THE gospel on the First Sunday of Lent (Matthew 4:1-11) brings us to the scene in the desert where Jesus was fasting for forty days and forty nights. At the onset this gives us a good answer to the question on the need for fasting in our times. If Jesus himself who is the Son of God fasted, it must be fitting for us who follow him to do the same. More than food, we have to fast from our overindulgence with worldly cares and abstain from doing evil.
In the said gospel we read about Jesus being tempted three times by the devil but succeeding on each occasion. First temptation, to the hungry Jesus, the devil says,
“If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” Jesus’ reply, “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Second temptation, at the parapet of the temple, the devil challenges Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answer, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Third temptation, on a very high mountain with the magnificence of all the kingdoms of the world shown, the devil arrogantly offered and demanded, “All these I shall give to you, if you prostrate yourself and worship me.” Jesus’ response, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”
These temptations are as real today as they were at the time of Jesus. The temptation to prioritize food, and by extension, the material needs of our physical bodies, over the needs of our souls, is a perilous trap in modern life. Many in our society today have become like working machines, enslaved by the desire to pursue the mighty dollar/peso at all cost, neglecting or sacrificing relationship with God and fellowmen, and worst, breaking God’s commands on honest living. Faced with such a temptation, the Scripture quoted by Jesus, which is from Deuteronomy 8:3, remains relevant, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Of course, there is nothing wrong with working hard to provide one’s self and family with the basic things in life; in fact, that is expected of any responsible individual. It becomes wrong when our hunger for God is overtaken by our hunger for the world’s riches, and when our thirst for the Giver of gifts is supplanted by our thirst for the gifts themselves. Caught with many needs to satisfy in this temporal life, we can turn to Jesus’ teaching on the secret to Divine provision, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you as well,” (Matthew 6:33).
The temptation to live careless and vagabond lives on the belief that God will not abandon us anyway, and that he will always be around to rescue us, is seen in the lack of conviction for holiness. Man sins, resting on the security that God will always forgive. Man abuses his life and takes unnecessary risks, counting on the notion that God will always save. Jesus, again quoting Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:16), warns us, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” While we can always rest on God’s mercy, we should not forget that we also serve a God of justice. St. Paul writes, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit,”(Galatians 6:7-8).
Lastly, the temptation to idolatry “to worship anyone or anything other than God” takes the subtle form in modern man’s obsession for power, fame and wealth. How many are willing to bend the rules, even kill, to grab power and cling to it? To be popular and be admired by all? To amass riches and aim for more and more? With reference to the first commandment (Exodus 20:2), Jesus said to the devil, “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”
Yes, worship is due to God alone, for he alone is the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable, eternal and all-loving God. Only the Creator and not anything created deserves to be worshipped.
From this gospel, we see that Jesus was tested in every respect like us but he did not commit any sin, thus we can count on him in our time of weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). Let us remember, “The devil comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). We are not powerless before the devil. In Deuteronomy 30, God, through Moses, invites us to choose life and not death, and in James 4:7 we are instructed, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”