March 9^th 2014. FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was very hungry, and the tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves'. But he replied, 'Scripture says:

'Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'.

The devil then took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple. 'If you are the Son of God' he said 'throw yourself down; for scripture says:

'He will put you in his angels' charge, and they will support you on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone'.

Jesus said to him, 'Scripture also says:

'You must not put the Lord your God to the test'.

Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 'I will give you all these' he said, 'if you fall at my feet and worship me.' Then Jesus replied, 'Be off, Satan! For scripture says:

'You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.'

Then the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . When Adam and Eve were tempted in the garden, Satan was telling them not to accept their condition as creatures of God. Temptation proceeds by making us feel ashamed and inadequate for who we are. Temptation makes us pursue an idolatrous image of ourselves which is at odds with the true dignity and beauty that God has given us. In order to follow that image, we are encouraged to make ourselves the focal point of our lives and the masters of our own destiny. The three temptations of Jesus in the desert share similar characteristics to the temptation in the garden. Through these temptations, Satan tries to tell Jesus that it is ok for the Son of God to exploit objects to satisfy his own needs; he is told that God ought to be ready to facilitate and support his most frivolous decisions; he is assured that possessions and worldly power are a worthy goal in themselves. Temptations such as these alienate us from our true identity as children of God. They make us feel inadequate and dissatisfied with who we are and with what we possess. They make us lose sight of our deepest identity. In place of that identity, they set up a deceitful image of the human being as an absolute in himself, absolute in his individual rights, and in the way he can manipulate things for his own ends. The Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving can help restore us to the right relationship with God that can be destroyed through temptation. The sobriety, generosity and walking in right relationship with God that are typical of Lent restore us to our proper place in creation. They fill us with the peace, freedom and beauty that are integral to our true identity as God’s children.

Temptation involves deceiving us about our true identity. It tells us that we can be more fulfilled if we turn away from right relationship with God

Lent is God’s gift to us. It brings us into a condition of greater personal freedom and truth. The classic Gospel text from St Matthew speaks of the three temptations of Jesus. These are illuminated by the temptation of Adam and Eve described in the first reading from the Book of Genesis. There are many connections between this first temptation and the three trials of Jesus, but we will focus on one aspect – the call of the human being to live a life of real authenticity. Where does temptation direct its attack on us? What is the devil’s primary strategy in leading us astray? Temptation begins by deceiving us about our true identity. It tries to convince me that fidelity to God is incompatible with fidelity to myself. And this is a great lie because real fidelity to God unavoidably involves being true to my own deepest and most fundamental identity. On the day that we are living in right relationship with God, then we also are living in right relationship with ourselves and with others. The temptations of Jesus use the very same strategy as was used with Eve – the lie that my own advancement is incompatible with the dictates of God.

Temptation involves making myself the be-all and end-all of creation. My desires must be satisfied. My plans must be facilitated by providence. Worldly objects and power must not be renounced

In the first temptation Satan says, “If you are the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread.” The lie here is the claim that sons of God have the right to manipulate reality as they see fit, to make things a function of their own desires. Jesus is hungry and so ought to have the right (according to the deception of Satan) to use things for his own satisfaction. In the second temptation Jesus is told to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple. The idea here is that Jesus ought to take the initiative and demand that God support his every whim. Whatever appears to me to be a good plan should be endorsed and facilitated by God. The third temptation regards the possession, power and splendour of the world. Jesus’ mission was to be saviour of the world. Our mission is to be Christians in the world. This third temptation tells us that the right to possess and enjoy these things of the world is not incompatible with our mission. We can freely avail of these things (the deceiver tells us) without scruples.

Temptation tells us that we are inadequate as we are. It encourages us to chase an idolatrous  image of humanity that is utterly at odds with the true and beautiful identity of the human being as a creature of God

These temptations encourage the human being to prioritize his physical needs, his desires, and his projects. Need and desires must be satisfied; projects must be facilitated by God no matter how whimsical. The relationship between the person and the things of the world is radically altered. Everything is to be placed in the service of our self-affirmation. All of these things are present in the serpent’s exhortation to Eve to become like God himself. Through this exhortation, the serpent is telling Eve to be someone different to who she really is. Implicitly he is saying that she is inadequate as she is now. She needs an “upgrade” to Eve version 2.0. She sorely needs an evolution to a state of fulfilment that she is not enjoying now. Instead of discovering her own true beauty, she is told that she can become like God. In this way, competition and antagonism is instilled into the heart of humanity. I am no longer defined by own characteristics. Rather, I am defined by whether or not I measure up to the qualities of others. This is the ultimate logic of deception. Man is launched into a frenetic chase for something that he is not. But the real challenge in life isn’t the fact of not being God -  it is the fact of Eve not being Eve! The difficult thing is to be content with what I really am – a creature of God.

Temptation makes us flee from the present moment. It alienates us from ourselves, telling us that we do not measure up to the idolatrous and twisted image of humanity that it exalts. It leads us to be embarrassed for who we are.

Thus we have these three attempts to escape from what we are: the attempt to gratify ourselves through the satisfaction of our appetites – even the stones must be transformed to satisfy our desires; the attempt to escape by means of our projects, our grand designs, our efforts to experience thrills and excitement; the attempt to escape from our condition through the accumulation of possessions and temporal power. These temptations make us flee from today. They represent an elaborate and desperate process of alienation from ourselves. And they are guaranteed to lead us into unhappiness. Once Eve tries to be different to who she really is, she enters into deception. Her eyes no longer see reality as it is, failing to perceive the real character of certain errant behaviours. Eve’s attempt to be something “greater” than Eve leads ultimately to shame, to the loss of right relationship with oneself, to the loss of one’s own true identity.  Eve become embarrassed to be Eve – what a curious thing!

The practises of Lent restore us to the freedom, dignity and beauty that temptation tries to destroy

In the second and third temptations in the desert, Jesus is expected to make a payment of a particular type to Satan. In throwing himself down from the temple, he is to risk his very life in order to coerce God into facilitating his every whim. In the third and final temptation, he is to bend down to Satan and the world in order to have his way. We are tempted to renounce our integrity and dignity in order to become the focal points of our own destiny. During Lent the Church asks us to undertake acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These are calls to return to the truth and the beauty of our own great dignity, a dignity that is obscured by the deceit that is implicit in all temptation. The sobriety, generosity and walking in right relationship with God that are typical of Lent restore us to our proper place in creation. They fill us with the peace, freedom and beauty that are integral to our true identity. Temptation tries to turn that beauty into ugliness. It seeks to fill us with shame and lead us to unhappiness.