Sunday, February 29, 2004
1st Sunday of Lent

1st Reading: Dt 26:4-10

Then the priest shall take the large basket from your hands and place it before the altar of Yahweh, your God, and you shall say these words before Yahweh, "My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt to find refuge there, while still few in number; but in that country, he became a great and powerful nation.

The Egyptians maltreated us, oppressed us and subjected us to harsh slavery. So we called to Yahweh, the God of our ancestors, and Yahweh listened to us. He saw our humiliation, our hard labor and the oppression to which we were subjected. He brought us out of Egypt with a firm hand, manifesting his power with signs and awesome wonders. And he brought us here to give us this land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring and offer the firstfruits of the land which you, Yahweh, have given me."

2nd Reading: Rom 10:8-13

True righteousness coming from faith also says: The word of God is near you, on your lips and in your hearts. This is the message that we preach, and this is faith.

You are saved if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead. By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips you are saved. For Scripture says: No one who believes in him will be ashamed. Here there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, who is very generous with whoever calls on him. Truly, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Gospel: Lk 4:1-13

Jesus was now full of Holy Spirit. As he returned from the Jordan, the Spirit led him into the desert where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. He did not eat anything during that time, and in the end he was hungry. The devil then said to him, "If you are son of God, tell this stone to turn into bread." But Jesus answered, "Scripture says: People cannot live on bread alone."
Then the devil took him up to a high place and showed him in a flash all the nations of the world. And he said to Jesus, "I can give you power over all the nations and their wealth will be yours, for power and wealth have been delivered to me and I give them to whom I wish. All this will be yours provided you worship me." But Jesus replied, "Scripture says: You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone."

Then the devil took him up to Jerusalem and set him on the highest wall of the Temple; and he said, "If you are son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: God will order his angels to take care of you and again: They will hold you in their hands, lest you hurt your foot on the stones." But Jesus replied, "It is written: You shall not challenge the Lord your God."
When the devil had exhausted every way of tempting Jesus he left him, to return another time.

Commentary

'TEMPTED', in the Scriptures, means 'put to the test'. Jesus was led (in Mark, driven) into the desert to be put to the test. For a start, the desert itself put him to the test. A desert gives you nothing to eat, it makes you feel utterly powerless, and it seems totally indifferent to your fate.

First a superficial interpretation. The three temptations of Jesus correspond to these three facts about deserts. He felt hungry, and when he looked at the stones he saw bread. (A Hindu poet who used to write a lot about the moon fell into great poverty, and whenever he looked at the moon now he saw only a chipatti!) Secondly, the feeling of powerlessness tempted Jesus to power, and thirdly the uncaring desert made him imagine God sending "his angel to care for you." All this may only mean that the devil has a feeling for place! At any rate, temptations are never just disembodied ideas.

A scholar says that Luke is thinking also of the Church when he describes this episode in the desert. The trials of Jesus are prolonged in his body the Church. It is the Church that is now in the desert, tempted by the devil. It is tempted to be only a material provider (in some instances providing just for itself); it is tempted to power, and it is tempted to what Italians call 'spettacolarismo'-pomp and show. The devil's sense of place and timing hasn't deserted him in the meantime.

At an individual level we can all look around us and investigate our particular temptations. They will be related to our own time and place, to the things nearest us, to our hungers, ambitions and fears. And they are not always obvious. The temptations of Jesus were not temptations to evil, but to limited kinds of goodness. How do you tempt a good person? With evil? No, he or she will not take that bait. You tempt them with goodness-but with some kind of short-term, self-defeating goodness. On this first Sunday of Lent the Church encourages us to look with clear sight at our temptations.

Read also Sundays Into Silence: Not Settling For Pleasure

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