First Sunday of Lent

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11

 

 

Dear sisters and brothers,

 

These three temptations presented to us in the Gospel today speak of hunger, spirituality and power. All of us recognize the challenge of hunger. When we are hungry, we want to eat. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and clearly, he was hungry. He had to turn to His Father in order to resist the pangs of hunger and the offer of food.

We humans hunger after many things, not just food. We have all kinds of appetites and Lent is a good time to recognize the appetites that run our lives or are most important in our lives. For some people, it is the hunger for recognition. For others, it may be a hunger to be better than others. Another person may hunger for an emotional relationship. Some people hunger after money. Whatever appetites we have, we are more able to work with them for God’s glory if we recognize them and how they work within us.

Spirituality is a wonderful gift for all of us. On the other hand, we must be sure that it is Gospel spirituality and not something else. The basic spirituality of the Gospel is loving others and being willing to serve them, even when they reject us or despise us. The devil in today’s Gospel is pushing a spirituality of the miraculous. Surely God will save the Lord. That is never in question. But the Lord recognizes that His Father wants Him to act normally and to embrace a normal spirituality. If God has not given a very special gift to someone, and a gift that is verified by others as being truly of God, then that person should never presume to put God to the test. That would be like taking off in an airplane and believing that God will show me how to pilot it even when I have never had a single lesson. God can do the miraculous but that is his free gift to us. When we insist on the miraculous, we misunderstand God.

Power is such an illusion and such a temptation. Jesus tells us that the only real power is the power of love. The devil offers a different kind of power, the power of dominion. Dominion is when I  insist that you work for my good rather than my looking for your good. True love is a willing of the good of the other person in preference to my own good. True love always accepts sacrifices on my part for the good of the other person. Dominion expects the other person to sacrifice themselves for me (abbot Philip).

The first reading, from the Book of Genesis, simply confirms that from the beginning there has been this tension among humans about whether we really want to serve or do we want others, including God, to serve us.

The second reading, from the Letter to the Romans, is clear that the only way to regain the spiritual and moral freedom that Adam and Eve had before their fall is to obey Jesus Christ and live in love.

May this Lent help each one of us understand what we must do to love more and to live in Christ.

Peace and all good!

Fr. Valery Burusu

Parochial Administrator