First Sunday of Lent
Genesis 2:7–9; 3:1–7
Psalm 51:3–4, 5–6, 12–13, 17
Romans 5:12–19
Matthew 4:1–11
The Gospel of the First Sunday of Lent each year gives an account of the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. This year, Matthew (Year A) tells us that “the tempter” came to Jesus in His weakness, when, after a fast of 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. Matthew offers a dramatic telling of three temptations.
Mark (Year B) names the one who tempted as “Satan” but does not give details about the ordeal except to say that Jesus was with the wild beasts. Luke (Year C) speaks of “the devil,” giving the same temptations as in Matthew but in a different order. Both Matthew and Mark close their accounts of the temptation with the fact that “angels ministered to Him.”
The three temptations described are self-sufficiency (“command that these stones become loaves of bread”), presumption (“throw yourself down” from the parapet of the temple, calling on the ministry of the angels promised in Scripture) and power (“all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence” – the Greek word is doxa, “glory” – in return for worship).
The tempter uses Scripture to make a case for the action, but in response, Jesus, too, quotes Scripture to counter the invitation to trust in the false promises being made.
Human limitations are not an excuse for giving in to temptation. Providence offers more than mere earthly bread: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God.”
Relationship with God leads to a trust in His good will in spite of early circumstances: “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Putting God at the center of one’s existence precludes giving adoration to none but God: “Get away, Satan! It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve.”
As Lent begins, we are invited to acknowledge that sin has a hold on us, from the beginning. We live in a world that is not as it was created to be, due to human choices. Human beings, each one of us, have chosen to give in to temptation and to allow sin to gain a hold on us.
At the same time, we are called to recognize that God has not left us in our sin, subject to its penalty of death. He has offered a gift through Jesus Christ. “But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. … For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.”
We are free to make a choice. Grace is offered. Human limitations become the very place where divine grace is made evident. Every temptation can be the occasion for us to accept the gift that is offered. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving put us in touch with the capacity God has planted in our human nature to respond to the offer of a living relationship.
Adam and Eve had their eyes opened to good and evil by their failure to resist the first temptation “to be like gods.” The Son of God, Who shares our human nature, has given us a share in His divine nature through grace, the gracious gift of God that opens up to us true food, a true relationship with God and true glory.
As we enter into this joyful season of Lent, may we be ready to seek mercy and put our trust in the God Who saves us. May we join with the angels who minister to us and give praise to God.