The 1st Lent Sunday MassBy Fr. KimmIn my hometown of Bakersfield there's a great bakery that's been around for as long as I can remember. Before making a trip up to the Bay Area, my mother usually goes there to buy pastries for relatives and friends she's going to visit. In recent years, my mother has taken to bringing me a couple of my favorite donuts every time she comes up this way. At the risk of making some of you salivate, I'll tell you that they're little squares of dough with both a chocolate filling and a chocolate frosting. They're absolutely delicious--but I can imagine my cholesterol rising with each bite. What makes us feel good isn't necessarily what's best. Jesus hadn't eaten anything for forty days. Undoubtedly, some bread would have made him feel better. But the stone remained stone and Jesus' stomach remained empty. We live in a society where so much of life seems to be determined by whether or not people feel good. Parents don't scold their children because they're afraid the kids aren't going to feel good about themselves. Because it makes them feel good, young people become intimate with one another without any real intimacy at all. When spouses no longer feel good being around each other, they divorce. People seeking an escape turn to drugs and alcohol for the good feelings they produce. Priests and ministers get complaints from churchgoers who aren't left feeling good when services are over. One does not live on bread alone and life is not about feeling good. It's about doing the right thing in the sight of God, and sometimes that means doing without, learning to cope, accepting some pain, hearing a challenging word. Just ask Jesus.
1st Sun. Lent (C) Feb. 28-29, 2004 see Luke 4:1-13
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