The First Sunday of Lent, February 26, 2023

Matthew 4, 1–11

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”  Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”  Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

The Evangelist describes the Lord’s temptations by the devil, which took place on the Eve of his ministry to mankind for us to learn about the Lord and his power over the devil but also to teach us about temptations.

We learn, for instance, that we can be tempted anywhere at any time: for Adam and Eve were tempted in the lush Garden of Eden and the Lord in the rocky wilderness of Judea.  We learn also that the devil is very persistent.  He tempts our Lord not once but three times, and probably over a period of time.  These temptations were not over in a few minutes.  We are also tempted in every condition in which we can be: strong, as in Adam and Eve in Eden; and weak and famished as the Lord in the wilderness.  We are tempted primarily regarding three basic things: pride, presumption, and the desire for indulgence.  You and I may be sons and daughters of God through adoption, but we cannot consider ourselves entitled to do whatever we wish because of it; God will protect us from evil, but not from the consequences we face when we seek it out; and the world and its peoples do not belong to us: they belong to Almighty God.  Something else we learn from this Gospel Reading about temptation is how to suffer it: we do not argue with the devil but simply refuse to do his bidding.  The Lord rebukes him with Scripture so as to preserve the righteousness of the Holy Scriptures against the devil’s misuse of them, but we are to then do as he did: walk away from his machinations.  We are to say: “Get away, Satan!”  And then we should move ourselves too.  Again, when the devil leaves us, the angels minister to us.  They bind up the wounds we may suffer in overcoming evil and obtain for us graces to protect us against further temptations.

We should also note that the devil does this at the very onset of the Lord’s ministry.  We are thereby warned that whenever we have committed to understate some holy work, whether to volunteer in charitable work, to receive a new sacrament, or to follow one’s vocation to the Priesthood or the religious life, the devil will fight against us.  He will use persuasion, threats, and even arrange for some kind of outside trouble to keep us from doing the will of God in this way.  We should not be dismayed by this when it happens, but rather encouraged.  Despite himself, the devil confirms that we are doing the right thing.