OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE: TEMPTATIONS

(Lk. 4:13, Mt. 4:1-11)

Jom Baring, CSsR

What are your experiences of temptations?

Sometimes, students are tempted to watch their favorites tv series or play

“mobile legends” rather than to study. As a result, a temptation to cheat during
exams can be possible. Workers or employees are sometimes tempted to steal from
their company or employer perhaps because of a need at home.
Sometimes we are also tempted to be complacent, to stay in our “protected
shells” or settle to what is only easy and comfortable because we do not want to be
disturbed, we do not want to take an extra mile or refuse to take the risk.
Sometimes we too are tempted to just go with the flow and to become passive in
our relationships because we do not want to face our issues and refuse to admit
what is wrong with us.
Husbands or wives are also tempted and sometimes succumbed to the
temptation to engage in extra-marital relationships perhaps because their
relationship with their partner has become cold and sour. Your (as) sons and
daughters also (you) may be tempted to escape from home and seek for what is fun
and entertaining for them because the home has become a source of boredom for
them. Or they (you) may also seek more attention outside the home or seek love
and acceptance from other people because the home has become a source of
despair, of condemnation and pain for them. Others are tempted and succumbed to
alcohol and drug abuse or worst to commit suicide to forget or end their personal
problems because they found no one who could listen and be with them.
There are still many kinds of temptations that we experience in life. The
Gospel reminds us that our life also entails temptations that we shall all face. The
Gospel tells us that even Jesus was led to the desert to be tempted for forty days.
Before we will go deeper into the Gospel, let us have a bit of understanding
first of the meaning of temptation, to make ourselves aware of it.
To tempt or Temptation, in the biblical understanding, simply means a
“test” – that is of making trials of a person or putting a person to a test. Temptation
is also the urge or desire to engage into something that may have a long-term
consequence. Thus, it is also inclined to committing sin.
In a temptation, there are two characters that are behind it. We may identify
them, God and Satan, the deceiver. Now, we may also ask, why would God bring
us to the test? The common understanding in the bible is that, God tests His people
to put them in situations that would reveal the quality and sincerity of their heart,
of their faith and devotion to God. God allows such suffering to be his way of
purifying the people. In trials, God strengthens their patience and hope, matures
their faith and assures them of his love. We may recall also on what happened to
Job as he endured suffering and later realized how he grew in his love and faith to
Yahweh. (explain about Job’s story)
Satan the deceiver is the second character in a trial. Though God allows trial
and suffering but it is Satan who brings forth the suffering and pain. Satan’s
intention is actually to bring us into hopelessness so that we may give up on God.
Hence, Satan will try to crush a person by putting so much pain and suffering.
Satan deceives us to choose what is easy and what is naturally appealing to us, that
is to make short cuts, to make more reasons for giving up. Satan will also push us
to become complacent, indifferent, careless and arrogant in a way that we will
claim that we do not need God, that we can do it by ourselves and keep it. And
because Satan is a deceiver he brings us “fake news” about God. Satan will try to
discredit God’s love and mercy when we are in so much pain and confusion.

Video on the Temptation of Jesus

Characters to remember
Jesus; Spirit of God; and Satan/Evil Spirit

After the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit led him into the desert for forty days
and forty nights. The days were so hot, humid and the sun was scorching. The
nights were so cold also that even your bones could feel it.
Jesus was alone in the desert but was filled with the Spirit of God. He ate
nothing but perhaps only drank water from the oasis he could find in the desert to
quench his thirst. He prayed and commune with his Father in heaven and listened
to Him carefully that he may fully understand his mission in the world. Day and
night, Jesus prayed. There were days and nights that He argued with his Father and
even cried at the revelation of God only known to him. At the end of days and
nights of fasting and prayer, the devil came to tempt Jesus. He was tempted by the
devil for three times in different situations but each time, Jesus resisted and
listened to the will of the Father.

THE FIRST TEMPTATION of the devil was to turn the stone into bread.
Jesus by that time was so hungry. He did not eat anything for the past many days.
He became thin and weak and on the brink of collapsing. His stomach was as
empty as the desert and he could not even afford to spit out his saliva because of so
much hunger. He was so weak then and so the devil used the present weakness of
Jesus to tempt him.
 That temptation to turn the stones into bread was the temptation to give in to
the basic human weakness and that is “human needs.” But the temptation there
also was to respond immediately for one’s “self-gratification or satisfaction.” From
the days and nights of fasting, the Lord understood well that his mission is not to
satisfy himself but to do the will of God.” Thus, Jesus chose to be hungry so that
He too will experience how to be hungry and so will be able to fill the stomach of
those who hunger not just for food but for love, for affection and for God.

THE SECOND TEMPTATION of the tempter was to test the goodness and
faithfulness of the Father to Jesus. Jesus was alone in the desert. Did Jesus also feel
being alone and lonely and abandoned by God in the desert to suffer? Jesus would
have surely felt this abandonment as early as those days. (Remember that the
Israelites also felt abandonment and suffering while in the desert). And it was
because of this experience of Jesus that the devil tempted him to test God’s
faithfulness in him. The devil really knew that Jesus had become insecure of what
lies ahead. Being human, the future is always uncertain and unknown. But then,
Jesus did not give in to that temptation to make certain God’s love and faithfulness
by testing God to throw himself down from the parapet of the temple. He showed
to the devil that there is no need for testing God’s goodness to be certain of it. He
showed that true faith in God is embracing trust and hope amidst uncertainties and
doubts.
The result of this was Jesus’ decision to chose to feel pain and sorrow with
the people, to be vulnerable and weak, to feel the pain of losing one’s friend
(Lazarus), being betrayed by a disciple (Judas), to feel being denied by Peter, and
to experience the great pain of dying, suffering and abandonment on the cross
because of his faith in God’s love.

