Homily Lent 1C: Dealing with temptation through fasting, almsgiving and prayer

 Homily for Lent – 1^st Sunday Year C 2022

Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13

Introduction

Temptation is a daily experience of our lives, with virtually nowhere to hide from it.  A friend of mine with little children once told me that even going to the grocery store presents a dilemma.  For when passing through the check-out lane, should he let his kids be tempted by the tonnes of sweets on one side or by the tonnes of magazines with pictures of people in various stages of undress? Or should he leave them home with television?

No wonder then that even our Lord, who despite being without sin, experienced temptation.  For our reflection today, I would like to reflect on the three temptations Jesus experienced in three parts: first by going back to Genesis where we see our first parents falling to them, then seeing how our Blessed Lord rejected them, and then thirdly how we can also fight them.

Scripture and Theology

We heard that Jesus "was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil."  This harsh environment of the desert, which has hardly any rainfall, limited plant life and often extremely high temperatures, is a place of trial and purification.  And just like Moses led the Hebrew people to the Promised Land, not via the shorter route, that is the present-day Gaza strip, but through the desert for 40years to test them to see if they were really ready and worthy to be God's chosen people, so for Jesus the 40 days in the desert was a period of testing.

The purification and preparation itself partly took the form of three temptations, which Luke arranges in a slightly different way from what the gospel of Mark and Matthew do.  For Luke the three temptations of Jesus correspond to the three reasons that caused Adam and Eve to sin in Genesis.  There we read that "The woman saw that the tree was [1] good for food and [2] pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was [3] desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."  And so, we see that Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation to eat of the fruit of the tree, first because it was "good for food," the temptation of bodily pleasure just like Jesus is tempted to change the stones into bread to satisfy hunger.  Secondly, Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree because it was "pleasing to the eyes," the temptation of possessions, just like the Devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.  And thirdly Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation to eat of the tree because it was "desirable for gaining wisdom," the temptation of presumptive pride, just like Jesus was tempted to throw himself down from the Temple.  And so, like he tempted Adam and Eve, the Devil tempts Jesus by dangling before him the same three false goods.

"If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  This first temptation places before Jesus is the prospect of bodily pleasure.  Considering that Jesus had been fasting for forty days and forty nights, this first crack at him by the Tempter was particularly attractive, for he was surely hungry.  As we know, later in the gospel Jesus will be in the business of making bread out of nothing for the crowds and will change water into wine at Cana wedding.  And so changing stones into bread is something that he can very easily do.  But Jesus, unlike and Adam and Eve, does not succumb to the temptation of instant bodily gratification.  He tells the Devil, "It is written, One does not live on bread alone."

Having failed to get him, the devil then "took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant."  And then he tempted him: "I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish.  All this will be yours, if you worship me."  This second one was the temptation to possessions.  Actually, this was not an empty promise by the Evil One.  Jesus had come to take the world from Satan's control.  And so, it was a real temptation that would allow him recover the world, not via the arduous way of suffering and death on the cross, but the easy way proposed by the tempter.  But again, Jesus says, thanks but no thanks.  Quoting from Scripture he says: "You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve."

The third temptation is that of presumptuous pride.  After taking Jesus to the roof of the Temple, the devil tells him:  "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone."  This proposition places before Jesus the choice of trusting in God unreservedly or obtaining a little proof that the Father cares for him.  Moreover, jumping down from the temple roof and surviving the experience would have been an excellent opportunity for Jesus to show his divine power and win over many people.  But since doing this would be also be testing God for his own purposes, Jesus rejected this temptation again quoting Scripture which says: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

And so, Jesus recapitulated and overcame the three fundamental temptations of Adam and Eve, of human nature: the temptation of physical pleasure, the temptation of possessions and the temptation of pride.

Christian Life

Like Adam and Eve, and Jesus were tempted, we too are tempted in the same ways.  Fortunately, we have the Season of Lent and its three traditional practices of Fasting, Almsgiving and Prayer, to help us deal with these temptations.

By fasting we battle the first temptation of physical pleasure, the tree that Eve considered "good for food," the stones that Satan wanted Jesus to change into bread.  When we fast by giving up all food and drink, in that experience of hunger, we get to know that deprivation felt by the poor man Lazarus and what total dependence on God is.  Abstaining from meat and other favourite foods or pleasures, helps us to set our sights on the greater pleasures of God.

By almsgiving we battle the second temptation of possessions, the tree that Eve considered "pleasing to the eyes," the possessions of kingdoms that Satan presented Jesus.  Almsgiving is sharing our material possessions with those who are less fortunate than we are.  We can do this privately by giving to those who we encounter in our lives or we can support the Lenten campaigns promoted by the Church, such as giving to Catholic Charities which helps the poor within the USA, and Catholic Relief Services which does so abroad.  And then we realize that possessions are only a means to pass through this world, not an end in themselves.  God is the end of everything we do.

By prayer we battle the third temptation of pride, the tree that Eve considered "desirable for gaining wisdom," the adulation Jesus would have received had he thrown himself down from the Temple roof and lived to tell the experience. We grow in humility before God when in prayer we realize that we are nothing before him and he is everything to us.  During Lent we intensify our prayer activities, so that we can get closer to God and know more clearly his will for us.  And so, we don't give in to the temptation to presume God's providence.

Conclusion

As we begin our Lenten observance, we are therefore invited to follow the Lord into the desert for purification and growing in intimacy with God.  It should be no surprise that the period of Lent is also 40 days, the same number of days that Jesus spent in the desert.

May our experience of the Lenten desert through fasting, almsgiving and prayer lead us to realize that only God can offer us what is "[1] good for food and [2] pleasing to the eyes, and [3] desirable for gaining wisdom."