Homily for the 1st Sunday in Lent

10 March 2019

Lk 4:1-13

“Come let us worship the Lord who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.”  The Divine Office, or the Liturgy of the Hours, begins with this antiphon during Lent. 

Temptation and suffering define what it means to be human; they characterize the human condition.  The antiphon describes how Jesus was like us in all things but sin, in all things but giving in to temptation.  But, it is important we are clear what temptation is.

Though the word temptation generally suggests something negative, illicit, something that is synonymous with sin, or something we should not be doing (e.g. I'm tempted to have a second chocolate mousse) the Latin, Hebrew, and Greek  roots of temptation are morally neutral.  Those roots include “trying,” “testing,” or “proving.”  Indeed, some versions of the Our Father pray 'do not put us to the test' rather than the familiar, 'lead us not into temptation.'

Each of the temptations satan dangled in front of Jesus were tests of his trust in God the Father.  Each tested Jesus’ obedience to his Father, who is our Father as well.  Unlike Adam, who disobeyed God’s command, Jesus, the New Adam, was obedient to the Father’s will in all things, even to accepting death on the cross. Satan tempted Jesus, who was hungry from fasting, tired from prayer, and disoriented in the desert.  Satan tests us in the same way when we are in the same condition.  Those temptations dance in front of our eyes and frolic in our minds when we are hungry, tired, or disoriented and confused.  They are the temptations we must confront when dissatisfied with the status quo or more concerned with things of the world.

In the first test Satan tempted a hungry Jesus with bread.  “C’mon, take care of yourself.  You can be self-sufficient.  Aw Jesus, just do it.”  It is more than bread at issue here.  The temptation is to arrogant self-sufficiency, to taking care of number one to the exclusion of everything and everyone else.  Me, myself, and I.  That temptation looms large in our lives in ways that are unique to each of us.   

The third temptation was to put God to the test. “Hey Jesus, it’s quid pro quo. You jump and the Father saves you. If he don't . . . welllllll, guess you was wrong dude.”  God is not a divine marionetteer.  God does not pull our strings to make us dance.  God does not quotecause unquote things to happen for the entertainment value of watching us struggle. "Why did God give me cancer?"   Nor is God a marionette that we control with strings made of prayer.  “If this happens I will no longer believe in God.”  Both statements are appropriate to a three year-old but not an adult.

How often do we test God in this way?  How often do we demand that God answer our prayers in a very specific way, according to a highly detailed script of which we hold the only copy? The late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow,  accurately wrote that, '. . . our appetite for signs is insatiable.  We are forever testing to see if God is still there, to check whether our prayers are getting through.'

The second, and in some ways most fascinating, temptation is the classic Faustian bargain.  “Sell your soul.  Worship me. I will give you great power.”  Power. Prestige.  Money.  Control. These idols have replaced God in too many lives.  They drive both major political parties, and all of the minor ones.  Those idols have contributed mightily to the diminishment of the quality of our lives, to say nothing of the sad incivility that now marks public discourse and discussion.  That Faustian bargain is summarized in the pathetic bumper sticker:  "He who has the most toys when he dies wins."

All of Jesus' replies to the evil one's tests were direct quotes from the Book of Deuteronomy, the Torah, the Old Testament, the only scripture he knew.  Throughout all of the temptations Jesus chose to obey the will of God the Father. He freely chose obedience.  In so doing he made it possible for us to imitate Him in our own exercise of free will, the gift that, along with the ability to use words in speech, sets humans high above all lower animals.  

The meaning of freedom is wildly misunderstood.  Freedom is not a release from restrictions, rules, or responsibility. That may be the freedom for the college student away from home for the first time but it is not true freedom.  Freedom is not the opportunity to choose anything whatsoever, whenever, and without consequence.  Dogs and monkeys can do that.  Lower animals have no will, free or otherwise. They only have instincts.  Freedom is not the ability to adopt individual and highly idiosyncratic attitudes toward life or morality.  Human freedom is freedom for.  It allows us to say yes or no.   As we see in Jesus' example it gives us the opportunity to say yes or no to one's self.  Freedom allows us to decide for or against ourselves.  It allows us to decide for or against God.  Humans alone have the opportunity to choose or to reject sin. 

Think back to Adam and Eve.  They chose and acted on their choice.  They chose wrongly. But they were and remained free.  We have the same freedom.  Jesus had that same freedom.

Jesus,  the Way, the Truth, and the Life is our model.

For this reason the office will begin in the same way for the next weeks: “Come let us worship the Lord who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.”  

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The photos are of three crosses that I took over the past two years in Europe.  

The churchyard at the parish in Preddvor, Slovenia.  About thirty minutes or so north of LJ.  This was All Saints' Day 2016.

The cross on the summit of sv. Višarje, which is in Italy on the border of Slovenia and Austria. 

 The daily Mass and cold weather chapel at sv Jože in LJ.  It is much too cold in the large church to heat during the winter.  The English Language Mass also meets here.  It was a challenge to get this lined up right. 

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD