A Taize (repeated, chanted) musical refrain is: “Lord, transform me. Lord, reform me. Lord, conform me to Your will.” Our Lenten journey, indeed, our life-long faith journey, is about our personal conversion. Our repentance, our worship and our service should all be transformative; life-altering. Our journey should renew us, renovate us, and change the perceptions and priorities of our life in spirit-filled ways.
 
Like Abraham (Abram) from the First Reading from the Book of Genesis, we are called to leave our familiar place and go where the Lord leads us. In the Transfiguration story of St. Matthew’s Gospel, we glimpse what we are preparing ourselves for: our eternal life, the mountain of the Lord, communion with all the rest of the saints (besides those saints here on earth!), and our place at the heavenly banquet.
 
St. Paul reminds us that we are saved, and that we all are called to a holy life according to God’s design, and toward an ever-deeper union with God and all things. The knowledge of having been saved is humbling, and it should be transformative! And still more—we have been given the gift of grace “bestowed on us in Christ Jesus…who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light…”
 
God’s love for us is unconditional. He made a new covenant. We will be loved even if we don’t (can’t, won’t) change, or “do it right.” We always run from change…and the growing pains connected to it…even if somewhere underneath we know it is part of God’s unfolding plan for us! We are human, we will never be perfect and we will always make mistakes. God’s love for us, however, makes it possible for us to change: for us to leave the familiar in confidence and go to the new; for us to strive to lead holy lives; for us to want to be changed and transformed in the safety of God’s love and blessed assurance. This is a great reason to keep singing!

​Elizabeth Dyc

I have been thinking a lot about temptation recently—especially as Lent is upon us. I looked up “temptation” in Webster’s Dictionary, and I was struck by how many different words start with the four letters “t-e-m-p” and how these words may be related beyond those first four letters. The beginning of these words comes from “tempus” which means “time” in Latin.  The words that are related by “t-e-m-p” that stood out most to me were temperament, temporary, temporize, temple—and of course—temptation.
 
Struggling with temptation, I know that our response (good or bad) to any sin may be tempered (lessened) by the temperament with which we are born: our ability to turn from sin to discipline is always part of our personal struggles.  As believers, however, we are graced with forgiveness when we do fall (and we ask for it), so it helps to understand that temptation may be transitory, temporary, and it may be fended off if answered with scripture and prayer. And we may not temporize—to make excuses, to avoid our baptismal commitment to do right—in situations of temptation. We must take responsibility for all of our acts as apostles.
 
The last word I want to consider in conjunction with temptation is “temple.” We should always remember that we are living tabernacles of the Spirit of God. We, ourselves, are a temple: a “space marked out, a religious edifice, a place devoted for a special purpose.” (Thanks, Webster.) This definition is something we could consider when struggling with our choices.
 
Reading the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent (always about Jesus’ temptation in the desert), we hear the many various ways our Lord was tempted by the Tempter. Jesus is tempted in his body (hunger); he is tempted for his safety and for testing God; he is tempted with power. He puts the Tempter in his place as He responds with the Word of God as His strength. He is the model to consider as we go forward in this season of conversion and transformation. Like Adam and Eve in the Genesis reading, we may fall, but St. Paul reminds us today that we will be made righteous—something to hang on to in our dark and fallen moments.
 
May our Lenten journey this year be productive—full of temptation, trials and tests that will help to strengthen us in this voyage toward our true goal—eternal salvation. It’s all only a matter of tempus…
Keep singing!
 
Elizabeth Dyc