First Sunday of Lent: Luke 4:1-13
‘Know yourself!’ is an ancient piece of Greek wisdom. Do I know myself and my temptations? Am I a perfectionist, or lazy? Do I desire to get noticed and praised?
Am I hoarding the gifts and talents God has given me instead of putting them at the service of others? Do I focus on the best in people, or get myself angry over their flaws? Do I love only those who love me? Have I a closed mind so that I miss out on the surprises and graces of each new situation? Do I judge others rather than try—as Ignatius suggests– to put a good interpretation on what they say or do? And so on. Where am I ignoring the grace God is offering me?
Jesus knows me better than I know myself: he loves me as I am. But he also works, often through others, to help me become aware of the ways I can spoil things. He wants to make me more compassionate and easier to get along with. I ask him, in the words of the liturgy, to help me grow in love.
In the wilderness Jesus did not engage with the devil’s temptations. He simply quoted the Word of God in scripture. God’s Word has power, even over the demons. Jesus’ experience teaches us that there is nothing wrong with being tempted. It’s how we react to the temptation that matters. A short prayer or a quote from God’s Word will help us let it go. For example: ‘Lead me not into temptation’ or ‘I must forgive, not once but seventy times.
Lord, you told of these temptations to your disciples – how else would they have known? Can I put words on my own temptations, the weaknesses or wickedness that draw me in particular? Can I see my temptations as you did, against the backdrop of the vocation to which you call me?
Jesus, like Moses before him, retreats into the wilderness where he fasts for forty days. Each temptation involves a seizure of power: power over the elements of creation by turning stones into bread, political and military power by gaining power over the kingdoms of the world, and the power to force God’s protection in an inappropriate manner. That Jesus was tested throughout his ministry was widely held in early Christianity. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “For do we not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathise with out weakness, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”