THE THIRD TEMPTATION was to worship the devil instead of the Lord
God in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world with their magnificence, power
and glory. Jesus knew at this time that he has nothing, no material possession, no
influence, not known by the people, thus, a poor man. And the devil knew this very
much and that’s why the devil offered Jesus the riches, power and dominance,
control and influence. All of these will be possessed by Jesus in an instant and
would not go through suffering and death anymore. However, Jesus told the devil,
“Get away, Satan! For it is only the Lord, your God shall you worship and him
alone shall you serve.” Jesus chose not to worship Satan, not to worship riches and
wealth, not power and dominance over others, not control and influence or
independence from God but slavery to the things that will only perish (temporary).
Hence, Jesus chose to be poor, to be powerless, to be vulnerable like the poor, the
sick, the dying and the oppressed.
 All those things that the devil offered were not necessarily bad or evil.

TO SATISFY ONESELF, TO BE CERTAIN OF OUR LIFE, RICHES

AND MATERIAL POSSESSIONS are good in themselves.

These good things will be used by the devil just to allure us and keep us
preoccupied, making us anxious, doubtful, fearful and insecure, thus, keeping us
away from the grace of peace that God gives us. That is why, when something
preoccupies us and makes us anxious other than serving God, then, it comes from
the evil spirit. That something could be your own hunger for attention, for love and
affection, and intimacy, which is always directed for self-gratification/satisfaction.
It happens when we immediately choose what is only comfortable for us - what is
only safety and beneficial for me without considering others or even at the expense
of others. This will not lead us to God but to ourselves alone.
That something too can also be our anxiety to be certain at everything about
life. This anxiety can be very strong because when it occupies our mind and heart
then we begin to lose our peace of mind and become doubtful of God’s goodness,
unbelieving to God’s grace. We will lose our self-confidence because we become
fearful in making mistakes and taking risks. Because of this, we will miss the
excitements of life, the surprises of God for us. The temptation then lies in our
tendency to be masters of our own lives, to be independent from God. This will not
surely bring us closer to God but in fact, we choose to be isolated from the Grace
of God.
That something too can spring up from our desires to be self-sufficient, the
desire to exercise power and dominance over the others, to become influential,
famous and successful. However, when our possessions, our gadgets, our work,
our fame and name, our career and ambition, our successes and awards
preoccupies our heart and mind, then, the evil spirit is truly working and
controlling our life. It is indeed a very good feeling to be served, to be self-
sufficient, to have anything you need and want in an instant or in a click of a
finger, to be praised, to be given a special seat, to have a name, to be famous of
what you did and of what you are doing. It is really a good feeling to be able to
exercise influence, dominance and power over the inferior ones. But, then, all of
these when they only serve the ego (self) and feeds oneself, then, the self begins to
be corrupt and will worship oneself or worship one’s gifts, success and influence,
fame and power. We will tend to worship ourselves rather than God, the Giver of
everything and the source of all riches. And this is idolatry!
When the self becomes corrupt, the self becomes insecure and anxious of
losing everything, hence, its tendency is to keep everything for the self alone but
also to accumulate more, to gather more even at the expense of others, even if it
means oppressing others especially the weak and vulnerable. Thus, certainly all of
these will not lead us to God but in isolation/separation from the grace and love of
God.

HOW DO WE KNOW THE EVIL SPIRIT AND THE GOOD SPIRIT?

GOD’S VOICE FROM THE TEMPTER?

- The spirit of God gives us peace, confidence and serenity. The evil spirit
makes us doubtful, fearful, anxious and having a low self-esteem.
- The spirit of God encourages us, lifts our spirit but the evil spirit makes us
down, depressed and discourages and upsets us.
- The spirit of God brings us comfort and joy, humor and laughter but the evil
spirit makes us angry and irritable.
- The spirit of God makes us appreciate things and others, makes us grateful
to God. But the evil spirit makes us unsatisfied, ungrateful, complaining, makes us
see only the defects/negatives in everything and everyone including yourself.
- The spirit of God makes you feel loved, accepted and forgiven. But the evil
one makes you feel bad, terrible, horrible, disgustful, unloved and accuses us of
our wrongdoings making us guilty always (because the evil’s name is Accuser).

The Gospel tells us that Jesus was actually led by the Spirit of God into the desert
to be tempted. This was to make Jesus ready for his public ministry by becoming
more confident in the will of his Father. Jesus was victorious over the temptations
because he chose life and hope not death and chose God rather than wealth and
power that the devil offered to him.
This is the message for us– that is, to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into
our own deserts, to face our own struggles, difficulties and problems alongside
with the suffering of our Lord. We are called not to escape from our own
difficulties and challenges in life but to face them with courage and faith.
God assures us today that he will be with us. God made a covenant with us,
telling us that He will protect us, He will be with us and will never destroy us but
rather to bring healing, life and renewal in us – as God raised Jesus from the dead.
Since, it was the Spirit of God who drove Jesus to the desert, it means that the
same Spirit of God too who will be with us in this journey of ours.
We may allow then the Spirit of God to led us into our own deserts and
hopefully, we may discover and reaffirm God’s tremendous love and forgiveness
for us especially during this Holy Week. Hinaut pa.