Gospel
Lk 4:1-13
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.”
Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.
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Homily
Sometime ago a young man was asked by his mother to find a certain site on the internet for her. After about half an hour not having heard anything from her son she went to the computer room and there he was glued to a pornography site. When she remonstrated with him he replied to her that it was her fault. She had sent him to the computer.
The Gospel reading for this first Sunday of Lent made me remember that story. Jesus we are told was led by the Spirit into the desert. The impression that we often have is that the Spirit led Jesus there so that he could be tempted. I want to believe that Jesus was led by the Spirit to the solitude so that he could prepare for the mission which he was undertaking. Just like the young man in the story Jesus went into the wilderness to do something good. While he was in the wilderness the devil saw an opportunity to try to derail him from the path he had chosen and so decided to tempt him. What is interesting is that Satan knew the exact areas in which Jesus would be vulnerable after forty days of solitude and fasting and so Satan begins by tempting him to use his powers to satisfy himself. “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus has never been about himself. He had developed the habit from his early years of always being about his Father’s business and so Jesus rejects this temptation by reminding the tempter that life is not about self satisfaction; there are other things which are more important in life (like fidelity to God’s word).
The tempter is nothing if not perseverant however and comes back at Jesus who during his forty days of solitude and contemplation would have realized that the mission he was undertaking was a mission that would lead to vilification and rejection. Nobody wants that, we may accept the vilification and rejection because of our allegiance to a higher cause but it is never easy and so Jesus is tempted to fulfill his mission through the use of power; “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” To fall into the temptation of inaugurating the Kingdom through power would be to create a Kingdom like those of this world. God’s Kingdom however is a Kingdom of the free. We become members of that Kingdom because we want to, not because we are forced to. God’s kingdom is built on love and love can never be forced. We are reminded of Moses’ challenge to Pharaoh: “Thus says the Lord; Let my people go so that they may worship me.” Jesus rejects this temptation to build the Kingdom of his Father through force and so Satan is again rebuffed, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” The devil does not give up easily however and comes back at Jesus trying to induce him seek the adulation of the crowd instead of focusing on the Kingdom “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Again Jesus rebuffs this temptation preferring to teach by his example what the building of the Kingdom entails and by his example win people for the kingdom. Seeing that he had not succeeded in derailing Jesus’ purpose Satan left him for a while to return at a more favourable time.
These temptations of Jesus are the sort of temptations which we all suffer. We too are tempted to make our own satisfaction the purpose of life. We too are tempted to build our own little fiefdoms instead of building the Kingdom of God. We too are tempted to let the adulation of the crowd distract us from the purpose at hand. Like Jesus we too are called to make God and his Kingdom the main focus of our lives and the only way to overcome the temptations is by building like Jesus a deep personal relationship with God. May this Lenten season help all of us in this enterprise.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving Father, your son Jesus, underwent the temptations to show us that as human as he was it was possible to make your Kingdom the priority of his life, in spite of the pain that this would entail. Help us to understand, like Jesus, that the pain involved in living our lives without seeking to find out what there is in it for us, is never as great as the joy of a life lived in the service of the Kingdom. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our Mother and your Son Jesus. Amen
