The two consecutive Gospel Readings that confronted me on Saturday after Ash Wednesday and on the following day, the First Sunday of Lent challenged the present-day cozy certainty that a Christian life paved with good intentions, faith, hope and love will inevitably succeed – and bears witness to the angst-filled battles in the lives of not just ordinary people, but of the Saints and indeed Jesus Christ Himself.
Jesus noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house, and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything he got up and followed him. In his honor Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’
Luke 5:27-32
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him. After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’
Mark 1:12-15
The reflections of Pope Benedict XVI on the Temptations of Jesus in the wilderness carried remarkable clarity which prompted me to summarize the discourse in an earlier post. Here the passage from St Matthew’s Gospel throws more details into Christ’s defense against the evil one’s onslaught as He fought his own spiritual warfare as God-made-Man.
Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was very hungry, and the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.’ But he replied, ‘Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ The devil then took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple. ‘If you are the Son of God’ he said ‘throw yourself down; for scripture says: He will put you in his angels’ charge, and they will support you on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Scripture also says: You must not put the Lord your God to the test. Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘I will give you all these’ he said, ‘if you fall at my feet and worship me.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.’ Then the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.
Matthew 4:1-11
In Pope Benedict’s book, he wrote that there appears to be three types of temptations directed to get Jesus to ‘prove’ that he is the Son of God.
First is the devil’s demand to re-order the Son of God’s relationship with His Father according to the priorities of the world – first solve world Hunger, then Faith. First prove His presence in no uncertain terms, before belief. First satisfy us, before receiving our allegiance and gratitude.
Second, Jesus was not prepared to put God, his father to the test. Here, Jesus is reiterating that his relationship to God is not one that puts God in the setting of having to prove to man His strength or His majesty. It is not on account of man, or on our terms, that God is expected to respond to yet another challenge or demand (“If you are the Son of God”) to prove to us His Presence and Providence.
Last, but not least, was to ask Jesus to seek primacy over earthly and material needs, as if these were what matters the most in his Kingship. Indeed, Jesus would respond later during his trial before Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world, and is not to be equated with the values and material wants and needs of secularism.
The Temptations of Jesus brought to life many of the burdens as we attempt to do good in this wildly secular world. We too are unable to escape from its temptations of glories, riches and honors, our imperfect as God’s messenger; yet entrusted to carry out Your mission, we are seemingly generous yet battling with our own inner disquiet of mistrust, self-doubts, selfishness, and lack of wisdom and generosity.
Indeed, God, if what You want from us is mere Mercy, and the readiness to enter into the Chaos of others (as defined so eloquently by James Keenan S.J.,), surely You must know how hard it is – how tenuous is our readiness to live the Life of God’s Kingdom as You taught us on earth.
Lumix G9 Panasonic 20 mm F1.7, March 2020.
(For further reading, pp25-46, The Temptations of Jesus, in Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph Ratzinger, Image press, 2007. )