Fr. Mike's Sunday Message
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March 8, 2026Spiritual Battles: Fighting the Lust of the Flesh
"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Matthew 16:25
In the season of Lent, we join Our Lord in the spiritual combat of the desert. The forty days of this season remind us of the Israelites during their forty-year flight from Egypt. During those forty years, God guided them as they combated enemies without and within, so as to become a “holy people,” a people fit to enter the Promised Land. Jesus likewise goes into the desert for forty days to do battle with the devil, so that we might share in His victory as we combat spiritual enemies without and within on our pilgrim journey to the true Promised Land with the saints in heaven.
In the spiritual warfare we all engage in as Christians, and in a special way during this season, there are three categories of enemies we face: the flesh, the world, and the devil. Or, drawing from Scripture: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 Jn 2:16). This week we will focus on the first category: the temptations of the flesh. As one author put it, “The world can be conquered with relative ease by disdaining its pomps and vanities; the devil cannot withstand the supernatural power of a little holy water; but our flesh wars against us without ceasing.” These temptations often show themselves as a horror or distaste of suffering and as an insatiable desire for pleasure and comfort.
As a framework for reflection: temptations, in their various forms, are evil because they draw us away from God. Giving in to the temptations of the flesh, whether by avoiding a necessary suffering or by seeking pleasure inordinately, makes us less and less like Jesus. However, when we fight these temptations in the right way, we can become more and more like Him in our thoughts, words and actions. Moments of temptation can become moments of opportunity, opportunities to become more like Christ.
What are some ways these sins manifest themselves in our lives? And how can we practice Christlike love and self-denial in response?
I think of a young mother who finally has a moment to sit down on the comfortable couch when suddenly a child begins to cry. The temptation comes to linger in comfort for just a few seconds longer (an action), or to rise bitterly, feeling deprived of a comfort so much desired, and care for the child angrily (thoughts, and perhaps even words). Instead, the mother fights the temptation. She sees the moment as an opportunity to act like Christ, who Himself grew tired and weary, yet was “moved with pity” for the crowds and cared for their needs (Mt 14:14). She rises, setting aside comfort as an act of love, placing the needs of the child above the desire for ease.
Or consider a single man who rises when his alarm sounds instead of hitting the snooze button, keeping his time of prayer, like Christ, who at times spent whole nights in prayer. Such an act quietly proclaims: this time for God is more important than the comforts of my bed.
The tradition offers many ways to practice resisting these temptations. This is one reason we give up our favorite foods during Lent: to practice self-control, so that when the moment arises, small though it may seem, we are prepared and ready to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the Lord in love for Him and for our neighbor.
-Fr. Mike Tabernero