A homily for the First Sunday of Lent, February 22, 2026
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11
“Are we there yet?”
Talk about four words that can send chills up and down a parent’s spine.
And then there was the silly song version, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? No, we’re not! No, we’re not!”
Which was almost always followed by the driver of the minivan or SUV hollering, “If you don’t stop that racket, I’m gonna turn this car around!”
Because whenever we go somewhere, our minds are usually focused on where we’ve come from or where we’re going, not on the journey itself.
Lent is a journey.
Every journey takes time.
Every journey hits traffic and speed bumps.
Every journey has its temptations. Some masquerade as tourist traps. “Pedro’s Forecast: Chili today, hot tamale. South of the Border”
That was the singularly worst pulled-pork sandwich I ever tasted. What a waste.
And stopping there with my then-young family meant that I finally gave in to the temptation my dad had resisted for decades. It also meant that Dad was right.
Most temptations are not as essentially harmless as making a pit stop on Interstate 95 and blowing a few bucks on inedible fast food.
Some, as Jesus encountered during his retreat into the desert, can be life-threatening. Life-changing. Life-defeating.
In a world of limited and unevenly shared wealth and resources, the temptation to get more-more-more for ourselves equals leaving less-less-less for others. It’s called a zero-sum situation. The bigger our slices of the pizza, the smaller the slices for everyone else.
That’s not Christ’s way.
That’s not how we resist temptation.
The best way to resist temptation is to stay ahead of it, to leave evil or misguided urges off to the sides of our lives and stay on the Highway to Heaven.
To resist temptation by living lives of justice and charity, powered by God’s abundant grace.
In the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, the chapter that follows today’s passage, Jesus gives us some real-world scenarios and descriptions of altruism. Of empathy.
Which, I assure you, are not sinful or weak, despite what some 21st-century people may be saying.
Our Lord said:
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.
Our journey through Lent is a little longer than two miles. In truth, our journey through Lent, and the Easter season, and Pentecost, and Ordinary Time, and Advent and Christmas is lifelong.
Our lives at the Jersey Shore let us experience all four seasons — including the rare blizzard — and those four seasons of Nature mirror our liturgical seasons.
New life. Rebirth. Work and play. Quiet time. Dump the trash and pull the weeds so we can grow.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Every day of our lives, in every season of our lives, we are challenged to be better, better for ourselves and better for the benefit of our sisters and brothers everywhere.
We are challenged to share the wealth of the Earth by using our individual God-given gifts for the good of the whole.
It’s never easy. It’s downright exhausting most of the time. Our world needs a lot of help, and we are so, so divided. We seem to have forgotten we’re all on a journey, with hills and twists and turns. We seem to have forgotten that we all have the same destination. We all want to be in the fast lane and get there first.
And New Jersey drivers know how hard it can be to share the road with each other, let alone share all of those limited resources.
But that’s the challenge of Lent. That’s the challenge Christ lays before us daily as we follow the roadmap he has given us.
So when we make the most of the journey, when we avoid the tourist traps and other pitfalls we call temptations, when we see the beauty of God’s Creation as we pass through it, then all of a sudden, almost by surprise, we’ll realize:
Hey, we made it! We’re here!
