His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
First Sunday of Lent
February 22, 2026, 10:00 AM Mass
St. Peter and Paul Parish
Into the Wilderness with Jesus
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Remember man, remember woman that you are dust and unto dust you shall return. For centuries Catholics around the world have heard these sobering words as ashes are imposed on their foreheads to mark the beginning of Lent: forty days of prayer, penance, fasting, and almsgiving to help us turn our attentions away from the distractions of daily life and focus on our spiritual need to take up our cross and follow Jesus into the wilderness and up to Jerusalem meditating on His teachings, suffering, and death in the hope of sharing in the mystery of His resurrection.
The phrase, “Remember that you are dust” is both fascinating and disquieting. It reminds us that no matter how young or old we are, no matter how healthy or unwell we are, our human lives are brief.
In recent days, as always, many people have died. Some of them may have been people for whom we care deeply. Others, we know only through the news: [President Kennedy’s granddaughter, Tatiana Kennedy Schlosberg, 35, Vice President Dick Chaney, 84, renowned actor, Robert Duval, 95, legendary architect Frank Gehery, 96, six vibrant young wives and mothers and their three guides swept away by a massive avalanche while skiing in Lake Tahoe, OMIT?] prophetic social justice advocate, Reverend Jesse Jackson, 84 who died on Mardi Gras, and Dr. Norman Francis, 94, distinguished educator and president of Xavier Catholic University in New Orleans for 47 years, who died on Ash Wednesday. Each of these lives and deaths, like all lives and deaths, contain experiences that could nourish our First Sunday of Lent meditation.
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One person who died recently spoke openly on social media about the spiritual lessons he has learned by praying about his coming death. James Van Der Beek, 48, died of cancer on February 11th. I knew nothing about him. I have never seen his famous television show. His blunt comments caught my attention. Mr. Van Der Beek made this startling statement, “My illness has, in a way, been the best thing that has happened to me. Cancer has cleared my head and forced me to face harsh reality, to face my own mortality and to see my life from the proper perspective. In the past, I wanted to be a good actor, a good neighbor, and most of all a good husband and father. And I still want that. But in the past, I thought of God as a reality that I focused on from time to time as an important PART of my life. [I thought about God watching a beautiful sunset, facing family problems, worrying about the problems in the world, and tending to my ranch.” OMIT?]
“BUT NOW, cancer has forced me to face the obvious truth, God is and must be at the center of all of my life, my wife, Kimberly’s life, and the lives of our six children. I now realize, for the first time, that my relationship to God is the main reason for my life’s journey, the central reason for my time on this planet. So, if I recover and enjoy a long life, or if cancer gets the best of me and I die soon, it has already taught me life’s most important lesson, I am here, all of us are here to love God and live for God.” When he died 27 days later, his wife, Kimberly, said James faced death with faith, courage, gratitude, and grace.
These thoughtful reflections of Mr. Van Der Beek, who was not a Catholic, are a poignant reminder to each of us that Lent is more than Ash Wednesday. It is 40 days during which we, like Jesus, are called into the wilderness to endure and overcome the temptation of allowing anything or anyone to be more central in our lives than God Himself revealed in Jesus Christ. James’s seemingly interrupted life reminds us that these days of Lent should not be wasted.
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In this morning’s reading from Matthew c 4, v 1-11, Jesus is teaching us the primary purpose of Lent is NOT giving up anything; the primary purpose is to give in to God, give in to God and not allow anyone or anything tempt us to make God simply a minor PART of our lives. This is easy to say; but very difficult to do.
Matthew tells us that after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the evil one to place His ego above being faithful to the ministry to which God had called Him. “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the parapet of the temple,” “If you will prostrate yourself and worship me, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence.” Jesus is tired and hungry after spending 40 days in prayer and fasting, humanly speaking, Jesus was vulnerable to temptation. Jesus was tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread to satisfy hunger, to leap from the temple parapet to force God to save Him, and to bow before Satan to gain the glory of earthly kingdoms. Jesus overcomes each temptation. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Deuteronomy 6:16). “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only” (Deuteronomy 6:13). Each temptation is a form of idolatry, enticing Jesus to push God to the margins of His life and place His personal needs at the center. Jesus says, or maybe He screams, “Be gone, Satan, get away, Satan!”
The power of this gospel account of Satan tempting Jesus is weakened for some contemporary Catholics. While, for some strange reason, the majority of church going Catholics confidently express their belief that angels exist. Surveys indicate that many Catholics question the literal existence of Satan, or the devil, an evil spirit, Lucifer, a fallen angel. Even if they have read C. S. Lewis’s classic, “The Screwtape Letters,”[an imagined collection of letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, to his nephew, Wormwood a junior demon, explaining how to corrupt human souls OMIT], it is difficult for them to accept the idea that an actual devil who, like a roaring lion, roams the world seeking the ruin of souls. Many young Catholics (and some older ones too) think that, if you look at the world from a modern scientific perspective, it is rather difficult to believe the devil is real.) They think that it is more likely that all of the negative, evil things we attribute to the actions of Satan actually originate from the dark corners of our own minds.
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Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Each of us must discern how the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness will shape our Lenten days. Surely it must be more than going to parish Friday Fish Fries. Surely, it must be more than giving up cigarettes, coffee, or sweets. Surely, it must, at least, mean giving up anger, giving up pride, giving up dishonesty, giving up rash judgments, giving up prejudices and unkindness, giving up anything that weakens our relationship to Christ.
Surely Jesus’ example of resisting the temptations of the Evil One must mean giving in to God, giving in to kindness, giving in to patience, giving in to making time to read the Lenten scripture readings before Mass, giving in to seeking out candidates for the Easter Sacraments and supporting them, giving in to going to Confession, giving in to contributing to the parish food pantry, and giving in to daily prayer for the end to deadly conflicts in our country and around the world.
It is a paradox that a deadly illness transformed James Van Der Beek’s life into a God centered life. Let us pray for each other during Lent. Pray that, if anything turns our gaze from Christ Jesus and His cross, we will have the courage and the grace to say, “Be gone, Satan, get away!”
“Be gone, Satan, get away!”
Praised be Jesus Christ Both now and forever, AMEN!