First Sunday of Lent (Year C)
Deut 26.4-10; Ps 90; Rom 10.8-13; Lk 4.1-13
1. Each year as we start the holy season of Lent, the Church puts before us the gospel record of the temptations of Our Lord in the desert. Pope John Paul has reminded us of the purpose of Lent: “…Christ introduced the tradition of forty days fast into the Church’s liturgical year, because He Himself fasted forty days and forty nights before beginning to teach. By the Lenten fast, the Church is in a certain sense called every year to follow her Master and Lord if she wishes to preach His Gospel effectively.” We are invited to withdraw into the desert with Our Lord in a spirit of prayer and penance, so as to prepare ourselves to celebrate more worthily the coming feast of feasts.
2. Why did the Lord allow this temptations to happen? He did so out of love for us, and to instruct us. His temptations in the desert have a deep significance in the history of salvation. All the important figures of the Old Testament were tempted: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, indeed the entire chosen race of Israel. So it is with Christ. By rejecting the temptations of the devil, He atoned for the falls of those who went before Him, and for all who were to come after Him. Later He was to teach us to pray the ‘Our Father’, that we might avoid temptations.
3. In the first temptation, He had been fasting for forty days and was hungry, so the devil tempts Christ to perform a quick miracle. Time for a quick meal? But that is not what miracles are for. Miracles are supernatural deeds done by God to make his words and actions better understood. By His response to the devil, Our Lord shows us the way we should respond to such temptations. We should rely on God’s fatherly providence at all times.
4. Another temptation was the offer of a rapid acquisition of power over all the kingdoms of the world, a terrible perversion of the Redeemer’s true mandate from His heavenly Father. This onslaught seemed to offer help with Our Lord’s mission. By rejecting Satan’s offer of instant domination, Christ makes amends for the worldly views of the people of Israel, and warns the Church, God’s new Israel, to remain true to its spiritual mission of bringing salvation to the gentiles – the whole world.
5. Then the devil comes up with a further temptation. In effect he says, ‘All right then. Show us your powers. Prove your divinity. Do a trick; throw Yourself off the top of the temple, and stop half way down. God will take care of You.’ In His response, Jesus again quotes from the book of Deuteronomy; ‘You must not put the Lord your God to the test.’ Putting God to the test is the opposite of having trust in him. We test God by presumptuously putting ourselves in the way of unnecessary danger, rashly presuming that God will bail us out by a special intervention, presuming on God’s mercy.
6. Having been defeated three times, the devil leaves Jesus, for the moment. The gospel says that the devil would return at the appointed time. We should be warned. Nobody receives the crown without first having struggled with Satan. The promise is given in the book of the Apocalypse: ‘Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.’ During Lent, if we are taking seriously the call to accompany Christ out into the wilderness, we can be sure that we shall find temptation, and when we do, we shall know that we are on the right road, the road of spiritual combat. For us who are enlisted in the ranks of Christ’s army, spiritual combat is the only possible road to take, the only path that will lead us to the joys of Easter, and the crown of unfading glory.
Fr. Osho, OSJ.