First day of Lent

“Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” Mt. 4:1

Temptation. 

Even the word itself is provocative, glamorous, alluring.

Because, if there’s one thing you and I understand about life, it’s the reality of being tempted. Whether it’s the diets we impose on ourselves, or our struggles with greed or lust or vengeance, we’ve all come to know what temptation is like.

Perhaps this is why the story of Jesus being tempted has always been compelling. At heart, it’s really a battle story, a contest between the two great monumental forces of Good versus Evil.

Jesus versus the Devil. 

At first glance, it appears to be a competition to see who can outdo the other at dropping Bible verses – proving once again that even the Devil can quote scripture. 

But, to really appreciate what’s happening in this Gospel story, we must look back to the classic account of the Israelites being saved by God from the horrors of slavery. 

Israel’s experience in the “wilderness” after escaping the slavery imposed on them by the Egyptians is expressed in terms of a test from God: “And you shall remember … the Lord your God had led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.”

The ideas of being tested, of being led by God, of a place of “wilderness,” of the number forty, and even of fasting, all come from this original account of God seeing if the people he’s so in love with will be able to love him in return; testing “to know what was in your heart.”

On a human level, the same is asked of Jesus. 

What’s interesting to note is that none of the traditional “seven deadly sins”  are ever mentioned by either Jesus or the Devil. 

Instead, the three temptations in this story all revolve around one single issue: 

Power – and how it’s used or abused. 

The questions this gospel account poses, then, are these: 

What kind of power will rule over the hearts of human beings? What kind of power will you and I exercise in our lives?

Will it be the kind promoted by Satan – the power of domination and self-immersion, of ruthlessness and cold-heartedness? Or will it be the power of charity and service, obedience and humility, the power of compassion? 

Keep in mind that the Father is about to hand over to Jesus an enormous amount of power – the power of being God’s face in the world; the power of building a kingdom of love and peace and mercy in this world. 

Jesus, then, on a purely human level, must be tested to see if, unlike the Israelites of so long ago who flunked the test, he can remain utterly faithful to Abba, his Father. 

This test is essentially the same one we all must pass if we are to assume a position of power in our own lives: the power to be a husband or wife, a parent,  a leader of any kind. 

The test given Jesus, therefore, is threefold: 

First, Jesus is asked to deny who he truly is: God’s Son. 

We also are asked to acknowledge our true identity –  human beings made in the image of God. Will we claim that identity as being God’s very own people and live our lives out of that conviction?

Second, Jesus is told he can be the source of great signs and wonders. 

Will we be able to forsake our desire for fame, adulation and glory, and be willing instead to live a life of humility focused on service?

Third, Jesus is told he will be given all the power and glory of the world’s kingdoms. 

Will we be able to resist the power inherent in all the glamorous attractions the world offers – the ones the seven deadly sins do address?

Temptations are often powerfully, even irresistibly, seductive.

Jesus resisted them. 

Today’s Gospel challenges us to do the same. 

That’s what the season of Lent is all about. It’s about the recognition that we all must do battle against temptation – especially the temptation to misuse power.  

To help us in this conversion process, the Church asks each of us to do what Jesus did: 

Go into the “wilderness” for forty days. Pray, fast, become contrite, increase our service to others – all of this “testing to know what was in your heart,” and to remind us once again: 

“The Lord, your God shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” 

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.

NOTE: Recently I had the good fortune of reading a book that Fr. James Martin, S.J. termed “indispensable for understanding this man and this Church.” The man he is referring to is Pope Francis. The book is entitled: “Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church” by Austen Ivereigh.

Personally, I have found this book provides a profound insight into the Pope’s personal conversion experience – “where it came from, what it is, and why it has triggered such turbulence”, as the author states. It is, again quoting the author, “the story … of his opening the Church to the possibility of conversion.” 

Since conversion is the sum and substance of the season of Lent, I thought you might be interested in some quotes that I will provide each week from this timely book. As Archbishop Javier del Rio Alba explained: “What the Pope is doing is like an earthquake, a tremor, which is moving and shaking things up. And in that shaking up what will fall is what has to fall, and what will rise up is a new era in the history of the Church.”

As Pope Francis insists: “The real center of the Church is not the pope, but Jesus Christ.” Francis’ story is his attempt to put Christ at the Church’s center.” 

To use Ivereigh’s own words, “Francis came to announce the closeness of God, the mercy that somehow Catholics had managed to bury in the lower paragraphs of the Christian Good News story …. Francis wants to affirm the periphery-focused, joyful Church-that-goes-out, to show that Jesus could still be found beyond the introverted, clericalist institution that squatted on its neo-Christendom laurels while the pews drained.” 

“Francis likes to point out that Jesus always took time to stop and listen to the people. At the 2018 Synod he called it ‘the apostolate of the ear: listening before speaking …. He is the pope of proximity …. The Kingdom of God isn’t an idea, but a happening, a relationship: God has come near to His people …. God is mercy, and mercy is close and concrete; mercy never stands outside …. Our purpose is to become channels of God’s power as He worked through history to create a new people. That is the Good News.”