Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #206 02212026: Temptation, Free Will & the Road to Easter

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Good News #206 02212026: Temptation, Free Will & the Road to Easter · Catholic Spirit Radio

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  Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
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  teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
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  lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
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  And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
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  Good evening and welcome to Good News. I am Deacon Al Lundy here on the Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  You're joining me every Saturday and Sunday evening from 8 to 8.30. I hope you are.
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  Every now and then I have a parishioner who stops me at church and said,
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  hey, I listen to your show.
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  So that's always great to hear. And thank you for doing that.
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  I hope you're getting something out of it. This particular person really enjoyed
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  my talk last weekend about free will, and so we had a nice conversation about that.
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  We get together every week to talk about good news, the good news of Christ
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  our Lord as reflected in the readings of the Mass.
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  And for those of you who don't know, every Mass, every day of the week in the
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  Catholic Church, we read directly from Scriptures from the Old Testament and the New Testament.
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  We have even more readings on Sunday than we have during the weekdays.
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  We also read from the Psalms. And so there are people who think that the Catholic
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  Church is not a biblically-based church, and we are.
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  If you were to ever attend the Mass, even if you just want to come as a casual
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  observer, you're more than welcome to.
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  I think you will be shocked to see the amount of Scripture that is present in every single Mass.
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  And from the beginning to the end, I mean, from the welcome,
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  from the prayer called the collect.
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  The celebrate, the priest gathers the prayer intentions of everyone present
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  and lifts them up as the intentions for that mass, all the way to the closing dismissal.
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  These all come from Scripture.
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  And so we look at the main three readings.
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  On Sundays, we have an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, and a Gospel reading.
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  And then in the homily, rather than a sermon, we have homilies.
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  The difference being that a sermon can be on any topic that a minister would like to talk about,
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  but a homily is directly related to the gospel and almost always comes back
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  to the importance of the Eucharist,
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  of the body and blood of Christ being offered to us in the present day,
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  just as he did back in apostolic times during the Last Supper.
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  And we're coming into that time. I mean, we're just a few weeks away now from
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  Easter, where we will celebrate the Last Supper, the founding of the Mass.
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  And this is a great time, if you're interested in Catholicism and want to learn
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  more about it, this is a great time to get started, especially during the last
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  few days before Easter, a period of time we called the Triduum.
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  And in the Triturum week, we'll celebrate on Holy Thursday, we'll celebrate
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  the Last Supper, the founding of the Mass, and really of the Church.
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  Then we'll have the remembrance of Good Friday, of the passion,
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  suffering, and death of Christ.
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  And then on Holy Saturday, on the vigil before Easter Sunday,
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  before the resurrection, we will be celebrating the new persons coming into the church,
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  new converts that we have entering the church.
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  And we also celebrate, really, the entire salvific history of Jesus Christ from the creation.
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  Our early readings will be on the creation of life and of mankind.
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  We'll talk about the fall of Adam and Eve and really the fall of all mankind
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  in order to be able to recognize the coming of the Messiah, right?
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  And Christ entering into the world for our salvation, not for our punishment.
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  Not for our reproach, but for our salvation to bring us back to God and how
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  that whole salvific history works.
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  And then we'll welcome the light of Christ into the world in a very dramatic way.
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  The Vigil Mass is extremely beautiful.
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  And if you've never been, if you're Catholic and have never been to the Vigil
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  Mass, I encourage you to come.
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  If you're not Catholic and you would like to see just a beautiful worship service,
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  a time where we can all, as Christians, recognize the importance of the life,
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  passion, death, resurrection of Christ, that would all be visible at the vigil mass.
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  So, please, I hope you'll join us, and we will see you then.
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  This is held at almost every parish throughout the Universal Church.
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  And if you want to know where to find that Vigil Mass, well, Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  Come to our website, catholicspiritradio.org, and you will find calendar events
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  from parishes within four dioceses surrounding us,
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  and you can see just who has Mass at what time and attend that.
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  Also, you'll see that many of the parishes throughout the four weeks of Lent.
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  Five weeks of Lent. We'll have special services going on, such as Stations of
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  the Cross, special times of confession.
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  You'll find all that on our calendar at catholicspiritradio.org.
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  So please look us up, peruse around the website. There's a ton of information there.
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  You can even find podcasts, the repeat performances of our locally produced programs,
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  and you'll find some of the great programs that we broadcast through EWTN and
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  other Catholic networks.
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  Really wonderful programs, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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  We want to be your Catholic resource outside of your parish.
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  Catholic Spirit Radio is here for all parishes throughout all of the dioceses that we serve.
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  So we hope you'll make use of this wonderful resource.
