Homily for the
1st Sunday of Lent
March 9, 2025
Luke 4: 1-13
Villa Maria, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
 |
| The 1st temptation (Royal Danish Library) |
“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days, to be tempted by the devil” (Luke 4: 1-2).
When
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, “the Holy Spirit descended upon him in
bodily form … and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I
am well pleased’” (3:21-22). Immediately
after that, Luke tells us, Luke provides us with Jesus’ genealogy (before Jesus
begins his ministry, unlike Matthew’s placing it right at the beginning of his
Gospel). Luke’s version starts with St. Joseph
and goes all the way back to “Adam, the son of God” (3:38). Thus Luke has told us twice who Jesus really
is, preparing us for the Devil’s tests of his relationship with God: “If you are the Son of God…” (4:3,9).
The
Spirit guides Jesus into the desert, the wilderness of Judea. Here Jesus spends 40 days with God, as Moses
spent 40 days fasting on Mt. Sinai (Ex 34:28) in close encounter with the
Lord. Led by Moses, the Hebrews spent 40
years in the desert being formed as the people of God, the people of the
covenant of Sinai. In the desert Jesus prepares
for his mission of forming a new people of God based on a new covenant.
Jesus’
mission demands absolute fealty to his Father.
The Devil’s tests challenge that fealty.
Each temptation is a test of whether Jesus will serve his own needs and
desires or those of God. Will he use the
power implied by his sonship to feed himself, to accrue wealth and power, to put
on a miraculous display? Will his
ministry be self-centered or God-centered?
In each instance, Jesus’ answer is clear and uncompromising: he will serve God alone.
In
a Wednesday audience at the beginning of Lent 2013, Pope Benedict summarized the
temptations as “the proposal to exploit God, to use him for one’s own interests,
for one’s own glory and for one’s own success.
And therefore, essentially to put oneself in God’s place.”[1]
Baptism
makes us children of God. The Devil
constantly tests our relationship with God.
Will we act as his children, will we be loyal to him, or will we serve
ourselves, our own desire for glory and power, our own egotism, trusting that our
own desires will make us happy and keep us safe?
Returning
to Pope Benedict's audience:
Today
it is no longer possible to be Christian as a mere consequence of living in a
society that has Christian roots: even those who are born into a Christian
family and receive a religious education must every day renew their decision to
be Christian, that is, to give God first place in the face of the temptations
that a secularized culture constantly suggests…. It is far from easy to be faithful to
Christian marriage, to practice mercy in daily life, to make room for prayer
and inner silence. In this season of
Lent let us renew our commitment to make room for God, seeing daily reality
with his eyes. The alternative between
being closed into our own egotism and openness to the love of God and others,
we might say, corresponds to the alternative of the temptations of Jesus: an alternative, that is, between human power
and love of the cross…. Being converted
means not shutting ourselves into the quest for our own success, our own
prestige, our own status, but rather ensuring that every day, in the small
things, truth, faith in God, and love become the most important thing of all.[2]
In
the end, today’s responsorial psalm tells us, God promises that he’ll deliver
those who cling to him. He’ll be with us
in distress and glorify those who acknowledge his name (Ps 91:14-15)
[1] Wednesday
audience, Feb. 13, 2013, quoted in “The Temptations of Christ,” Magnificat,
March 2025, p. 133.
[2] Ibid., pp. 133-134.
No comments:
Post a Comment