LENT: A JOURNEY INTO FREEDOM

The season of Lent is a sacred journey in which the Church invites us to walk with Christ in His passion and death, leading us toward the glory of the Resurrection. It is a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where the mystery of His passion, death and resurrection unfolds. In his Lenten Message of 5 February 2026, our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV reminds us: “The Lenten journey is a welcome opportunity to heed the voice of the Lord and renew our commitment to following Christ, accompanying Him on the road to Jerusalem, where the mystery of His passion, death and resurrection will be fulfilled.” Thus, Lent calls us to deepen and renew our “yes” to the Lord, our Sequela Christi with renewed conviction and commitment.

The Holy Father highlights in his message three essential aspects of the Lenten journey that deserve our careful attention: Listening, Fasting and Communion.

Listening, Pope Leo says, is essential because our God is one who seeks to involve us: “Even today He shares with us what is in His heart.” This is a profound and consoling truth. God is not distant, silent or indifferent. He speaks and He desires that we listen. In a world saturated with noise, opinions and distractions, the gift of Sacred Scripture, offered to us in the liturgy, trains us to listen with discernment.

Fasting, the Pope explains, is not merely a penitential act but a means of expansion: of desire, of freedom, of orientation toward God. “Fasting”, He writes, “not only permits us to govern our desire, purifying it and making it freer, but also to expand it, so that it is directed towards God and doing good.” He further insists that fasting must include “other forms of self-denial aimed at helping us acquire a more sober lifestyle.” Fasting reveals our true hunger, not for bread alone, but for justice, holiness, and communion with God.

Communion, according to the Pope is realized when our parishes, families, ecclesial groups, and religious communities undertake a shared journey during Lent. He states clearly: “Conversion refers not only to one’s conscience, but also to the quality of our relationships and dialogue.” Communion means resisting the temptation to isolate ourselves in selfishness, instead walking together as one body in Christ. Lent invites us to ask hard but life-giving questions: Are we truly present to one another? Do we listen: not only to the Word of God but also to our brothers and sisters?

Dear confreres, drawing from these three aspects, and from the Gospel of the First Sunday of Lent, on which Pope Leo preached at our Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Rome, I would like to reflect with you on the three temptations of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the desert, temptations that remain alive and active in our own daily lives and community living.

Pope Leo posed the age-old question: “Can I fulfil my life to the fullest by saying ‘yes’ to God? Or, to be free and happy, do I have to get rid of Him?” According to him, the desert scene answers this definitively. In Jesus, we see the new man – the free man – who conquers the Adversary precisely by His total and unwavering “yes” to the Father.

The Second Vatican Council, in Gaudium et Spes, teaches that “the mystery of man is truly revealed only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word.” It is in Christ that we discover what it means to be truly human, truly free. The temptations are not confined to the pages of the Gospel; they are alive and at work in our own hearts, in our communities, and in the world we serve.

1. The Temptation of Selfish Gratification of Our Desires “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” (Mt. 4:3)

The devil tempted Jesus with the words: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” This echoes the deception in Eden, where the serpent lured our first parents with the promise: “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” Eve succumbed to the lie, for she “saw” that the forbidden fruit was “pleasing to the eyes and desirable.”

The devil’s approach to Jesus is strikingly similar. The logic is seductive: “You are the Son of God; you are hungry; you have the power; stretch out your hand, use your strength for yourself; satisfy your desire.”

Abstaining from food has always been a central ascetic practice, essential on the path of conversion. Precisely because it involves the body, fasting helps us recognize what we truly “hunger” for. Saint Basil the Great, architect of one of the great monastic traditions, spoke plainly: “Fasting gives birth to prophets and strengthens the mighty; fasting makes lawgivers wise. Fasting is a safeguard of the soul, a steadfast companion of the body, a weapon of the valiant, and the gymnasium of athletes.” (Homily on Fasting, I)

Of course, “bread” can be understood broadly as anything that satisfies bodily passions. Temptations do not vanish with age or vows. The urge to gratify our desires remains, unless we consciously choose otherwise. Saint Teresa of Ávila, Doctor of the Church and reformer of Carmel, often reminded her sisters that body and soul are so intertwined that one cannot discipline one without affecting the other.

Bodily discipline is not incidental to spiritual warfare; it is integral. There is a tendency at times, among people, including some of us, to spiritualize away what the Church, in her wisdom, has always treasured. Yet it was through fasting that Jesus overcame the enemy. Mortification is not outdated, instead it strengthens the soul. Saint John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, whose ascetic life was legendary, used to say: “The more one denies the body, the more one enlivens the soul.”

