Faithfulness Even in Temptation



We begin our first week of lent by reflecting on the meaning of temptation in our lives. Our life should always of being faithful even when we are tempted.

The Gospel of Luke which we are reading in this year speaks about the three temptations of our Lord Jesus Christ. It narrates how Jesus was tempted against material needs, human power, and against asking God for an extraordinary sign of protection (Cf. Luke 4: 1-13).

Temptation is an inducement to sin. It is a trial in which one has a free choice of being faithful or unfaithful to God and His commands. Temptation is not a sin certainly. It is just a situation of choice: “between the Eternal Good (God) and temporal good (in- ordinate love of self).

The first temptation Christ experienced was that of hunger or against material needs. We want to have good clothes, money especially in this time of poverty. These temporal needs are important to our lives but they are not an end in themselves “Human beings live not on bread alone.” If we have too much appetite for these needs and we don’t get them, then we will begin to murmur like the Israelites (Cf. Deut. 8:3). One parent told me that if ‘I have just enough money to feed my children, take them to school I will be fine.’ Maybe that is the spirit we need to embrace today.

The second temptation is human power.  Power is a great temptation in one’s life. We want to be powerful by all means (even by evil means) because only powerful people count in our world.  People always want for the opportunity to gain power probably to enrich themselves. Jesus too, had an opportunity to get glory for himself. He could have used his miraculous powers to gain popularity and become the most powerful and famous person in the world. But he reminds the devil that he had to be subservient to God: “Only God is to be served (Lk. 4:8; Deut 6:13). After all in essence all power and glory belong to God alone.

The third temptation is to ask God for an extraordinary sign of protection by jumping from the top of the Temple “He has given his angels orders about you, to guard you and carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone” (Lk. 4:10-11). Today many of us challenge God to show extraordinary signs of his presence. “Come for Miracles or healings.” We call on God to cure incurable diseases like HIV/AIDS, Cancer or High Blood Pressure.  Perhaps we pray to make all students pass their exams and all youth to find employment. Rarely do we stop to ask what the root causes of these problems are, and how can we, ourselves fight them. God has given us intelligence precisely so that we can create a better world. To force God to act in our place is to put God to the test. We always have to “pray as though everything depends on God, but work as though everything depends on us.”

The temptations of Jesus should be seen as constant daily struggle or conflict of God’s reign with the reign of Satan.  This is our daily struggle. We need with the help of God’s grace to resist the power of Satan.

Points for reflections

·         Resistance to sin is a moral imperative
·         Prayer and disapproval of sin, no matter  what and where, is our only positive resistance to  sin
·         God will never tempt us beyond our strength
·         Readings
§  Gen. 3:1-6  a snake is symbol of our earthness – temptation to do evil
§  Gen. 4: 7     sin is around the corner but we can master it
§  Matt. 6:12   do not lead us into temptation

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