First Sunday of Lent, February 14, 2016, Year C
The Gospel Reading today is the familiar story of the temptations of Jesus in the desert. Let’s situate this story in the life and ministry of Jesus. Having been baptized in the Jordan River, and joined by public sin-ners in a very public place, Jesus is led into the desert to be tested! Notice it was ‘the Spirit’ which impelled Jesus to go into the desert. In doing so, Jesus was identifying with the people of Israel, he was identifying with his people: they too had been led into the desert by the flame of the Angel of the Lord, and they remained in the desert for a long time after their deliverance from slavery in Egypt; the people of Israel, too, were tested, and within that testing time, they were invited into the Covenant between God and the people of Israel on Mt Sinai. That great event of salvation had left a permanent mark upon the corporate mind of God’s people, upon the mind of the people of Israel. Jesus is as well being tested as he is being empowered by the Spirit. The spirit enabled him to refute the devil’s temptations. And Jesus did this in favor of a life orientation of unconditional loving service. These temptations were not just applicable to Jesus, they are the temptations that have always harassed humanity… Here they are: The pursuit of accumulating material things, the pursuit of power, and the pursuit of avoiding responsibility. These temptations were knocked back by Jesus, but they came back to haunt Him many times during His life time, in various shapes and sizes. The same happens to us, doesn’t it? Jesus was nurtured by that special relationship with the Lord God, his Father, during the time of testing. Let’s not forget that Jesus was like us in all things, but sin! Let us recall the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. 1.“If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf.” Jesus replied: “Man does not live on bread alone.” This 1st Temptation is to only satisfy our hunger with the help of material things – but there is a different hunger, an inner hunger we cannot satisfy with the help of material things. The risk here is greed – we want more and more. But we still remain hungry if we exclude everything we cannot see, we cannot buy, we cannot control, we cannot consume. 2. “I will give you all this power and the glory of these Kingdoms… worship me, and it shall be yours.” Jesus replied: “You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.” This 2nd Temptation is: power as a life focus – power is neutral, yes, it can be used for good and for bad things. But if you look for power for the sake of power because it attracts you, it makes you important, it gives you prestige, then you are a slave of power. Power can be used for the service of others – this is the service God expects from us: “ You must wor-ship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.” 3. “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down for here, for Scripture says, He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you, and again: They will hold you up on their hands in case your hurt your foot against a stone.” Jesus replied:” You must not put the Lord your God to the test”. This is the 3rd Temptation: avoiding responsibility as a life focus – “Risk your life! You have the chance to become famous! For this you can risk your life!” ”You must not put the Lord your God to the test” - if you need to risk your life, then risk it for a good purpose, risk it while helping others. So we have the three temptations: the pursuit of accumulating material things, the pursuit of power, and the pursuit of avoiding responsibility. Jesus rejected all these temptations in favor of a life orientation of unconditional service and love. Jesus truly identifies himself with all humanity, with each and every one of us. The desert experience was a time of assessment: it is a fact of life that good will always be tested by evil. There is not a saint in Heaven, or a truly great person on earth who has not, or does not attract some vicious slander, or find their paths strewn with ob-stacles. Jesus joins that group in today’s Gospel – Jesus joins us in this Gospel. As we enter into the spirit of Lent, let us check out the direction and quality of our lives. How do we deal with temptation? Do we make room for God’s Spirit, to bring to the surface in ourselves, the holiness that lies deep within? Some days ago we celebrated ash Wednesday – and there we heard a Lenten reminder of our fragility. May this Lenten reminder stay close to us: “Remember, you are but dust, and unto dust you shall return; turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel”.
Fr. Wolfgang Felber SJ