First Sunday of Lent – Year A
Readings: Gen 2:7-9, 3:1-7, Rom 5:12-19, Mt 4:1-11
In life, we are sometimes confronted with moments of decision-making, especially in the faces of trials, temptation and tribulation. These can be crucial moments since whatever we decide on can have long-lasting repercussions on our lives. Indeed, yielding to our inclinations, heart desire and the choices we make will have their manifestation in our lives. It is, therefore, necessary that we constantly reflect on our decisions for a while when we are faced with temptations in our life. It is against this backdrop that I will like to reflect with you on the theme Overcoming temptations; a means of returning to God.
Today is the First Sunday of Lent. The Season of Lent offers us various opportunities of making a return to God. Lent is an invitation to us to take the courageous step of “going into the desert” and not hiding from what lies deep within us. The Season of Lent is to give us time once again to die to our old sinful ways of life. In dying to our old self, something appealing or pleasing to the eyes offers us a challenge and that is where temptation sets in.
Temptation comes to every one of us. A temptation is a trick, a deception, a lie. It conceals the truth and presents falsehood to us as the truth. A temptation conceals from us the true road to peace and joy and happiness; giving us instead the illusion of a quick and easy way to find what is really good and worthwhile in life. When temptations come to us we have a choice; either to follow them like Adam and Eve in our First Reading or to overcome them like Jesus in the Gospel Reading.
In our First Reading of today, we are confronted with God’s benevolence act of creation and the subsequent relapse of our first parents into sin by yielding to temptation. In fact, the serpent used his abilities to turn the woman, and through her the man, away from God. In our reading, we have to note that the serpent’s first step was to interfere in the communion between the man and the woman.
He chose not to speak to both of them, but to only one of them and encouraged that one acts independently of the other. Such is how temptation arises. One party is lured by the attractiveness of the tempting act and he in turn convinces the other party into it.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve preferred to follow their own inclinations than the will of God. Adam’s sin had unfortunate repercussions for us all, but we are saved and offered new life through Christ’s act of sacrifice.
Unlike our first parents that could not resist the temptation, Jesus was able to resist the temptation of the evil one and so provided us with an example to also do likewise. In the Gospel Reading, it may seem strange that the first point of call after being anointed for ministry should be the wilderness.
However, the experience of many Christians would suggest that it is not uncommon for believers to undergo temptations immediately after experiencing a rich and exhilarating spiritual high. The genuine work of God will always attract the unwholesome attention of Satan, the enemy of God. But at the same time, spiritual mountain-top experiences need to be tested in order to strip them of purely euphoric froth and expose the bedrock reality beneath the experience.
Jesus is given three tests. The first one, to turn stones into bread, has to do with how we use our God-given gifts, talents and abilities. Jesus knew that to focus his powers on meeting His own material needs would be a dangerous diversion from His path of obedience to God or yet still turning away from God.
The temptation is for us to use our gifts to make a living for ourselves. But Paul tells us those spiritual gifts are given to the individual “for the common good” (I Corinthians 12:7). Jesus would later on in His ministry multiply bread to feed others. But He would not do it just to feed himself. Do we see our talents and abilities, our jobs and professions, as a means to serve others or simply as a means to make a living for ourselves?
In the second test Jesus is tempted to prove that he is God’s son by jumping from the pinnacle of the temple and letting the angels catch Him as was promised in the Scripture. Though Jesus fully believes the Word of God, He would not put God to the test. We can trust God fully for safety as we serve Him obediently but sometimes His purposes are best fulfilled by allowing His servants to undergo suffering.
In the third temptation, the devil promises Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth if only Jesus would worship him. Jesus wants the whole world to acknowledge Him, of course, but would He achieve that by worshipping a false god? Can we pursue our goals by any means whatsoever? Does the end justify the means? Jesus says no. He remains steadfast and faithful to God, rejecting the short-cuts offered by the devil. In the end, He attains an end more glorious than that offered by the devil.
Believers in Christ, temptations are facts of life. We cannot and should not seek to avoid them. But we must follow Jesus’ example and stand up under them. One of the most effective weapons against temptation is the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Jesus responded to each of the temptation with Sacred Scripture. As Christians, we must be familiar with the Bible, for at every turn, temptations need to be fought with scripture, prayer and determination. These should not depart from us especially during this period of Lent.
Today recalls Christ’s victory over temptation in the desert. The beginning of Lent is a good time for us to confront the temptations in our lives. We should pray for the gift of discernment between good and evil. What God is asking of us, then, during the season of Lent is to offer up as penance, the sacrifices necessary to avoid sin.
By sacrifice, we mean essentially a more faithful carrying out of our daily duties, and leading a life of purity, of Christian virtue, of charity towards our neighbour and of prayer. And all this should be undertaken, not through fear, but by way of a response in love to the God who loves us.
May this Lent be a time of special grace for each of us. The highpoint of our year is our celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus during Holy Week and during the next six weeks we also want to prepare for that celebration by dying to sinful ways and rising to new life with Jesus. May we truly rediscover God this Lent, and the path God wants you to take. Amen.
