You walk because you know where you are going. You reach for something with your hand, eat your favourite dessert and watch your much-loved primetime series. We do things because we think. And this combination of thought, memory, emotion, imagination and will are proofs that man is not only a mortal being but a spiritual one connected into something greater than what we see and feel. In fact, we think first before we even move our body. Our physical being, ideally, obeys what the human spirit commands.
This proves that our spiritual nature is superior to the body. Lucifer knows this. And this is the root of his envy. As a light-bearer, he knew that the immaterial should be greater than the material. He could not accept God’s order that angels should serve man, especially bow down to the mortal form of God, Jesus Christ. His envy turned to rage that he decided to destroy material creation by tempting the greatest masterpiece of The Almighty, man. This is the reason why temptation exists, to mutilate the race of man.
How is this connected with today’s liturgy? We, as mortal beings, are confined to this world of temptation. Human as we are, we tend to follow what our body wants first before considering what our spirit commands. And this is how we let Satan ruin our lives, when we let our worldly desires prevail. The ash on the forehead is simply but a reminder that this life is temporary, that we are spiritual being first, a concept that was realized when God, out of His abounding generosity, let us live. Fasting and abstinence stress that it is not the body that is greater than the soul. Our spirit dictates what our body should do, not the other way around. If we decide to do the latter, we let Satan ruin us because he can only destroy our being through our material nature. This, I think, is the message of self-denial for the Lenten season: To tame our bodies that it may follow what the soul desires.
In this forty day journey of fasting, prayer and alms-giving, may our prayer be like the song of David after Prophet Nathan rebuked him.
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
