I SUNDAY OF LENT - Luke 4:1-13
The passages of the Scripture with which we initiate the Lent Season are full of drama, the drama of human life, which is pervaded by the presence of God’s love. This is in fact one of the greatnesses of the Bible. In it we can find all kinds of human situations. The Bible presents God’s presence and his word embroidered on the fabric of human life, and so the Bible is like a mirror where we can see ourselves, while being challenged by someone who in his deep and eternal love and in his love he affirms us.
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In the Gospel, we will read the temptations of Jesus at the end of his stay in the desert, taken from Luke 4:1-13. When we read them attentively, we can discover that Jesus’ temptations were the temptations of the People of Israel, and are the temptations of the Church and of the world.
By magic or scientific means - whatever - nothing seems impossible, and we can satisfy our craving for bread. All means are good, provided we satisfy our desires and needs. For the world, Jesus refusal based on the conviction that we need God and his word to find meaning for our lives, is a non sense.
Surely, we need bread and much more than bread to have a life worth of living; however, when that stops us from paying attention to what deep inside us makes us truly human, and when we are ready to do everything that is possible to do, then we are sowing the seeds of self-destruction.
In order to be famous, people are ready to do the most strange things, so that their names and their pictures may appear everywhere.
And we can put everything at our service. Nothing is sacred. There are no barriers, no taboos, no restraints. There are only my own rights, and all the others must respect them.
The proposal presented to Jesus that he should throw himself from the top of the Temple sounds crazy, but in fact it as a proposal for Jesus to force God to come to his rescue, for no other reason than his quest for glory and fame. Instead of being at the service of God, God would be at his service. It would be an attempt to manipulate God and to impose the human will on God, as if the roles would be inverted.
And then there is the temptation of wealth and power, which is so common everywhere. To keep power at all costs and to get rich by all means is the source of many wars and of even more situations of oppression and exploitation.
The three temptations represent the wisdom of the world. They seem to present an easy way that in the end turns out to be a way for disaster.
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In the first reading (Dt 26:4-10), we are presented with a profession of faith - the Creed of the Old Testament, a creed to be recited and proclaimed time and again by every member of the people of God.
The Christian Creed that we recite every Sunday presents a set of truths stated with very cold and dry words. This Creed of the Old Testament presents only one basic truth - the truth of a relationship of love - the love of God for his people, a love that led him to take action in order to set them free. God listened to the cry of the slaves and brought them out of slavery to create a nation of free people.
The God of the Bible is a God who intervenes in history, who made himself present among us in Jesus Christ. His love is so great that he is not afraid of being touched and contaminated by the filth of our sins.
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Finally Paul tells us that in order to be saved we must proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ.
If your lips confess that Jesus is Lord and if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. - Ro 10:9.
As we start this time of Lent, let us come close to Jesus Christ and receive from him the strength to overcome the great temptations of our live.
Whenever we cry out from within our darkness, our impotence and our sinfulness, he will come to our rescue. Remember: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Ro 10:13).
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