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  There's a lot of good stuff out on the internet. There's a lot of garbage out on the internet as well.
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  And so you have to be able to discern which is which.
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  And I would offer to you that one of the great resources available to you is Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  So please check us out.
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  As far as what's going on in my life, just getting ready for Lent.
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  Getting ready for Holy Week as we move closer towards Easter.
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  And there's a lot to do. I've, among my responsibilities with the parishes I
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  serve is the decorating committee, the servers,
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  the collectors, and that keeps me pretty busy, trying to keep all those going,
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  especially as we move into such a busy time of year.
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  Something else, we just had Ash Wednesday.
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  Really wonderful attendance at our churches. I hope that your parish saw the
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  same thing that my parishes saw, but really, really enthusiastic attendance.
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  A lot of college students. Now, we're not too far from Illinois State University
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  and from Illinois Wesleyan University.
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  And we always get some students at Mass because we also have,
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  like on the campus of Illinois State University.
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  We've got the Newman Center. There is no real Catholic center on Illinois Wesleyan's
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  University, but we're just a couple blocks away.
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  And wow, we had a lot of college students come to Ash Wednesday Mass.
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  And that is so wonderful to see because so often we lose members once they enter college.
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  And part of it is college life is very hectic.
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  College life is very distracting from normal life.
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  Young people, when they get away from the influence of their parents.
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  Sometimes get misled and misguided.
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  And that's a real issue, not in just the Catholic Church, but in all Christian faiths.
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  Very easy to be misled. There's a lot of temptations at that age that young people get drawn to.
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  And it is just so wonderful. I mean, we saw dozens and dozens of college students
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  come to Ash Wednesday, and we certainly hope they'll come join us every Sunday
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  now that they're in town.
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  I don't know, Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation.
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  But yet, it's always one of the most well-attended Masses of the year.
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  And we joke sometimes, it's, you know, all we have to do to get people to come
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  to Mass is give away stuff for free.
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  Well, we give things away for free at every Mass.
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  But there's just something about getting ashes on your forehead.
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  People want that mark. They want to show that membership, that belonging to
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  a community of the size and the scope of Catholicism.
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  But also, I saw a number of people who I know are not Catholics,
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  who are Protestants, or who are nuns.
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  They're not actually practicing a particular faith, but yet they come to Ash Wednesday.
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  And I think there's just something very beautiful about that,
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  that people are called back to the church for that special intention.
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  And what a wonderful way it is to start Lent by reminding ourselves of our own
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  humility, of our own humanity, as a way of setting the stage for really changing
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  our lives, opening our hearts,
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  removing those past sins that we've let build up on us.
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  Our pastor gave a great comment during his homily that I don't think I'll ever
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  forget where he talks about sin as the devil having a stranglehold on our throat.
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  He's got this grip on us where he controls us.
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  He controls our very life by the stranglehold that we take on,
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  we choose through our sin.
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  And that through confession, we're able to call on the power of God to remove
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  that stranglehold and once again be free.
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  So we really are enslaved by our sins.
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  And through confession, through that great forgiveness,
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  the mercy of God, we're able to loosen Satan's grip on us and be able to live
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  a more Christ-like life again.
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  So please make time this Lent for confession as we enter into the Easter season.
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  We'll be back in just a few minutes to good news on Catholic Spirit Radio,
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  and we'll be looking at the readings from the first Sunday of Lent. Stay tuned.
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  Good news will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 11:24
  Even though we're healthy, the wife's been after me to sit with her and create
• 11:27
  our will. Mike, I just don't know where to begin.
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  Marty, preparing a will is a loving and responsible thing to do.
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  It's not as big of a task as you might think.
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  Why do you say that? We finalized our will last month online using My Catholic Will.
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  It was easy using the free gift found on Catholic Spirit Radio website.
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  In about 30 minutes, My Catholic Will guided us in establishing guardians for our kids,
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  ensuring a proper Catholic funeral, and making sure that our assets are directed
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  at the people and organizations we care about. That sounds like a great idea.
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  Did you say My Catholic Will is free? Yep, free. Plus, you complete it right
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  at home. My wife's going to love that.
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  Don't delay. Go to mycatholicwill.com right slash catholicspiritradio Thanks
• 12:14
  Mike mycatholicwill.com right slash catholicspiritradio Did you know there's
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  an app for Catholic Spirit Radio?
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  Just go to the Google Play or Apple App Store to download the app Catholic Spirit Talk Radio.
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  It's free. Get all the quality programs you know and love. The Shrine of the
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  Most Blessed Sacrament in Hansville, Alabama is an official Jubilee Year of Hope site.
