First Sunday in Lent, Year
C; March 10th, 2019. Rom.
AIM: To show how Jesus= response to temptation is a model for us.
What do temptations as bizarre as
these have to do with us? We have no power to turn stones into bread. No one is
offering us world dominion. And though we may get dizzy atop high buildings and
feel an urge to jump off, no one of us is so mad as to think we would survive
the experience. The common thread which links all three temptations is this:
Jesus was being tempted each time to use what he had C his power as divine Son of God C to get what he wanted.
Jesus has just completed a forty days= fast. He is hungry. The devil
suggests a quick fix: AIf you are the Son of God, command this stone to be made
bread.@
Notice that the first thing the devil does is to sow a seed of doubt in
Jesus= mind: AIf you are the Son of God.@ Are you really sure? Maybe you=re deluded. The very first time the
devil appears in the Bible he uses the same deceitful approach. ADid God really say you should
not eat of any fruit of the garden?@ the devil asks the woman in the
third chapter of Genesis. God, of course, had said nothing of the kind. He had placed only one tree off limits: the
tree of the knowledge of good an evil C clearly an allegorical tree, for you
cannot find it in any botany book.
Note, second, how the devil uses
something Jesus wants to tempt him: his craving for food. Satisfying his hunger
was no sin. What was crucial was how he did so. Should he follow the normal way
of getting food? Or should he take the shortcut suggested by the devil? Use
what you have, the devil was saying C your divine power C to get what you want: bread. Feeding
on God=s word, however, is more important than feeding on bread. So
Jesus responds to the temptation with a quote from his own Jewish scriptures: AOne does not live by bread alone.@
In the second temptation the devil
works through Jesus= imagination. He shows him all the kingdoms of the world,
promising to give him authority over all of them if only he will worship the
devil. Again, the tempter appeals to something Jesus wants. He is about to
embark on his public ministry. Jesus wants the whole world to know him and
accept his message. Once more, the tempter tempts Jesus to use what he has C his heart, his soul C to get what he wants: the loyalty of
the whole world. Once again Jesus refuses to take the shortcut. The end never
justifies the means. Jesus states this with another scriptural quotation: AIt is written, >You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.=@
The devil makes one last try: AThrow yourself down from the Temple
Are Jesus= temptations really so different from
ours? Use what you have, the devil tells us in so many ways, to get what you
want. What is the most precious thing we Catholics have? Is it not our faith,
or religion? So why not use our religion to get the things we want? Praying for
the things we want is entirely appropriate.
Unfortunately, however, some Catholics think that our religion gives us
access to a kind of supernatural power to get what we want C if only we say the right prayers,
and make enough sacrifices. Behind that belief is the idea that God is at our
disposal. He is not. We are at his disposal. Does God answer prayer? Of
course he does. But he will not always do so in the way we expect, or at the
time we think right. At the end of my ninety-first
year I can tell you that I have lived long enough to thank God that he has
answered some of my prayers ANot yet@, and others ANever.@
ABow down and worship me,@ the tempter tells us. AUse my methods C all that stuff they tell you in
church about God and his commandments is unrealistic: it doesn=t work C and it=s certainly too slow.@ And so we take shortcuts. A
candidate for political office enters into a shady deal to win an election. A
college student cheats on an exam to get into medical or law school. To gain a
promotion at work, which will mean a better life for his family, a man spreads
false rumors about a colleague. We all know how easy it is to rationalize
things like that. AIt=s war out there,@ we tell ourselves. AEverybody cheats a little. Once I=m farther ahead I=ll be able to do so much good for people.@
Those arguments are so plausible. But
they don=t work. God=s command-ments forbid us to cut
moral corners, even in the highest and noblest cause. Loyalty to God means that
there are times when we must say No, when all around us are saying Yes; and times
when we must say Yes when everyone else is saying No.
What about Jesus= third temptation? AThrow yourself down B God will look after you. Aren=t you his Son?@ Doing that would be the sin of presumption.
We yield to this temptation whenever we presume that because we are faithful,
churchgoing Catholics, God will look after us, no matter what.
In the Catholic high school where I once
taught the faculty used to joke about the fact that at exam time all the votive
candles in the school chapel were burning brightly. AThe candles work better,@ a colleague commented, Awhen the students have done their
homework.@ Cynical? No B right on. To suppose that you can
loaf all semester, and then that God will bail you at exam time and guarantee
you a passing grade because you suddenly get religion, frantically saying
prayers and lighting candles B that is the sin of presumption.
To think that we can abuse the
wonderful bodies God has given us by years of unhealthy living B overindulgence in rich foods,
alcohol, or tobacco B and then that just because we=re regular at Sunday Mass God will
work a miracle when the doctor says we have a life-threatening illness: that
too is the sin of presumption.
It is presumption to think we can
consistently exceed the speed limit on the highway, drive after drinking, and
be determined that no car will ever overtake us C and that nothing can happen to us
because we pray the rosary and haven=t cheated on our spouse (or on a
promise of celibacy, for people like me).
God does not suspend the laws of
probability, or the normal working of cause and effect, for people who buy him
off with prayers and churchgoing. Jesus rejected this final temptation, as he
had rejected the first two, with another quotation from his well stored memory:
AYou shall not put the Lord your God
to the test.@ (Deut. 6:16)
AUse what you have to get what you
want?@ No. Use what God gives you to
get what He wants. That is the key to a happy life, and a fulfilled one.
There is no other. On this first Sunday in Lent the Lord is placing this key in
our hands. He is asking use to use it C to use what he has given us to get
what He wants. When we start to do so, we make a beautiful discovery. We
discover that Paul=s words in our second reading are true. God has no favorites.A The same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.@
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