Gospel: Mt, 4:1-11
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
Homily
We begin our celebration of Lent this week. Notice that I used the word celebration. We are not accustomed to use the word “celebration” to describe Lent. Lent is supposed to be a time of penance, of sacrifice of wilfully doing or going without things that we like. However the Gospel is always good news and good news is always cause for celebration and thanksgiving. What then is the good news in the story of Jesus’ temptations? The good news is that the Church, good mother that she is, brings us back to some essential truths which are necessary for our happiness.
The first is that this world is not the purpose of our life. This world is not our final destiny. We have something infinitely greater to look forward to. We lose sight of that sometimes and we begin to act as if we find our true happiness here. So we search for true happiness in pleasure, be it in eating or drinking or partying or sex and we justify it by saying that we all have our needs. Jesus dealt with that temptation when the devil presented him with stones to turn into bread. He had his needs. He was hungry. He had fasted for forty days but He subjected his needs however to God’s word. He tells the tempter “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
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At other times we think that we will find happiness in bending others to our will. Our thoughts, our desires, what we want must take precedence over all others. We do this in our homes, our clubs, we see it in governments, and we see it in politicians. How often truth is sacrificed to win a debate, how often people are destroyed to win an election, how often we see power being used to pay back what is perceived to be betrayal. We see it in the way some spouses treat each other, we see it unfortunately in the church.
We forget that the Christian leader is characterized by a spirit of servanthood. When the tempter tries to get Jesus into that trap, Jesus replies “Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.”This is probably the worst of the temptations. Jesus rejects this temptation directly and harshly, “Be off, Satan” he says. I suppose this is the temptation which is most anti God. We don’t just want to be the centre of the universe for ourselves, We want to take the place of God and decide what must be done to the lives of others. It was for this sin that Lucifer was thrown out of heaven. He wanted to be like God.
It is interesting that when the temptations are conquered Jesus finds peace “The devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.” We too can find the happiness and peace that we desire but we find it as Jesus did, in rising above the temptations.
Today then we celebrate those who have found their true happiness in God’s word, in having God as the centre of their lives and in leading others through servanthood. There are many models for us. All the saints, those to whom have we devotions, those whose names we carry. May we follow their example this Lent and continue firmly on the journey to true happiness in the life to come.
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 the well-being of others 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 others. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our Mother and your Son Jesus. Amen