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  It's an ideal place to receive a plenary indulgence and for adoration with poor Claire nuns.
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  Details at olamshrine.com.
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  And welcome back to Good News. I'm Deacon Al Lundy, a Permanent Deacon of the Peoria Diocese.
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  If you have a question about Catholicism or Christianity in general,
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  and you'd like us to address it on the air here at Good News, you can write us,
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  email to us at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com, and we'll be glad to take
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  your questions and answer them on the air.
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  So our readings for this weekend, the first Sunday of Lent, come from the book
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  of Genesis and then a letter from St.
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  Paul to the Romans, and finally we'll have a gospel according to Matthew from
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  the fourth chapter of Matthew.
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  So, from the book of Genesis, the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the
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  ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.
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  And so man became a living being.
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  Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and placed there the man whom he had formed.
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  Out of the ground the Lord made various trees grow that were delightful to look
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  at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and
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  the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
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  Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord had made.
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  The serpent asked the woman, Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?
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  The woman answered the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the
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  garden, it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that
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  God said you shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.
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  But the serpent said to the woman, you certainly will not die.
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  No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and
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  you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.
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  The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes,
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  and desirable for gaining wisdom.
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  So she took some of its fruit and ate it.
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  She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
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  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked.
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  So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. The Word of the Lord.
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  And before we go too far in the book of Genesis, I want to remind you something
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  that the Catechism will teach you, is that Scripture is written in many different
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  styles throughout hundreds of years.
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  And literary styles change through different civilizations and through different eras.
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  At the time of the recording of Genesis by Moses, a really popular style was,
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  I guess you could call it imaginary writing.
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  It was demonstrative writing where images were used to convey heavier thoughts, deeper thoughts.
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  So you can't read Genesis as if it's completely literal.
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  You have to realize that parts of Genesis are figurative speech.
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  And so, when we talk about the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of
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  good and evil, the tree of life is Jesus.
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  That's the tree that we get the fruit of life from. Eternal life comes from
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  Jesus. So, what's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It's temptation.
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  And what's the fruit of temptation? It's sin. So when we hear about Adam and Eve turning...
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  Through the temptation of the devil to the tree of the knowledge of good and
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  evil, they're being tempted now to disobey God.
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  And when they eat of the fruit, it means that they're sinning. They've accepted sin.
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  They've taken the word of the devil in front of the word of Christ, of God, rather.
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  And so that's the original sin. It's one of pride.
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  They've been told, oh, you'll be like gods. Eat this and you could be like God.
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  Well, we do that all the time. make X amount of money, you'll be like a god.
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  Get this much fame, you'll be like a god.
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  Get this much power and authority, you'll be like a god.
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  So, we're subject to these same temptations that Adam and Eve were,
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  and many of us have fallen to the same temptations that Adam and Eve have.
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  They simply did it first, the original sin, not the only sin,
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  not the last sin, just the first sin.
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  If Adam and Eve hadn't turned away from God, somebody else would have.
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  It was destined in our nature because we have built within ourselves this desire for more.
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  We all desire more. And it's that lack of control that leads us to sin.
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  It's called concupiscence.
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  It's this desire for more, this desire for what makes us feel good,
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  not necessarily what's best for us, but what makes us feel good.
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  Anybody can tell you that drugs are not good for you, that illegal drugs aren't
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  good for you, that they'll kill you, and yet people do it for that one moment
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  of pleasure that you get out of it.
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  I heard said once, why don't more people hit themselves in the head with hammers? It doesn't feel good.
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  If it felt good, my gosh, you'd see thousands of people standing around all
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  day smacking themselves with hammers, right?
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  There are things that make us feel good. Power, fame, wealth.
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  These are things that make us feel good.
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  Lust makes us feel good. It's not necessarily good for us.
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  So our concupiscence makes us go after things that feel good,
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  but aren't necessarily good for us.
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  We're broken. Adam and Eve showed that, that human beings are broken.
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  And that goes back to last week's talk about free will.
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  We're broken because of our free will.
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  If God wanted us to be perfect, he could have made us perfect.
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  He could have made us robotic to where we can't disobey him.
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  But God wants us to love Him, and you can't love someone without free will.
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  It has to be—love has to be a choice, has to be something you determine to do.
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  And so God gave us the ability to determine our love for Him or to reject Him.
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  Adam and Eve showed that. We've shown that through our lives.
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  But luckily, we have a loving and benevolent God,
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  who's willing to share his mercy with us and forgive our sins if we just come
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  to him and say, I messed up, I'm sorry. Adam and Eve didn't do that.
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  Once they realized that they had sinned, they ran and hid from God.
