2nd Sunday of Lent Year B, 2012

The Danish philosopher Kirkegor Says that there are three kinds of man, esthetic, ethic and religious. Esthetic are people that act moved mainly by their feelings. Ethics are people that act moved mainly by duty. The third kind, religious men are people moved by faith. Abraham is the perfect example of religious man. As we know, he had promised fidelity to God and the Lord had promised to give him a huge offspring through his son Isak, but before he reached the age of marriage, God asked Abraham to offer the child in sacrifice. Abraham was obedient and he trusted in the promise of the Lord, and even when the sacrifice of his beloved son was a cause of sadness for him, Abraham obeyed God. The book of Job says that the life of man upon earth is a warfare. In ourselves there is a constant battle between good and evil. The various movements in the soul can be summarized in two, consolation and desolation. Some Sundays ago we heard that our Lord announced to his disciples that he would have to die in a cross. This was a cause of sadness for them. the gospel says that, six days later, our Lord took his three beloved disciples to a mount and showed them his glory. Some time after this, these three disciples were witnesses of Jesus' humiliation in another mount, the mount of olives. Their souls alternated with experiences of consolation and desolation. Our soul also is frequently agitated by one of these two movements. For our spiritual progress, it is necessary to know exactly which movement is agitating our soul and if it comes from God or from the bad spirit. Saint Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises wrote two very practical and useful bunches of rules of discernment of spirits. He says that to the people who go from mortal sin to mortal sin, the devil cheers them to follow in this kind of life, presenting them apparent pleasures, making them imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to make them grow in their vices and sins, consolation. The good spirit, God, our conscience or our guardian angel, acts in the opposite way, he puts in the soul of this people sadness, bitterness, desolation. However, in people that is coming back to God and trying to improve, it is the evil spirit the one that bites, saddens and puts obstacles, desolates. The saint says: I call desolation to darkness of soul, disturbance in it, movement to things low and earthly, agitations and temptations, moving to infidelity, without hope, without love, when one finds oneself all lazy, sad, and as if separated from his Creator and Lord. The bad spirit fights against spiritual gladness, bringing apparent reasons, subtleties and continual fallacies. Maybe you experienced problems of conscience that were like obscure labyrinths from which you couldn't leave and when you spoke about them with a priest or even with a friend, that person said: 'the solution is really simple, it is this' and in that moment you saw everything clear and recognized that there was not such a problem but in your head. The good spirit, instead, gives to those that are trying to get closer to God courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quietness. Saint Ignatius says: I call it consolation when some interior movement in the soul is caused, through which the soul comes to be inflamed with love of its Creator; and when it can in consequence love no created thing on the face of the earth in itself, but in the Creator of them all. Likewise, when it sheds tears that move to love of its Lord, whether out of sorrow for ones sins, or for the Passion of Christ our Lord, or because of other things directly connected with His service and praise. Finally, I call consolation every increase of hope, faith and charity, and all interior joy which calls and attracts to heavenly things and to the salvation of ones soul,

quieting it and giving it peace in its Creator and Lord. How to act during desolation? When we experience desolation, we have to be aware that the one that advises us is the bad spirit, the devil. For this the first rule is not to change the good purposes that we did during consolation. This is not a good time to take decisions. For example there are catholics that begin to go to mass and then they stop. why? Because they don't feel it. If you don't feel it anymore, it is not a good time to stop doing it. Another example is people that took the decision of loving their spouse for the rest of their lives, but when they experience difficulties, begin to wander in divorce. In time of desolation don't change your decisions! Even more, saint Ignatius recommend to attack the temptation, to double prayer and to make better the activity you are tempted to leave, to go to mass and participate the best you can, to reconquer the love of your spouse. In time of desolation it is important to remember the presiding consolations, thinking that soon you will be consoled again. Don't forget to ask: How to act in time of consolation? We said that life is a warfare, If we are not careful during consolation, the devil can use it against us. The first thing to do is to humble ourselves, thinking that it is not due to our merit that we experience consolation, but only for God's mercy. The second is to renew our strength in order to resist coming desolations. This was the main reason of transfiguration, to prepare the apostles to resist the passion of our Lord. Think in these things I said, examine the state of your soul and remember always that when temptations are stronger and difficulties bigger and crosses heavier, in these moments is when our Lord is nearer to us