First Sunday of Lent
Gen. 2:7–9, 3:1–7; Ps. 51:3–6, 12–13, 17; Rom. 5:12–19; Matt. 4:1–11
Last Wednesday we celebrated Ash Wednesday to mark the beginning of the Lenten journey that will last for forty days. Just as Jesus abstained for forty days and fort nights from earthily food, the pilgrim church embarks on this journey of spiritual warfare against the Devil and his machinations. On this Journey, the Victorious Christ accompanies us as we battle against the temptations of our time which seek to separate us from our communion with God and sinfully empower us with false freedom of being independent from God. Through fasting, prayer and almsgiving, this Lenten journey leads us to the joyous celebration of Easter.
The Gospel reading today from Matthew recounts how Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit where he fasted for forty days and forty nights and was tempted by the Devil. The number forty reminds us of the children of Israel who wandered in the wilderness and were tempted for forty years. While the children of the desert rebelled against God and failed the testing, Jesus triumphed over the Devil and remained obedient to the Father. As opposed to the First Adam who lost the grace of paradise by disobeying God, Jesus, the Second Adam, subdued the devil by being obedient to God unto death.
Satan tempts Jesus three times. The Devil challenges Jesus to prove his divinity in way that violates his filial relationship with his Heavenly Father. The first temptation challenges Jesus to turn stones into bread. Jesus rebuffs this with a quotation from the Torah, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3). He did not choose to tempt God as did the sons and daughters of Israel in the desert (Ps 78:18-20). By refusing to give in to the temptation of the Devil, our Lord teaches us that we should always place our trust in God. In the First Reading from Genesis, we see that the fall of the first man was the result of giving in to the temptation of eating the fruit from the forbidden tree. Satan wants man to believe that God is an enemy. St John Paul ii says that even though creation itself and God’s saving plan reveal His goodness, Satan distorts this truth. The spirit of darkness portrays God not as a loving Father but as an enemy of humanity. The Devil sows this lie, and plants in the human heart a spirit of opposition. Man is tempted to see God as an adversary rather than a loving Father. In this way, humanity is enticed to rebel against the Author of life (cf. DV.38).
St. Paul tells us: “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (Rom 5:19). The Catechism explains that, the first man, Adam “preferred himself to God. He wanted to be like God, but without God” (CCC 398). The Second Vatican Council reminds us, “Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God” (GS 13). This is the root of sin: choosing self over God, independence over obedience, pride over humility. Man made laws are being considered superior to God’s commandments. Man wants to determine what is morally wrong or right by a popular vote yet the commandments of the Lord cannot be subjected to people’s referendum.
The second temptation seeks to persuade our Lord to make spectacle throwing himself down from the pinnacle of the temple relying on the wrong interpretation of Ps 91:11-12. Our Lord rejects that and affirms not to put the Lord God to the test (Deut. 6:16). Instead of testing God we should rather ask the Lord to deliver us not into temptation.
The third temptation is the climax of all temptations. Satan offers Jesus, the Word through whom everything came into being without whom not one thing came into existence (Jn1:3), worldly wealth and power in return. In exchange Jesus should bow before the Devil. To end the Devil’s machinations, the Lord turned him away and reiterated that only God should be worshipped. Today there many who are bowing before the Devil and worshipping him and thereby becoming slaves of money, drugs, alcohol, political power and sexual pleasure.
Those who have bowed down to worship Satan, show their power and mighty by exploiting global resources, while the weak and the poor of this world are left impoverished, living below the poverty datum line. If the powerful and wealthy were to echo the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4) then the poor of this world would have enough to eat. If the powerful would repent, stop worshipping power, money and worldly pleasures, and start worshiping the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the New Adam, then there would be genuine and positive peace in the world.
May our Mother Mary the Immaculate intercede for us.