FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

From 2019:

The time in the desert had taken a heavy toll on Him.  He was gaunt from the lack of food. His mouth was dry from the lack of water. His skin was parched and covered with sand of the desert. His hair, which fell to his shoulders, was tangled in knots and laid down his back onto his ragged dirty robe. 

On the other hand, Satan was looking fresh, pompous and arrogant, filling the air with his evil presence.

Hungry, thirsty, tired and alone, it was the perfect opportunity for Satan to tempt Jesus. 

Satan, the force of evil thought to himself, “After 40 days of fasting Jesus must be famished. Now is the time for me to tempt him. I will tempt him to use his power for his own personal gain.”

Thus, Satan addressed Jesus, “You can multiply the loaves and fishes, so if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. There, that stone right at your feet.”

Jesus responded, “I can do that because, as you know, I am the Son of God, but I will not use my power to benefit myself.” He continued, “Satan, I know your game. I am not ignorant of your schemes. You tempt all of us when we are most vulnerable. When we are the weakest, you move in. I even know that you will tempt a married man who has been overworking, away from his wife and family for months. On an airplane, an attractive passenger sitting next to him will begin paying a lot of attention to him. Satan, you will tempt her to invite him to her apartment for the night because both of them are lonely. But in this case Satan, the man will admit, while it sounded very inviting, he would never cheat on his wife and family. He will say ‘No’ to your deceitful temptation.”

This first temptation of Christ dealt with abusing his Divine power to satisfy his hunger for food. We can call it Stone into Bread.

Satan said to himself, “Well that didn’t work. I am going to take Jesus on a space flight and show him the entire earth.” Satan does just that. Satan offers the entire earth to Jesus, claiming, “It has been handed over to me and I will give it to you if you bow down in worship before me.”

“Satan,” Jesus responded, “I know you to be powerful, but I will not transfer my power to you and I will not worship you. Only my Heavenly Father and Him alone will I serve.”

This second temptation was for Jesus to hand over his power to Satan. We can call this temptation Satan wants to be Served.

There is the story of an enthusiastic but unscrupulous salesperson that was waiting to see the purchasing agent of an engineering firm. The salesperson was there to submit his company bid for a particular job. He couldn’t help but notice that a competitor’s bid was on the purchasing agent’s desk. Unfortunately, the actual figure was covered by a can of juice. The temptation to see the amount quoted became too much, so the salesperson lifted the can. His heart sank, as he watched thousands of BBs pour from the bottomless can.

Satan just failed on two major temptations to have Jesus misuse his power and transfer his power to Satan. You and I know from our own experience that Satan will not give up.  

In the third temptation, Satan quoted Sacred Scripture, showing how clever he is. Satan suggested that Jesus throw himself off a mountain and have the good angels save him.

But Jesus also quoted Scripture, refuting Satan. Jesus answered, “It is said, ‘do not put the Lord to the test.’” This third temptation of Jesus was to use his divine power to avoid suffering. Don’t worry; the angels will save you.

Luke makes it a point to say that even though Satan was obviously frustrated this third time, he departed Jesus “for a time.” Meaning that Satan would return. Satan always does.

Christ was tempted when he was hungry tired and alone. Isn’t this the same for us? When are we most likely to be tempted? Usually, it is when we feel sorry for ourselves, when we feel alone, unsupported or abandoned.

Think about the last time you were really tempted. Were you tempted to do something that would hurt another person? Lie, gossip, or destroy their character or reputation? How about being tempted to drink too much or take drugs? How about spending too much money on gambling, at restaurants, at shopping malls or online? Maybe it was stealing or refusing to forgive another person.  Or passing up an opportunity to help the uneducated, poor, mentally ill or the imprisoned. Or perhaps infidelity or surfing the internet for pornography.

Our greatest temptation is to despair. This is the decision to let go of God, or not grow because of failure, death of a loved one, divorce, or one of many other reasons.

I expect we are tempted according to our personalities, our passions, our likes and dislikes, our abilities and our interests. If we have the personality of an enterprising person, we might be tempted toward amassing money and greed. If we are passionate and compulsive, it may be temptations of sexual gratification. And, if we are intelligent and bright, we may be tempted by arrogance and a better-than-you attitude.

Satan is the force of evil. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, author of the best-selling book, The Road Less Traveled, exposed the true nature of evil when he noted what evil spelled backward is.

Go ahead and spell evil backwards. What is it? That’s right, “LIVE.”

Evil is what is destructive to life, to healthy relationships, to healthy bodies and destructive to healthy souls.

In today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that the land upon which they live was a gift from the Lord. On this first week of Lent, let us resist the temptation to destroy life by not destroying one another and by not destroying God’s creation.

Let us not use God’s gifts for our own sake. Instead, let us show we care for people as we renew our commitment to love God by reducing the temptation to gossip and misjudge others.  Let us show we care for creation by doing our part to protect creation with actions as simple as reducing the use of plastic bags, plastic containers and plastic water bottles.  

Let us stand together and fight the temptation to destroy one another and creation.  May our self-imposed Lenten disciplines protect each other and protect creation this Lenten season and beyond.

We Care for God’s People; We Care for God’s Creation.