Br. Joel Laolao, Diocese of Butuan

Lent is always considered as the most important season for us faithful Christians. These are the days when we remember the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ and our preparation for His resurrection. As we bring to mind the essence of the Holy Week, we also look back at the times when Jesus Christ was tempted while he was all alone in the desert fasting for forty days.

Each one of us treads to our individual deserts. At times we may have people to journey with us but sadly, most of the times we journey alone in the desert. Along the way, the devil never departs from us the devil follows us, tempts us and leads us away from God. This is essentially the reason why commemoration of the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ becomes the central point of our Christian life. This season reminds us of our sinfulness which cause Jesus Christ to die on the cross and which death saved us.

Hence, equally important to our faith is our hope for the resurrection of our Lord and we prepare ourselves for this moment. Shouldn't we wonder why there are almost non-stop sufferings in our society today? If you still remember late lastyear, the Philippines suffered from floods where plenty of properties and lives vanished. Early part of this year Haiti was rocked with more than a 7 magnitude of earthquake which rubble buildings and lives to death. In the beginning also of February the provinces of Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, South Luzon, Visayas and other provinces in the entire archipelago were terribly afflicted causing more than 620,000 hectares of paddy rice valuing at around P40 billion pesos due to the El Niño phenomenon. Aside from this, there is also an outbreak of diseases. Now we are suffering the extreme of climate change.

This unimaginable destruction and human suffering has left everyone who would think about it with great pain. No words we can ever describe these natural and man-made destructions and the suffering these good people have experienced. Not to mention horrible man-made calamities of killings and all forms of injustices happened in between.

Our Lord Jesus Christ resurrection is an event which gives hope for us who believe in Him.

Resurrection is a moment for deep reflection. This is the moment for us to reflect on what happened around us, on what we have done which were good or not and raise them up to God with the hope in our hearts that as He is resurrected we too are raised from all these desolations.

If we reflect on the Gospel of Luke 4:1-13, The Temptations of Jesus, there are three major instances where the devil tempted Him. Looking back to it, the devil asks Jesus to turn stone to bread. On the second time the devil leads him up to a high place and shows him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world telling

Him to give all their authority and splendor to Him. And on the third time the devil leads Him to Jerusalem and has Him stand on the highest point of the temple asking Him to throw Himself down. However the devil failed to tempt Jesus and left him until an opportune time. The temptations of Jesus Christ are focused on the three major aspects of our lives: glory, kingdom and power. We consciously seek for these three aspects in our lives. We never rest until we get them sometimes at the expense of others: their lives, our environment, and our country. We oftentimes unmindful of the consequences of our actions which may, in so many ways, affect everything and everyone around us.
Resurrection is about conversion and total transformation in the love of God. in the process of conversion and transformation we turn our lives more completely over to Jesus Christ and His way of life giving up our sinful acts and desires. Resurrection is telling us that it is "spring" which means "renewal". It means new life here on earth, new life in Jesus Christ. He died on a cross so that we do not have to. God sent His Son to take our place because He loves us. There is no other reason than this. Jesus Christ does it purely because He loves us, with the same tender love that we experienced from our parents comforting or even cradling us when we were hurt. Jesus has destroyed the power of sin to keep us away from God. He has shattered Satan's hold on us and set us free. All we need to do is accept it and submit to Christ and be free!

Resurrection is conversion and transformation, leaving behind our old way of living and acting in order to embrace new life in Jesus Christ.