March
5, 2017
First
Sunday of Lent
Genesis
2:7–9; 3:1–7; Romans 5:12–19; Matthew 4:1–11
A young man who
was struggling over lustful thoughts came to his Dad and asked this question:
“At what age do you think all of these impure thoughts will go away?” The
father replied: “At my age son. When you reach 75 years old, the temptation
will go away.” Then suddenly a beautiful lady crossed the street and the old
man’s eyes were fixed on her. Still gazing at the lady, he called back his son
and said, “Son did I say 75?...Well make that 85!”
My brothers and
sisters, temptations will never disappear as long as we’re alive. Temptations affect every person in the
world. Temptations are part of the DNA
of humanity. We have heard in today’s gospel that as a human being, Jesus was
also tempted by the devil. But how was he able to resist temptations? What was
his weapon? What can we learn from the example Jesus as we face temptations in
life?
Let us reflect on this in three points:
Let us reflect on this in three points:
JESUS
REFUSED TO ENTERTAIN TEMPTATIONS. We usually think of the devil as an
ugly and horrible looking man, with horns and a pointed tail. But in reality,
when the devil comes to us in temptation, he does not look ugly and horrible.
Because if he did, we will surely run away from the devil. The devil is smart
and cunning. The devil always presents temptation in a very attractive and
pleasing manner so that we may be enticed to say “YES” to the invitation. In
the first reading we see how our first parents were enticed by the temptation:
“Eat this fruit and you will become like gods.”
But did they become like gods? No. They were deceived by the serpent.
The devil personalizes temptations based on our own weaknesses. So what must we
do in order to win against temptation? We look at Jesus in the gospel. He refused
to entertain them. He immediately rejected the offer at the very beginning.
There is a saying that says “If we pray against temptation but refuse to avoid
occasions of sin, we are like putting our hands on fire and pray that our hands
will not get burned.” What can we do to strengthen us in resisting temptations?
WE
STRENGTHEN OURSELVES THROUGH PRAYER. This is what we see in Jesus. He was led
by the Spirit into the desert and immersed himself in prayer. Prayer gives us
the grace. Paul tells us in the second reading that this grace coming from God strengthens
us in our weakness. We must never give up praying even if we see ourselves
falling into sin. Because prayer and sin can never go together - either sin will
go away or prayer will go away. If we want sin to go away, then we need to
couple our efforts of avoiding occasions of sin with prayer, sacraments
(confession, eucharist) so that we may be strengthened by the grace that comes
from God.
WE
STRENGHTEN OURSELVES BY LISTENING TO THE WORD OF GOD. In the
gospel, Jesus answered the deception of Satan by quoting the Sacred Scriptures. When asked by Satan to turn the stone into
bread, Jesus quoted Scripture by saying: “Man shall not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” When asked by Satan to
throw himself down, Jesus again quoted Scripture by saying: “Do not put the
Lord your God to the test.” When he was asked to worship Satan, Jesus
consistently quoted Scripture by saying, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve
him only.” Perhaps we can also learn from this. Instead of entertaining the
lure of temptations, we must entertain what the Word of God is trying to tell
us.
My brothers and
sisters resisting temptations is part and parcel of our daily spiritual battle.
Jesus as a human being also faced temptations but refused to entertain it. In
this Lenten season, let us work out to strengthen our defense against temptations
by our prayer life and by listening to the guidance of God’s Word. Amen.
