First Sunday of Lent 2023
How did St. Matthew come by the story he shared in today’s Gospel? It was easy to understand the first line, what happened when Jesus, who was fresh from His baptism by John, where the Holy Spirit came upon Him in form of a dove, went into the wilderness of Judea. Probably several of John’s disciples saw Jesus leave; later they became disciples of Jesus. So Matthew picked up the story from them. But how did he know what happed to Jesus when He was led by the Third Person of the Trinity into the desert? He had to hear it from the lips of Jesus Himself, or learn it from the Spirit after Pentecost. Probably from Jesus, then.
But why did Jesus share this story, which also comes to us through St. Mark and St. Luke? Was the Lord bragging about how He defeated the old Worm, man’s adversary, Satan? No. Unlike Adam and Eve, and every other human including all of us, Jesus was not a sinner; He came to take away our sins, and had to be the innocent victim on Calvary. Jesus was, instead, teaching us three important truths about our goal, and how He could help us reach that goal, union with God.
You and I are composite beings, body and soul. God wants to save the whole person–body and soul. But our human person is weakened by sin. First by the original sin we get because we are children of Adam and Eve, then by our own freely-chosen rebellions, our refusals to worship rightly and act justly. We are constantly running after lesser goods than God, mostly material pleasure like a really great sourdough loaf, or celebrity status with lots of groupies and magazine covers, or power over others like CEOs or leaders of nations.
Jesus reveals the inadequacies of all these as substitutes for union with God, and He uses the Bible, even against Satan’s throwing Bible verses at Him. “Man does not live on bread alone, but by every Word coming from the mouth of God.” Remember, Jesus was really, really hungry at that moment, and He could easily have used Divine power to feed Himself. But it was more critical to follow the will of the Father, and so He obeyed God’s will even to His own inconvenience. The Spirit enabled that to happen; He will give us the grace to resist the push and pull of our own physical desires when we ask.
Second, Jesus resists the celebrity temptation. Satan throws his first curve ball, a direct quote from psalm 90, which we heard as our responsorial today. “God will command His angels and with their hands they will support you lest you even hurt your foot on a rock.” The temple was really big. If Jesus had made His debut there by some kind of miraculous flight, He would have attracted thousands. But for the wrong reason. Jesus came not to be the superman Messiah that was expected. He would save Israel, but not by conquering the Romans with a corps of angels. No, He would use the cross to defeat Satan once and for all. He would not put His Father to the test. He would do the Father’s will.
And lastly, Jesus turns down the bargain that every so-called “great” worldly power had made with the devil: power over other people. All He had to do was to fall down before Satan and give Him the worship due only to the Father. When Satan offered that power to Caesar, and Napoleon, Bismarck, Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, they took the deal. But not the Son of God. And the devil left Him and then, then only, did angels come and minister to Him. Because He had recommitted Himself to do the Father’s will, He had triumphed over evil and the Evil One, and He deserved as King of Kings to receive their service and our worship.
This Lenten season we have a challenge and a gift. The challenge is to face our own demons and through prayer, fasting and almsgiving–all three–to recommit ourselves to obey the Word of God. We’ll be doing something great there, giving good example to our candidates and catechumens who are preparing for initiation through the Easter sacraments. And we will allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into our own wilderness to be challenged and nourished by the only good that we really, really need, Jesus, the Bread of Life.