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  And God says, don't hide from me, come to me and talk to me.
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  You know, let's form a relationship, don't run and hide.
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  Okay, from Paul to the Romans, and we're going to read the shorter version.
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  There's a long short form. We're going to do the short form.
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  Reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, Brothers and sisters,
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  through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death.
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  And thus death came to all men inasmuch as all sinned.
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  For if by the transgression of the one death came to reign through that one,
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  how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift
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  of justification come to reign in life through one Jesus Christ.
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  In conclusion, just as through one transgression, condemnation came upon all,
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  so through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all.
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  For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were sinners,
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  so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous, the word of the Lord.
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  So, Paul is explaining to the Romans the difference between Adam and Jesus,
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  the first man who was disobedient to God, and now the new man who is perfectly
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  obedient to God, and the difference, one brings death, one brings life.
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  And I think he makes it quite clear in this how that happens and why that happens
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  and why it had to happen this way and what awaits for us, depending on who you follow.
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  You can follow the man of evil and death, or you can follow the man of righteousness and life.
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  Gospel is according to Matthew. This is from the fourth chapter,
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  and Matthew writes, At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
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  to be tempted by the devil.
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  He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.
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  The tempter approached and said to him, If you are the Son of God,
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  command that these stones become loaves of bread.
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  He said in reply, It is written, One does not live on bread alone,
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  but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
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  Then the devil took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of
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  the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
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  For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you,
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  and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
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  And Jesus answered him, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
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  Then the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms
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  of the world in their magnificence.
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  And he said to him, All these I shall give to you if you prostrate yourself
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  and worship me. At this Jesus said to him, Get away, Satan.
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  It's written, The Lord your God shall you worship, and him alone shall you serve.
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  Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. The gospel of the Lord.
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  So here's what I'd like you to think about with this gospel reading. A couple of things. The.
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  The very first couplet. At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
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  to be tempted by the devil.
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  So, the Spirit of God leads Jesus into the desert for the purpose of being tempted.
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  God leads us into the world for the purpose of being tempted,
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  not to see us do evil, but to give us the opportunity to cooperate with God to do good.
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  And we see that in Jesus' response to each of these temptations.
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  And you know, the silly thing is, the devil tempts him with things he already has.
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  You know, turn these stones into loaves of bread. Why does Jesus need to do that?
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  He's the bread of life. What need does he have of turning stones into bread?
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  He doesn't even need to eat if he doesn't want to. He chooses to be like man
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  to eat, but he's still fully God and is in no need of that.
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  The devil took him and offered him to throw yourself down and the angels will support you.
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  He would do that whether the devil told him to or not. He would still have the
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  protection of the angels.
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  The devil's not offering him anything he doesn't already have.
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  I don't think the devil fully realizes who Jesus is.
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  He's testing him to try and figure it out. The devil isn't God.
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  He doesn't have omniscience.
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  He doesn't have a full understanding, full knowledge.
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  And I think he's trying to test Jesus to see just who or what Jesus really is.
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  And again, Jesus turns not to his own authority, but to the authority of the Scriptures.
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  And he reminds them of God's Word. And with that, he turns away the temptation.
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  And in the final one, he's offered all the kingdoms of the world.
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  Well, what does that to the creator of all the kingdoms of the world?
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  What are you actually offering them? He's already greater than all these kingdoms.
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  This is the heir to the kingdom of heaven.
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  And again, he turns to Scripture for protection.
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  It says that the devil approaches him with these temptations once he is tired and hungry.
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  We're entering into our first week of Lent. We've all given up something that
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  is in our lives that is keeping us from having a relationship with God,
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  a Christ-like relationship.
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  And the first week may be going just fine for you, but that's not when the devil comes.
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  It's going to be once you're tired and hungry. It's going to be third week,
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  maybe, where the devil comes to you and say, you know what? You've done enough.
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  You don't have to do this anymore. You've proven your point.
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  You can stop now. And that's the time to turn to Scripture.
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  That's the time to turn to prayer and to turn to the strength of God to help
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  you continue in your Lenten growth.
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  So keep that in mind. Whatever you've given up, it should be something significant,
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  something that brings you closer in relationship to Christ, and hang in there.
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  It only gets tougher, but through prayer and the strength of God,
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  you can persevere and come out of Lent truly prepared for a joyous celebration
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  at the Feast of the Resurrection this Easter.
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  May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
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  God bless. You've been listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio,
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  a program for teens and almost teens to better understand that the gospel of
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  Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
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  Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnewsatcatholicspiritradio.com.
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  That's goodnewsatcatholicspiritradio.com.
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  Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion.
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  Thank you for listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.