The Trojan Horse refers to a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks, during the Trojan War, to enter the city of Troy and win the war. After a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates of the city for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war. The trojan horse is a symbol of the enemy we do not recognise; the enemy within; much more deadly than the enemy on the outside. We are beginning the season of Lent and in today’s gospel, we see Jesus in combat with Satan. Satan is very evil and a great liar; and he has a great ally in a certain person we all know in our world today. Jesus is pure goodness, pure truth, pure love. He is the saviour of the world and Satan wants to stop Jesus fulfilling his mission. The real desire of Satan is to come within us, like the trojan horse and take over our hearts and our minds.  When I was studying Theology in Rome in the late 70’s, I remember reading an article that the then Pope, Paul VI published, stating that the Devil really exists. I was surprised at the criticism that this article received in the media, alleging that the Pope had resuscitated a long-buried myth. Just in case anyone is in doubt the devil still exists in our word today, and just look at what is going on in Ukraine. Very few people can say that they have met the devil personally. One bright Sunday morning, everyone in the tiny town of Johnstown Pennsylvania got up early and went to the local church. Before Mass started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews and talking about their lives, their families, etc. Suddenly, the Devil himself appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the exits to get away from Old Nick. Soon everyone had left the Church, except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew, seemingly oblivious to the fact that God’s ultimate enemy was in his presence. Now this confused Satan a bit, so he walked up to the man and said, “Don’t you know who I am?” The man replied, “Yep, sure do.” Satan asked, “Aren’t you afraid of me?” “Nope, sure ain’t,” said the man. Satan was more confused at this and asked the man, why aren’t you afraid of me?” The man calmly replied; “being married to your sister for the last 48 years”. The great author Oscar Wilde once said: ‘I can resist everything except temptation.’ The temptations of Jesus were not play-acting, or stage managed. They were real. As we struggle with temptations, we are not alone, our struggle is Jesus’s struggle,  his victory is our victory,  we can always win where we had lost before,  we can turn our worst defeats into great victories.  With Jesus let us face Lent with great courage,  let us look inside and see if we can find a trojan horse, the enemy within, and let us make a proposal that when Easter comes each one of us can see that we are a renewed Christian and we are a renewed and better person.