He
would punch and kick and headbutt and all sorts of irritation. And to top it all, he throws tantrums late
at night when all are sleeping. So my wife would wake up and comfort him but he's not resorting to
comfort. And since I'm the one telling the story, I'll make myself the main character. So after a day's
work, I'm asleep. I'm a heavy sleeper, my wife knows that. I'm like a cat, if I'm sleepy and I'm able to fit
myself to anything to lie down, I sleep. Now back to my son who is throwing tantrums, he's screaming
now so loud. But for me I'm asleep, so sound you'll mistake me as an infant rather than my son (except
that I'm snoring so loud). My wife would be irritated and angered with this because I'm asleep and our
son is screaming so loud. Imagine the loud noise in the room my son screaming and me snoring. In the
end, the moment I wake up everyone in the room is irritated.

I am irritated because my sleep got interrupted and my wife is angry with me for reasons that I'm still
absorbing. My wife because she can't handle the tantrums of my son. And my son because of some
reasons.

Do you see the scenario?

I hope I'm not the only one.

I'm just a human. My wife is just a human and our son, he's an adorable and lovable and cute little angel.

It's understandable to say we got irritated because we're just humans who need to rest. But if it's
happening every night, it's not acceptable to be irritated all the time. We have to have a choice to grow
in our parenthood and be more patient. And we have to find ways where we should teach our son the
essence of night and day.

Jesus in the Gospel experienced the limitations of being human when he felt starving. But He didn't
resort to reasoning that He became a human. That He has been fasting for many days, that maybe it's
time to have a cheat day and eat carbs out of stone. Instead, He resorted to reason the divine
providence of God. In the Gospel, He said that the Scripture says that “One does not live on bread
alone”, He quoted it from the scripture on Deuteronomy where it says “One does not live on bread
alone but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Jesus had a choice and He has
chosen the right choice.

I remember a quotable quote from Spiderman, it says, “With...whatever comes our way, whatever
battle we have raging inside of us, we always have a choice. It is our choices that make us who we are,
and we always have a choice to do what's right.” This is the part when Peter Parker reconciles with the
man who killed Uncle Ben. But let’s leave that part there because I’m not here to narrate the story of
Spiderman 3.
We always have a choice. Starting early in the morning, whether we snooze or wake up and ending late
at night, whether we sleep or stay awake. Of course, choice is choice and what’s right is right. No in
between.

As Verbum Dei, we are called to be at the moment, stay at the moment and pray at the moment. So we
can discern our choice. So we can choose the right way and not the wrong way.