(Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent Yr. C)
Every first Sunday of Lent we read
the gospel passage of the temptation of Jesus, which in turn serves as a
reminder for us to always say “No” to Satan and his promises as Jesus did.
Secondly, it reminds us that in our lives temptations must come, but we are
called to resist as Jesus did. Temptations in themselves are neutral, that is,
they are neither good nor bad. What may be categorized to be good or bad is
what we make out of the temptations (our Yes or our No to them). Jesus’ experience
of temptation evidences that we humans are not immune to temptation. The author
of the letter to the Hebrews was firm on this fact when he affirms: “we do not
have a high priest who is incapable of feeling our weakness with us, but one
who has been tempted in all things like us, but has not sinned” (Heb. 4:15). So, the Devil will
continue to tempt us, but God does not, He only tests us. St. James in his
letter says that “God tempts no one” (Jm.
1:13). The purpose of temptation is to make us bad, but the purpose of test
is to make us better.
In the Gospel reading (Lk. 4:1-13) we see the threefold
temptations of Jesus. The Lukan version of the Temptation differs from that of
St. Mathew, the more popular. St. Luke in his account affirmed that the devil
left Jesus “until an opportune time” (v.13),
this is of great importance to the theology of St. Luke. St. Luke links the
temptation story with the event of the Passion. The three temptations condense
the three fundamental relations of man:
●Towards oneself
(stone or bread)
●Towards others
(power and science)
●Towards God
(God at my disposition)
The first temptation was the demand of
the Devil to Jesus to change stone to bread. Even though it is true that bread
is good, but the word of God is best. It is also true that we need “bread” to
survive, but what keeps us in being is the word of God. His “word are spirit
and they are life” (Jn. 6:63), so
also man “lives of every word that comes out of the mouth of the Lord” (Mt. 4:4). This is the temptation to use
his power to His material and personal advantage, to satisfy his hunger, after
40 days of fasting, but the real word that satisfies is the word of God. Till
today we are still faced with the temptation of turning everything to “bread”
just for personal satisfaction. Little wonder, greed, selfishness and
insatiable desires for material things is erupting the foundation of our world.
The second temptation was the Devil’s
open challenge to Jesus. He took Jesus up and showed Him all the Kingdoms of
the world, and then the Devil tells Jesus (God) to worship him. The devil
invited Jesus to succumb to his logic, for him to have everything. What an
irony! Here we see the logic of the devil: “I give you, you give me”. This is
the temptation for power (to have power over others). This temptation for power
has dealt with our present world. This indeed is the exact contrary of God. God
in His logic loves us first, and gratuitously too. He loves and gives without
asking for anything in return. The devil’s logic is “nothing goes for nothing”
and God’s logic is “something goes for nothing”.
The third temptation was the devil’s
attempt to put Jesus to his disposition. He took Jesus up the pinnacle of the
temple, and challenged Him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down
from here; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge over you, to guard
you…” And Jesus to the devil, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God”. Here,
the devil asks Jesus for a miracle. The
devil used the written word of God to tempt the Incarnate Word of God.
Peter made a similar request to Jesus at the episode he saw Jesus walking on
water. “Lord, he said, if it is you tell me to come to you across the water” (Mt.14:28), and Jesus allowed him, but
after three steps, he became afraid and started to sink. Indeed, miracles are
not necessary for one to have faith. We remember Jesus performed so many
miracles in Galilee and Samaria, yet his people wanted to throw Him down from
the hill in Nazareth (cf. Lk. 4: 22-30).
It is not miracle that gives faith, it
is a supernatural gift. This is the temptation to make God succumb to the
devil’s will, sometimes also we are like the devil, when we want to bend God’s
will to our will, when we want and command God for miracles because we want
them, not because He willed them. Some of us tempt God with: Give me, do that,
resolve this problem etc.
Jesus in the threefold temptations
teaches us to always put God first in our life. The responses (Man shall not
live by bread alone, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall
you serve, you shall not put the Lord, your God to the test) of Jesus to the
devil manifest that Jesus put God first in everything. Who is first in your
life?
These three
temptations are the three ways through which man deserts the way of God:
●temptation of
idolizing material things (selfishness)
●temptation to
grab power for the sake of domination
●temptation to
desire for success and personal prestige
We too, are constantly tempted to
deviate from God, but Jesus indicates to us through his experience a major road
in order not to fall into temptation. We
should avoid a type of an accommodating Christianity that tends to please man,
rather than God.
In the first reading (Deut. 26:4-10) we see the confession of
faith of the chosen people, but prior to their confession of faith they
strayed. And this passage reminds us that whenever we sin, is as if we forget
who we are and what God has done for us. Here, the Jews remembered who they are
and what God has done for them, by liberating them from the hands of the
Egyptians, to Canaan. They Israelites fell into temptation and sinned when they
loosed sight of what God has done for them (we can say that the greatest sin of
the Old Testament is forgetting the greatest miracle of the Old Testament, the
Exodus. Likewise, when we lose sight of what God has done in our lives, we fall
into temptation and sin, we forget the pivotal element of our faith: Jesus’
death and resurrection.
According to some exegetes this
passage from the book of Deuteronomy is fundamental in the whole Old Testament,
or precisely in the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy
26:4-20 occupies a similar position
to that of 1Corinthians 15:3-8 in
the New Testament. As such, what Christ’s death and resurrection are to the New
Testament, the exodus is to the Old Testament. Therein, the mighty acts of God
prompted a confession of faith, and a recall of those mighty works.
The second reading (Rm. 10:8-13) presents the confession of faith of the believers in
Christ. St. Paul presents a New Testament confession of faith (cf. v.9), which
corresponds with the Old Testament confession in the first reading. Therein,
St. Paul declared the fundamental truths to be believed in order to be saved:
●to believe that
Jesus is Lord
●to believe that
the Father raised Him from the dead.
St. Paul went
further and affirmed that whoever that invokes the name of the Lord will be
saved. Here it is not all about believing and professing our faith in Him with
“the mouth”, it is necessary to believe and profess it “with the heart”.
Above all else however, the Lenten season
brings to our consideration the necessity to evaluate our faith. Whether our
faith is full of only words and inconsistency, or is concretized in good works
and in love. May He who was tempted in the same way we are, and yet remained
without sin continue to strengthen us in our daily struggle to resist the devil
and his promises. Amen!!!
(Fr. Vitus M. C. Unegbu, SC)
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