Lent 2025: Bishop proposes 3 questions for every Catholic

Bishop Robert Barron, founder of the Ministry Word On Fire He has launched for this Lent 2025 three questions that every Catholic must be done to live this “sacred time” of conversion.

In a video posted on March 8, in which he reflects on the gospel that tells the three temptations to Jesus in the desert, the bishop of Winona-Rochester points out that Lent is a time in which, as the French Catholic theologian and philosopher Blas Pascal said, the “amusements” that move away the person of God must be put aside.

1. To what extent has comfort become very important to me?

Mons. Barron says that this first question is the first temptation, which he calls “comfort”, which is symbolized in the “bread”, “food and drink, comfort, sensual pleasure, all that. Good in themselves? Yeah”.

“As I have said many times, Catholics are not Puritanos, we love the things of this world, we love food, drink, sex, and there is nothing wrong with those things but, but, when they become the the highest goodthe greatest good, become the guide star of your life, so you may feel the temptation that moves you away from the path that God wants to continue, ”he continues.

Instead, says the bishop, Catholics are called to be “drivers of divine grace towards the world, that is our task. Now, you can take a million different ways, it will be as unique as each individual, but the basic form is always the same: being a driver of divine grace to the world. ”

“If I said that my life revolves around comfort, then I will not find that path, I will not be a driver of divine life,” he warns.

2. To what extent power and lust dominating has become very important to me?

The second temptation is that of power that, according to the bishop, is not bad in itself: “Very good people can exercise power for good reasons. God is described as almighty, so it cannot be bad in itself, but can it be a very dangerous temptation to get away from the path that God wants us to continue? For sure yes”.

“San Agustín describes sin as lust dominating. It is Latin for the ‘lust of power’, and again, I warn them, it is present in young children, they can observe it in the greatest figures of the political scene. The lust of power is a very powerful temptation. ”

“Does power attract us in all its manifestations? If you attract them, they will not find the path that God wants them to take. Listen, maybe God puts them in a position of power – agreement, that’s fine. As long as they use that power for God’s purposes, not for their own. That is the key, ”says Mons. Barron.

3. To what extent am I trying to manipulate God for my purposes rather than give myself to their purposes?

The third temptation, in which the devil tells Jesus that, if he is the Son of God, he is thrown from the top of the temple, he refers to something more subtle. “What exactly is this temptation? Well, it is using God for your own purposes. Here I am, in the highest part of the temple, I am the king of the world, I am going to throw myself, and I will force God to protect me. This is someone who is trying to use and manipulate God. ”

“I say it is subtle because this is the sin of pride. This is what spiritual teachers recognize as capital sin. Superb is nothing other than to make myself the center of the universe. My ego becomes a black hole that attracts all things and all lights towards itself, including God, ”he continues.

“Every time you say, ‘Lord, why aren’t you doing things that help me here?

Why are things not being resolved at my convenience? Gold, and gold and gold, but you don’t do what I want. ‘ Do you see it? That is a temptation of God; It is a manipulation of God. ”

Then, the American prelate highlights, “it is not about getting God to do what I want; It’s about surrendering to God’s purposes, yes, even when I don’t understand them completely. ”

To conclude, Bishop Barron encouraged to occupy “much of these next 40 days facing those questions. And God bless you. “