1st Sunday of Lent
My dear parishioners,
God is Good!!! All the time!!! And all the time!!! God is Good!!!
The reading begins on the theme of God’s love for humanity. We first see God shaping man out of the clay of the ground as a potter shapes a mound of clay into a work of art. Then God does something no potter could ever do; God fills the clay with the breath of life. So cherished is humanity in God’s eyes that it has the privilege of enjoying the Garden of Eden, filled with marvelous fruit trees, including the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. To protect humanity from the hurtful consequences (the evil) of this latter tree, God gives a word of warning; the humans are not to eat its fruit. This is yet another example of God’s loving care for the humans.
The Lenten Sundays begin with Jesus being tempted by the devil. The presupposed context for understanding these temptations is Deuteronomy 6-8. Jesus is tempted to use his messianic power to prove he is the son of God. This directly conflicts with how Jesus understands his call to love God with one’s whole being. Israel failed these very temptations, but Jesus is totally successful.
The first temptation is for Jesus to prove he is the son of God by turning stones into loaves of bread. In and of itself this could be a good thing. Jesus, however, understands it as a violation of his mission from God. The kind of nourishment Jesus brings can be found only in the word of God and by obeying that word. In rebuttal Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3. The fact that the devil begins the confrontation with Jesus by using an “if” clause shows that he does not believe Jesus is who he claims to be. Faith is what is required to recognize Jesus as the son of God, not the power to turn stones into bread.
The second temptation again begins with an “if” clause and challenges Jesus to prove he is the son of God by throwing himself off the parapet of the Temple and surviving unharmed. The devil even quotes scripture, Psalms 91:11-12. Jesus is unimpressed. A time will come when he will have to put his life on the line for what he believes and that will cost him his life. Jesus will die because he is the son of God, but not in order to prove it. Again Jesus responds with a quote from Deuteronomy 6:16. Everything he does is motivated not by show, but by his full and complete love of God. The devil cannot compete with this.
The final temptation is for the devil to turn the entire Satan-controlled world over to Jesus provided he prostrate himself and worship the devil. This is perhaps the most alluring of all the temptations because it deals with power, domination, and wealth. Again Jesus makes it clear by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13 that his mission is to serve and worship the Lord God and no one else. Israel had failed this temptation but Jesus does not. The devil has met his match in these temptations, and he loses each one.
Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org. All rights reserved
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Aloysius