Dear Friends,

With age, it seems to me, that nostalgia is more easily prompted than in my youth. Little things seem to be enough. Recently, I heard a Frank Sinatra song and well … I was taken back early in my college years. Growing up in a home listening to “Fridays with Frank” and “Sundays with Sinatra” and thinking that Sid Mark was an uncle I had yet to meet, but whose voice was more familiar with the ones I knew. In college, I fell in love with Sinatra’s rendition of “You and Me,” a song composed by Peter Allen featuring Carole Bayer Sager’s lyrics. It was the magic of the music that drew me in, at first, not paying much attention to the lyrics. But, when I did … I could not believe how such beautiful graceful music could be the setting for such a depressing song. The lyrics go:

You and me, we wanted it all, we wanted it all; Passion without pain, sunshine without rainy days. We wanted it always. You and me, we reached for the sky, the limit was high; Never giving in, certain we could win that prize; I should have seen it in your eyes.

Look how all our dreams came true; See how I've got me and, baby, you've got you. Through it all, just one thing died; A little thing called love, something deep inside. You and me, we're not like the rest, we once were the best; Back when we were dumb. How did we become so smart; And learn to break each other's heart?

Look how all our dreams came true; See how I've got me, baby, you've got you. Through it all, just one thing died; A little thing called love, something deep inside. You and me, we're not like the rest, we once were the best; But look what we became! Isn't it a cryin' shame; That we almost made it? But we wanted it all! Baby, you and me, We wanted it all!

Despite the conflict this created, my analytical mind would not … could not let it go. Listening to it over and over, reading the text repeatedly, and driving my friends crazy; it became like a meditation on the rest of my life. At the time, I was young, ambitious with gifts and talents that were being appreciated and encouraged. I was discerning my vocation to the priesthood, studying philosophy and understanding it, involved in student government, the drama department and various other activities; in a word, I wanted it all and success was palpable. More than ambitious, however, at the core of my being, I was a hopeless romantic and the lyrics kept challenging me with the reality that a selfish pursuit of “my” dreams would yield success … but at a cost: “Through it all, just one thing died, a little thing called love, something deep inside.” No! That’s not a little thing at all … love? … my soul? … my authentic self? That was too high a cost and too lonely a life. So, you may be asking, “What purpose has this musical journey through his pathetic nostalgia have to do with a message of the Gospel on this First Sunday and our own journey through Lent?” As personal as my story may have been, is it really that different from your own? In many ways, this song is a metaphor for life. In the spring of our lives, don’t we all want it all and don’t most of us feel the confidence to pursue it? The beautiful music almost carries us away to the point that we choose not to accept the full reality of the song: music and words together, distinct yet inseparable. When, however, we finally apprehend the meaning of the lyrics, it may be too late. We may choose to believe that despite the daunting reality of the “words” the euphoric music will get us through the song of our lives; but in our self-reliance, are we not submitting to the seductive temptation that we can have it all, even when our pursuit is partial—passion without pain; sunshine without the rainy days; wanting it “all” according to our aspirations? Aren’t we too naïve, at times, to think that we can fashion reality according to our perception of we want, rather than yielding to the objective truth that IS?

In the Gospel today, Jesus is presented as the New Adam and everything is very different. Jesus does not find Himself in the paradisical Garden of Eden with plenty to eat, but in the deserted wilderness physically weakened after fasting for 40 days. He is keenly attuned to who He is and what is way, the truth and the life He must follow. The devil, who is a bore, uses the same old tactics with the temptations of sensual lust (bread for His hungry body); a pretentious life (throw yourself down and let the angels catch you) and enticement for the eyes (all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence) in attempt to seduce the Son of God with a lie. St. Paul beautifully explains what happens in the wilderness and exhorts us to follow: “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2: 5-11) May we never lose the love God has poured into our hearts in pursuit of our all.

Be of good cheer and have a blessed and fruitful Lent!

Msgr. Grous

Be of good cheer and have a blessed week!

Msgr. Grous