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| "Strangers in a Strange Land" Crialese: The Golden Door |
1st Sunday
of Lent
As we begin the season of
Lent today's first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy reminds us to look back and reflect on who we
are and where we came from. It doesn't take much of an imagination for us to
realize how close we are to the Israelites in the time of Moses. After bringing
up their offerings to the altar, Moses tells them to declare:
My
father was a wandering Aramean
who
went down to Egypt with a small household
and
lived there as an alien.
Most of us are descendants of
aliens who came to America in the last two centuries. Like the Israelites, our
ancestors were fleeing oppression and hunger at home and they thought that
America was a "land flowing with milk and honey." Like the Israelites they brought their
God and their religion with them even though both encountered prejudice and
opposition. They built families, homes, schools, and churches and handed down
to their children a better life than they had ever known. They became in the
words of the Bible a "nation great, strong and numerous."
.
There was always the danger
that success might tempt us to turn our backs on God and our religion and make
us forget where we came from and where we are going. Temptation is the subject
of today's gospel. Even though the gospel readings go through a three year
cycle, the reading for the first Sunday of Lent is always the account of our
Lord's temptation in the desert.
Luke begins this account by
noting that Jesus, "filled with the Holy Spirit," returned from the
Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted
by the devil." This episode then follows almost immediately upon the
Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan where a voice from Heaven had proclaimed,
"Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased."
Luke says that Jesus fasted
for 40 days and then the devil appeared to Him and presented Him with three
different temptations. Lucky for us that we are such small fry or such easy
marks that the devil doesn't have to personally bother with us. Our temptations
are not so dramatic. One of the greatest Christian authors of the last century,
C.S. Lewis, wrote a book entitled, "The Screwtape Letters," in which
he described how a petty bureaucrat from Hell tried to tempt a young man with
the mundane, ordinary temptations that we all experience in our lives.
Nevertheless, the Devil
tempts Jesus in ways that we all can understand. Please note however that
despite all attempts today to glamorize the Devil, our tradition has always
believed that he is a liar. In fact, he cannot help but lie or otherwise
distort the Truth. Even when he quotes Scripture, as he does here, he cannot
help but twist the meaning. By the way all of our Lord's responses are quotes
from the Book of Deuteronomy, the source of today's first reading. Our Lord is
the Truth, the Devil represents the complete absence of Truth.
The first temptation deals
with our basic human needs. Of course, it's not just about food and hunger.
It's about all the things that we think that we must have to sustain our
standard of living. Maybe we don't all want to be millionaires but we all know
how the frantic search for the things of this world can destroy our basic human
relationships. As our Lord said, "One does not live on bread alone."
The second temptation deals
with the search for "power and glory." Lying again, the Devil claims
that all the kingdoms in the world have been given to him and that he will give
them to Jesus "if you worship me." Every day in the newspapers we read about some politician,
CEO, athlete or entertainer who is in trouble with the law. Most of us are not
such big shots but we know of the power struggles that go on in our own
families, our schoolyards, our businesses and even in our churches.
At the Jordan John the
Baptist said that he must diminish so that the Lord could increase. It is just
the opposite with the search for "power and glory." Again from
Deuteronomy;
You shall worship the Lord,
your God, and Him alone shall you serve." What more incentive do we need
to attend Mass this Lent!
In the third temptation the
devil takes our Lord to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem looking down over
the parapet 450 feet straight down to the Kidron valley. He says prove your
faith in God by throwing yourself down for doesn't Scripture say angels will
support you. He quotes the Psalm we used in today's Mass and from which the
popular hymn "On Eagles' wings" is taken. Jesus says that spectacular
stunts are not the way we prove our faith. Do not tempt the Lord your God.
About faith it would be good
to go back to today's second reading from St. Paul.
if
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you
will be saved.
It doesn't matter whether
we're Jew or Greek, or whether our ancestors came from a county in Ireland, or
a town in Italy, or a tribe in Africa, or a village in Asia, for "everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ###
Reading II. Romans 10: 8-13
Gospel. Luke 4: 1-13 (Temptation in the Desert)
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