2. The Temptation of Vainglory and Easy Solutions
“Throw yourself down from here; the angels of God will guard you.” (Lk. 4:9–10)

The devil’s proposal is an appeal to vainglory: “Throw yourself down, and the angels will hold you. All Jerusalem will see, and they will believe.” At its core, this is a call to spectacle: a temptation to achieve the mission through display, admiration, and self-promotion. Later, at the foot of the Cross, the same voice will mock: “If you are the Son of God, come down, and we will believe.”

Jesus refuses. His way is not spectacle but patient suffering, humble service, and the Cross. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, identifies vainglory as a primary weapon of the evil spirit against those making spiritual progress, precisely because it can disguise itself as holy zeal.

The world often seeks easy solutions, but true growth requires patience, sacrifice, and endurance. Virtue is cultivated through perseverance, not shortcuts. Holiness is found in the ordinary: patience with one another, fidelity to community life, and humble service that goes unnoticed. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux taught: “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice – here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

Even within our communities, we can be lured by appearances, fascinated by quick fixes, and uncomfortable with the Cross. Yet easy solutions rarely endure. What brings lasting joy is patience, humility, and self-sacrifice. Ministry becomes fruitful only through continual effort, faithful perseverance, and the willingness to fail and begin again. We need to strive in our daily lives to resist the lure of shortcuts and recommit ourselves to the slow, hidden, faithful work of the Gospel.

3. The Temptation of Compromise on Principles
“All this I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (Mt. 4:9)

The final temptation is perhaps the most dangerous, precisely because it is the most subtle. The devil offers Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” – power, glory, influence – in exchange for a single act of worship. It is a direct assault on the first commandment: “I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 34:14).

Many of the gravest failures in the lives of good and illustrious people began with small compromises. David’s terrible fall began with an unguarded glance. Moses’ moment of rage cost the life of an Egyptian. The spiritual masters warn us often: never negotiate with evil, for the road can be very slippery. Saint John Climacus, in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, observes that the soul which bargains with a passion – rather than cutting it off – will find it increasingly difficult to disengage.

In our own lives, compromises can be subtle: a gradual accommodation to the values of the surrounding culture, a neglect of prayer, a growing comfort with mediocrity, or silence in the face of injustice. Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Spe Salvi, warned that when human beings detach their moral compass from the transcendent, they inevitably become servants of transient powers. Jesus, in Matthew’s account, is unequivocal: “Away with you, Satan!” (Mt 4:10). He never negotiated with evil; He drove it away – both from His own life and from the lives of others.

We must learn from Jesus the courage of clarity, the strength of principle, and the freedom that comes from refusing to substitute the things of this world for God. We too, in our own lives, need to refuse every compromise on what is sacred and true. We must render to God the honour, worship, and love that are His due – in personal prayer, in the celebration of the sacraments, and in the reverence of our common life. Where we have allowed other things to take the place that belongs to God alone, let us, in this season of Lent, confess, repent, and return.

Conclusion

Pope Leo reminded us in his homily to rediscover the true freedom given to us at Baptism. In Baptism, we were incorporated into Christ, the new Adam, the truly free man. We received, as pure gift, the freedom that comes from saying “yes” to God. That freedom is never destroyed; it waits to be reclaimed, renewed, and lived more fully.

Lent is the season in which we remember who we are. It is a time to rediscover our deepest identity. In Genesis, God’s command to our first parents was not a restriction meant to diminish them, but an invitation: an invitation to relationship, trust, and love. The tempter whispered the lie that God is a rivalto human happiness. The Lenten journey unmasks that falsehood and reveals the truth: God is the source and summit of all happiness, and freedom is found not by fleeing from Him but by embracing Him. This is what Saint Irenaeus meant when he declared, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Humanity becomes fully alive only when it is rightly ordered toward God.

Therefore, dear confreres, let us undertake this Lenten journey with joy and courage – not as a burden imposed from without, but as a grace welcomed from within. Let each of our communities become a place where the freedom of the children of God is visible, contagious, and radiant. May our fasting, prayer, and fraternal communion stand as a prophetic sign to the world that it is possible to live differently – to live freely – because we have encountered the Risen One who awaits us at the end of the journey.

As Pope St. John Paul II urged the world in his inaugural homily on 22 October 1978: “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.” Let us open wide the doors of our hearts. Let us open wide the doors of our communities. Let Christ enter – not as a judge to condemn, but as a friend who sets us free.

Wishing you a holy, fruitful, and grace-filled Lenten season, ours affectionately in Don Bosco,

Fr Jose Thomas Koyickal SDB
Provincial