FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT - WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE TEMPTED?

FIRST READING: DEUTERONOMY 26:4-10, SECOND READING ROMANS 10:8-13, GOSPEL LK 4:1-13
"IT IS ONE THING TO BE TEMPTED, ANOTHER THING TO FALL" – Shakespeare
At baptism of Jesus, the Father declared him his beloved son, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him and filled him. This was a very glorious day.
What is surprising is that the same spirit who had filled Christ with glory, immediately afterwards leads him through the wilderness to be tempted. This is a consoling consideration for us. It’s impossible to escape the assault of temptation in this life. Their sources are varied. One thing is sure they are not meant to make us fall. They are examinations. The questions are not phrased with the intention of making the students fail. What the examiner wants is to test the candidate’s knowledge and ability to communicate it. Temptations are sent to test the strength of our mind, heart and soul.
And we should not be surprised that with the years temptations become stronger. This is parallel to what happens in other aspects of life. A student at the secondary level is not given questions of of Advanced level student. I need not to mention the university examinations! The hours you spend in the examination room are a real martyrdom. So is with games: a good team does not challenge weak ones. If it does then it fails to prove its worth. This is the purpose of God to allowing temptations to assail us that may prove our manhood and emerge the stronger for the fight.
And Satan tempted Jesus! Satan, a word which comes back time and again in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. It’s used even of human beings sometimes. The meaning that runs through this is thus that Satan means "adversary". To him is attributed all the evil that befall man, physical and moral. Holy Scripture in fact is St. Peter compares him to "a roaring lion, prowling round, looking for someone to devour" and warns us to be calm but vigilant. To be on the look out.
Sometimes i always wonder why we should be vigilant while Satan always comes to us in visible form. As long as we do not see him easily forget that he exists, and that he is our adversary and even among our fellow human beings we have adversaries. Adversary always presents to us a choice. In whatever situation we have to make a choice or we have to decide. In our life as far as we are living on this planet earth there comes a moment to decide.
Our lord was presented three situations and he had to decide which the truth is and the falsehood, for the good or evil side. Our mind is always obscured during moments of temptation. Jesus had a clear vision of what is good and he could not mistake it. Lack of vision always makes us hesitate or worse still make a wrong decision. This is why we should never cease to pray for the grace which enlightens the mind to see the truth, to see the good in the moment of temptation.
Jesus did not suffer moral weakness. Once he saw the good he could not hesitate to do the good while for us we are born with that moral weakness and it’s made greater with each fall. Think of a drunkard with each act he sinks lower. Our weakness becomes greater with each bad example we give.
The time of lent is sacred. We are invited by mother church to offer special prayers for ourselves, to mortify our flesh in enjoyments of life which are legitimate, so that we may gradually gain the necessary moral strength to deny ourselves in what is wrong and sinful.
Let us in this Sunday mass of the first Sunday of this holy season resolve to take full advantage of the graces of the time in spirit of the Church in union with our Lord Jesus Christ.
"To pray against temptations, and yet to rush into occasions, is to thrust your fingers into the fire, and then pray they might not be burnt" - Secker