The Gospel reading today was Matthew 4:1-11, about the temptation of Jesus. Father John said, "We're tempted when we're hungry."
When we're hungry we're likely to reach for anything.
Father John said that it's foolish to give up putting sugar in your coffee, or to give up sweets for Lent.
Lent is not about giving up, so much as it's about looking up--and in. To practice Lent, we look at ourselves and ask, what is the one thing that is holding me back from the life God wants me to have in Him? And for forty days, we practice letting it go.
By the time we reach Easter that temptation is gone...and we are, miraculously, more full.