The First Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2025

Luke 4:1–13

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to 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.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to 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.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

Almighty God, in his plan for our salvation, allows each of us to be tempted by the devil.  We grow in virtue through resisting temptation just as an athlete grows in skill and strength through physical exercises.  The Son of God opened himself to temptation through his assuming a human nature: “It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that he might be a propitiation for the sins of the people.  For in that wherein he himself hath suffered and been tempted he is able to succor them also that are tempted” (Hebrews 2, 17-18).  The human nature he assumed was strengthened through his resistance to sin and at the same time the Lord showed that none of us can consider himself immune from temptation.  And he himself gives the example of overcoming any enticement the devil may throw at us.

“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”  We should note here what the devil thinks about God.  He challenges Jesus to prove to him that he is the Son of God, that he is divine.  He assumes that God is like himself, full of pride and extravagant with the signs of his power.  The devil thinks that we are like him too, so if we grow in humility we shall become less and less vulnerable to his allurements. 

“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.”  The devil wants us to think that he has the ability to fulfill all our earthly desires, but this is a lie: “He is a liar, and the father of lies” (John 8, 44).  “All this will be yours, if you worship me.”  The worship the devil craves pleases his vanity but its main purpose is to plunder our souls from Almighty God.  This worship entails much more than physically b owing before the devil.  It means dedicating oneself tο evil and to destroying the faith of others.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.”  The devil tempts us with the delusion of presumption, that we are so faithful to God and so steeped in good works that we can make excuses and allow ourselves to do dangerous things.  This usually starts with small actions but builds to large ones.  Those who succumb to this temptation eventually go into denial that the grievous sins they are finally committing are not sins at all but are good acts.  We see this especially when clergy or secular leaders are arrested for breaking the law and are charged with felonies.

“Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist ye, strong in faith” (1 Peter 5, 8-9).  We should pray for the graces we need to see when we are being tempted and to withstand the devil’s assaults on our immortal souls.