Readings: Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13
Filled with the Holy Spirit …
Dear friends, we are in the First Sunday of Lent, and the liturgy of the day invites us to look forward to these forty days of grace and hold firm to our faith, for we will be tested as Jesus was in the wilderness. The Church is calling us to reflect on Jesus, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, on his temptations and on his triumph over them.
The season of Lent is a time for us to do an inward journey into our own lives and see how we have lived our lives. Once we have done this inward journey, we will be able to appreciate our strengths and accept our weaknesses. The temptations of Jesus are a reminder for us to see how well am I, as a follower of Christ, able to withstand my own temptations.
Jesus was tempted in three different aspects of his life. The temptation was for food, for glory and for fame. Let us look at these temptations one by one.
The temptation for food is in a way is a temptation for possessions or physical gratification. We do need food and other things to live a moderate life, but the temptation is to possess more than what we need. The temptation is to consume more and more, to the extent of denying the rightful ownership of the goods of the other. This is the injustice that we face in today’s world where the twenty five percent of the world’s population owns ninety percent of the world’s goods. The temptation to own things in a disproportionate way was the temptation of Jesus, which he withstood strongly by saying, “Man does not live on bread alone.”
The tempter showed Jesus the glory of the whole world and agreed to give it to him if he worshipped the devil. The temptation was to attain the earthly glory and become a ruler of all the earth. It is a temptation to have power over the other. The power to rule, the power to exploit, the power to control. We do have ample examples in our world today of the people who want and have this absolute power. Jesus submitted himself to God’s power and not of the devil. Jesus says very clearly, “You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.”
Jesus was tempted to attain fame by jumping down from the pinnacle of the temple. This temptation was very enticing as the devil quoted from the scripture, “He will put his angels in charge of you to guard you,” and again “They will hold you up on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone.” This enticement was two-fold; to test God and to put oneself on the pedestal. The temptation was to gain followers by showing oneself as a superhuman. It is ‘me’ that is important. ‘I’ am in control of things. ‘I’ can do things that no one else does. Therefore follow ‘me’. But Jesus overcomes this temptation by giving fitting honour to God, “You must not put the Lord your God to the test.”
As the followers of Christ we too will be tested and tempted in our daily lives. Though the Gospel of Luke narrates Jesus’ temptations in one place, in the forty days of Jesus’ life in the wilderness, we know that Jesus was tempted all along his life, even as he was hanging on the cross (the temptation to come down and prove that he is the Son of God (Mk 15:30)). So too for us, we will be tempted all along our lives. But we have a model in Jesus, our leader, who was able to overcome these periods of testing and became victorious. As Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, as the people of Israel were on the journey for forty years, we have begun these forty days of Lent. Let us follow the footsteps of Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit poured into our lives through our Baptism and work towards bringing our lives to fulfilment in the model and example of Jesus. Amen.