Lent First Sunday Year C
Temptations
My Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
A mother camel and her baby are talking one day and the baby camel asks, “Mom why have we got these huge three-toed feet?” The mother replies, “To enable us trek across the soft sand of the desert without sinking.” “And why have we got these long, heavy eyelashes?” “To keep the sand out of our eyes on the trips through the desert” replies the mother camel. “And Mom, why have we got these big humps on our backs?” The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, “They are there to help us store fat for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without water for long periods.” “OK, I get it! Mom. We have huge feet to stop us sinking, long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and humps to store water. Then, Mom, why the heck are we here in the Bronx zoo in this freezing winter?” Modern life sometimes makes one feel like a camel in a zoo. And like camels in a zoo, we need sometimes to go into the desert in order to discover who we truly are and how we are expected to live our lives as true followers of a crucified God. Lent invites us to enter into this kind of desert experience of prayer and penance. Lent begins with a reflection on the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
There is no hiding place or shelter in the desert and we are asked to take the courageous step of going out into the desert like Jesus. Sometimes we are led into the desert by the Spirit like Jesus when a trial or cross comes our way.
Jesus was tempted to totally wreck his Father’s plan for his life. But Jesus overcame His temptation with the power of Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The three pieces of Scripture that Jesus quoted show him submitting to his Father’s plan:
“Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” “You must not put the Lord your God to the test.” “You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.”
Jesus submitted to his Father’s will. During Lent like Jesus we are to die to ourselves so that the Father’s plan for us can be accomplished in our lives.
A temptation always presents something to us as good – it comes to us wearing the disguise of good. We should not choose what only appears to be good – we should choose only that which is actually good. Some pious people think that God tempts us just to see which way we’ll choose. They think its God’s way of testing us. But remember St. James wrote in his epistle:
"No one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God'; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." James 1:13-14
Let’s now look at the three temptations the devil put to Christ.
The first temptation was to turn the stones into bread,” The Evil One was tempting us all, suggesting that all of our appetites should be satisfied. Find heaven on earth; lack for nothing. Forget about that hunger you feel in your soul, that hunger for meaning and purpose, and that hunger for God’s love. As a matter of fact, why even bother with God. Deal only with what is here and now. It was also a temptation to Jesus to ignore His real mission as Messiah and to respond to others’ physical needs alone considering the kingdom of God is mere food and drink.
The second temptation is to simply give up on the struggle to be good and surrender to the world as it is. In the gospel account you just heard, the devil himself declared “It is all mine, and I give it to anyone I choose.” The world, he claims, is his – it belongs to him. That, of course, is a great lie. The world is God’s.
The third temptation is to turn your religion into something that you do to make God act. Take for example our Prayers? Well, that’s to tell God what He needs to do for you. It’s informing God that He hasn’t made a perfect world and that He needs to fix it up here and there with me. Our prayer style is like going to a small shop and giving out the long grocery list to get it ready when you come back. God has to do everything you ask. We say “Your will be done”. And we know whose will, we wish to be done! Go to church, the devil suggests, so you earn redemption points, and then when you die tell God He’s obliged to give you a death benefit, that God owes you a place in heaven because you are a Sunday church going person.
The third temptation is to make God act, not you. In other words, don’t put yourself to the test, put God to the test. Make God responsible for what happens to you. Force God’s hand. In this final temptation, Jesus is urged to doubt God. Satan suggests that Jesus should put God to the test: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,” Sometimes we become angry with God when He fails to respond to tests we set up for Him. The test may be something like this: "If my husband is healed of cancer, then I'll know God loves me." "If my boy comes back safely from Iraq, I’ll know God is on my side." "If I get the job that I’ve been praying for, I’ll know that God cares about me." Jesus teaches us that the Spirit-filled life requires unconditional surrender to God's will. We have to allow God to do his will be done in us, not as we wish but as God wish.
Each of the three temptations, according to the Fathers of the Church, represents an area in which humans regularly fail: the lust of the flesh (stones to bread), the lust of the eye and the heart (ruling over all kingdoms), and the pride of life (a spectacular leap from the Temple). Note that Jesus overcame these temptations through the knowledge of his identity, his purpose, and God's plan for human salvation. Sometimes we imagine the devil is going to try to bring us down with a huge temptation, like a million dollars or a beautiful woman or a handsome man, but we have to remember the devil is very stingy. He would love to trip us with something as small as a hamburger—and then give us indigestion to boot!
One would not really be human if one had never had any contact whatsoever with the attractiveness of sin. Jesus sets a model for conquering temptations through prayer, penance and the effective use of the ‘‘word of God’’. Temptations make us true warriors of God by strengthening our minds and hearts. We are never tempted beyond our power. In his first letter, St. John assures us: "Greater is He who is in us, than the power of the world". Hence during Lent, let us confront our evil tendencies by prayer, by penance and by meditative reading of the Bible.
My Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
A mother camel and her baby are talking one day and the baby camel asks, “Mom why have we got these huge three-toed feet?” The mother replies, “To enable us trek across the soft sand of the desert without sinking.” “And why have we got these long, heavy eyelashes?” “To keep the sand out of our eyes on the trips through the desert” replies the mother camel. “And Mom, why have we got these big humps on our backs?” The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, “They are there to help us store fat for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without water for long periods.” “OK, I get it! Mom. We have huge feet to stop us sinking, long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and humps to store water. Then, Mom, why the heck are we here in the Bronx zoo in this freezing winter?” Modern life sometimes makes one feel like a camel in a zoo. And like camels in a zoo, we need sometimes to go into the desert in order to discover who we truly are and how we are expected to live our lives as true followers of a crucified God. Lent invites us to enter into this kind of desert experience of prayer and penance. Lent begins with a reflection on the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
There is no hiding place or shelter in the desert and we are asked to take the courageous step of going out into the desert like Jesus. Sometimes we are led into the desert by the Spirit like Jesus when a trial or cross comes our way.
Jesus was tempted to totally wreck his Father’s plan for his life. But Jesus overcame His temptation with the power of Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The three pieces of Scripture that Jesus quoted show him submitting to his Father’s plan:
“Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” “You must not put the Lord your God to the test.” “You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.”
Jesus submitted to his Father’s will. During Lent like Jesus we are to die to ourselves so that the Father’s plan for us can be accomplished in our lives.
A temptation always presents something to us as good – it comes to us wearing the disguise of good. We should not choose what only appears to be good – we should choose only that which is actually good. Some pious people think that God tempts us just to see which way we’ll choose. They think its God’s way of testing us. But remember St. James wrote in his epistle:
"No one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God'; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." James 1:13-14
Let’s now look at the three temptations the devil put to Christ.
The first temptation was to turn the stones into bread,” The Evil One was tempting us all, suggesting that all of our appetites should be satisfied. Find heaven on earth; lack for nothing. Forget about that hunger you feel in your soul, that hunger for meaning and purpose, and that hunger for God’s love. As a matter of fact, why even bother with God. Deal only with what is here and now. It was also a temptation to Jesus to ignore His real mission as Messiah and to respond to others’ physical needs alone considering the kingdom of God is mere food and drink.
The second temptation is to simply give up on the struggle to be good and surrender to the world as it is. In the gospel account you just heard, the devil himself declared “It is all mine, and I give it to anyone I choose.” The world, he claims, is his – it belongs to him. That, of course, is a great lie. The world is God’s.
The third temptation is to turn your religion into something that you do to make God act. Take for example our Prayers? Well, that’s to tell God what He needs to do for you. It’s informing God that He hasn’t made a perfect world and that He needs to fix it up here and there with me. Our prayer style is like going to a small shop and giving out the long grocery list to get it ready when you come back. God has to do everything you ask. We say “Your will be done”. And we know whose will, we wish to be done! Go to church, the devil suggests, so you earn redemption points, and then when you die tell God He’s obliged to give you a death benefit, that God owes you a place in heaven because you are a Sunday church going person.
The third temptation is to make God act, not you. In other words, don’t put yourself to the test, put God to the test. Make God responsible for what happens to you. Force God’s hand. In this final temptation, Jesus is urged to doubt God. Satan suggests that Jesus should put God to the test: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,” Sometimes we become angry with God when He fails to respond to tests we set up for Him. The test may be something like this: "If my husband is healed of cancer, then I'll know God loves me." "If my boy comes back safely from Iraq, I’ll know God is on my side." "If I get the job that I’ve been praying for, I’ll know that God cares about me." Jesus teaches us that the Spirit-filled life requires unconditional surrender to God's will. We have to allow God to do his will be done in us, not as we wish but as God wish.
Each of the three temptations, according to the Fathers of the Church, represents an area in which humans regularly fail: the lust of the flesh (stones to bread), the lust of the eye and the heart (ruling over all kingdoms), and the pride of life (a spectacular leap from the Temple). Note that Jesus overcame these temptations through the knowledge of his identity, his purpose, and God's plan for human salvation. Sometimes we imagine the devil is going to try to bring us down with a huge temptation, like a million dollars or a beautiful woman or a handsome man, but we have to remember the devil is very stingy. He would love to trip us with something as small as a hamburger—and then give us indigestion to boot!
One would not really be human if one had never had any contact whatsoever with the attractiveness of sin. Jesus sets a model for conquering temptations through prayer, penance and the effective use of the ‘‘word of God’’. Temptations make us true warriors of God by strengthening our minds and hearts. We are never tempted beyond our power. In his first letter, St. John assures us: "Greater is He who is in us, than the power of the world". Hence during Lent, let us confront our evil tendencies by prayer, by penance and by meditative reading of the Bible.
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