Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A

In a novel I read some time ago, set during the Second World War, one of the

characters, a communist, is about to be executed. He has failed his communist masters

and is about to pay the price. But as an atheist, he doesn’t mind. His life has been very

difficult in all sorts of ways, and probably has pangs of conscience, or he should do,

about some of the things in his past. He thinks that, at death, all will come to an end,

just like switching off a lightbulb. How wrong he will be when he has to face God’s

judgement.

In the first reading, we see that we are not just very clever machines: “The Lord God

formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” We are both spiritual and material, and we

have to look after both. But Adam and Eve don’t do that. They allow themselves to be

duped by the serpent, and to allow selfish interest and the desire to have things their

way take the place of following God’s plan for their lives. The rest is history, and we

still face some of the consequences of their action.

In the Gospel, Christ Himself is subjected to temptation. If this passage hadn’t been

included in the Gospels, we might have thought that Christ did not receive temptations:

He would have rejected them anyway, so why would He have been tempted? But we

know for a fact that He did. He is fully God, and also fully man. He experienced the

human condition. Did Satan fully realise who Christ was at this point? We can only

speculate. The three temptations Christ undergoes represent the three sources from

which we can be tempted: the flesh, the world and the devil. Unlike Adam and Eve in

the first reading, Christ is not duped. Whilst Adam and Eve bring disaster and sin into

the world, Christ brings redemption, not just on the Cross, but the whole of His life is

redemptive. Let’s delve a little deeper.

Firstly, temptation itself. According to Catholic teaching, there are three levels of

temptation. The first is the external level, where we receive a suggestion. At this point

there is no sin. This is the level of Christ’s temptations.

The next level is where we begin to take a certain delight in the temptation. Clearly

with Christ, things did not go to this level, but with Eve it says that she first “saw that

the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to

be desired to make one wise”. At this point the temptation has become internal and

there is some sin in it, but we have not given clear consent.

The third level is where we do actually consent. After Eve’s taking delight in the fruit,

it says “she took of its fruit and ate” and then she involves her husband too, “And she

also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate”. Then come the

consequences: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were

naked”. There is now no going back.

When Christ takes on the evil one, first He prepares by prayer and fasting. It’s a form

of spiritual training, and it shows us that we too need to ask God’s help – in fact the end

of the Our Father prays specifically that we be kept away from temptation and be given

strength when we do have to face it.

The first temptation is about selfishly satisfying the desires of the body, getting Christ

to misuse His powers for His own personal end, rather than as part of His mission of

salvation. Normally, when Christ performs a miracle, it is to reinforce His message and

draw people to gratitude and faith. A lesson for us can be to look at our prayer life and

ask: do we pray to have something to make life more convenient, or are we praying to

help ourselves and others grow in holiness?

In the second temptation, we see how Scripture can be quoted out of context. If an

interpretation doesn’t fit with the wider teaching of the Church, then there must be

something wrong. We are taught not to put God to the test, but the devil here says that

you can, because Scripture says that the angels will catch you: “On their hands they

will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone”. God is so loving and

caring. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for everyone to see how true that is by throwing

yourself down and letting everyone see the angels catch you? We can go off at wrong

tangents if we interpret phrases in isolation. Given that we aren’t supposed to put God

to the test, clearly what the devil is saying is suspect. Heresies often involve taking one

good aspect and exaggerating it, to the exclusion of other parts. God is loving, but we

are not to deliberately do stupid things and expect Him to come along and pick up the

pieces. We also have to avoid the opposite extreme: rather than an extreme trust in

God, extreme distrust of God, demanding Him to work signs and miracles to prove

Himself before we decide to believe.

The third temptation: Our Lord is told to distort His ministry to reduce it to being lord

of this world, rather than King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and even worse, to worship

satan in order to get this status. The devil continues to use this temptation today, trying

to make himself appear more compassionate than God – God won’t do this for you, but

I will. And we can look at the whole Epstein saga and the claims that privileged men

think they can do what they like and not face any consequences. If you want riches,

power and women, nasty Church won’t help you, but here’s someone who can. In some

ways, it’s a bit like Disney’s The Mermaid, where the main character wants to cease

being a mermaid and become a woman so she can marry the prince. Her father won’t

let her, so she goes to see Ursula instead. Ursula tells her: “It won’t cost much, just

your voice”. Do we risk throwing away our salvation for something of inferior value?

Temptation is something that we all have to face, and we can’t expect to always get it

right. But at least with Christ we have, not only a roadmap of where we should be

going, but also grace to help us, and an example of what living an upright life actually

looks like.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk