First Sunday of Lent
Readings:
Deuteronomy 26: 4-10
Romans 10: 8-13
Luke 4: 1-13
Reflection:
Today’s gospel account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert reads like an all-familiar morality play – the battle between good and evil! And without needing to sound too dramatic, this is how each human life is often played out, almost on a daily basis! An ancient translation of Job 7: 1, for example, reads as follows: ‘Is not the life of the human on earth a temptation?’. Temptation is a common experience for all of us and not an occasional intrusion in our daily lives. As human beings, we’re always placed in a predicament of having to choose how to respond to the particularities of life.
Luke presents the devil’s temptations as appealing, and often, temptation wears such a mask! Thomas Merton in No Man is an Island wrote thus: ‘The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin, but those that offer us great evils masking as the greatest goods.’
Temptation is useful because it forces us to choose between options. My humanity is somewhat defined by the choices I make – good or bad. My response to temptation reveals the person I am. Two telling phrases appear in today’s gospel, one around the beginning and the other toward the end: ‘…During that time, [Jesus] ate nothing and at the end he was hungry,’ and ‘…the devil left [Jesus] to return at the appointed time…’. As temptation is a constant in our lives, appearing when we are most vulnerable and consistently pecking at our conscience, an alert conscience is indeed our best friend in times of temptation. Instead of seeing temptation as an affliction, perhaps we should welcome it as a wake-up call to reassert the overriding values that we wish to embody in our lives. Jesus exemplifies this for us when he reasserts his commitment to the reign of God on earth with each temptation thrown at him.
Constant prayer and fasting are healthy practices that will help sustain a lively conscience. As we begin our Lenten journey this year, let this be a prayer for us today.
Kelvin Rodrigues is a parishioner at St. Paul of the Cross, Glen Osmond, SA.