FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT – YEAR C
Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini
A good Sunday to all.
Every year, at the beginning of Lent, the liturgy offers us a reflection on the temptations of Jesus for we, too, like him, have this experience. The danger we run is the risk of straying from the path, of making choices contrary to those indicated to us by the word of God. We all experience this inner conflict which Paul presents dramatically in the seventh chapter of his letter to the Romans, where he says, “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” And the cry of Paul: “Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?” And he answers, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.”
It is of the gift that Christ has given us, of his own life, of his Spirit which is stronger than what Paul calls the law of sin or the flesh. In the letter to the Galatians, he says, “Live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh.” The flesh has desires contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit desires contrary to the flesh. The flesh is not the muscles, but this impulse comes from our biological nature. If someone wrongs me, my nature, which is the flesh, tells me, 'Return the wrong he has done to you.'
The Spirit gives contrary suggestions to the flesh. If the flesh says to me, 'Retain for yourself the good things of this world,' the Spirit will tell me, 'Share these goods because you must give life to your brothers and sisters.' Here is this inner conflict between the Spirit and the flesh. The question we now put to ourselves: Did Jesus also experience this inner conflict or not? And the answer is very consoling for us because it makes us feel that Jesus is very close to us.
We find it formulated in the letter to the Hebrews, where it is said that “Jesus had to become like his brothers in every way. Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” There is another beautiful statement: 'He understands our weaknesses and is not ashamed to call us brothers' because he knows how difficult it is to be always faithful to the voice of the Spirit.
The first of the evangelists, Mark, also presents this truth which is very consoling for us, that Jesus is our brother and has experienced the same fatigue of always saying 'yes' to his divine identity, to the Spirit, and says that immediately after his baptism, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where he remained in the desert tempted by Satan. What did the evangelist mean?
These are biblical images used by the evangelist Mark. The number 40 in the Bible indicates a whole life; therefore, during his entire life, Satan tempted Jesus. In the following years, and therefore after Mark wrote his Gospel, these two verses the evangelists expanded on the temptations of Jesus to help us better understand what happened in the life of Jesus.
Luke and Matthew summarized this experience of temptation that accompanied Jesus' whole life is in three scenes, which are three parables. We remember that while Jesus was praying during his baptism, Luke the evangelist says that a voice was heard saying, "You are my Son, the Beloved." Son is the one who resembles the father; the Father recognizes himself in Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, during the temptations, Jesus shows us how the Son of God behaves, that is, like him, who always allows himself to be moved by his identity as the Son of God, who reproduces the face of the heavenly Father. We will notice that the evil one tempts Jesus by deforming the image of God: 'You are the son of God,' yes, but of which God? The evil one will suggest to him the god of this world, and Jesus will have to look like the god that the world considers as such. And Jesus will answer all the proposals that the evil one makes to him.
The evil one, naturally, the devil, as he is called, is 'diabalein,' the one who tries to separate and divide. Let us now listen to the first suggestion that the evil one gives to Jesus, and we shall hear his answer:
“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry. The devil told him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness; the wilderness is a biblical image; it recalls the exodus; the people of Israel spent forty years during the exodus in the desert, a whole generation. Here the desert indicates the way Jesus was made in this world, and 40 indicates his life. And, like us, in this world, Jesus experienced the necessities of biological life, he hungered for bread, for water, for shelter, for clothing; he hungered for social relationships, hungered for knowledge, hungered for good health. This is a hunger that a person must satisfy, and God has made available to his sons and daughters what they need. And with his abilities, man procures, with his labor, the answer to this hunger.
The temptation arises in this relationship with material goods and earthly food. In his interior, man experiences an impulse that, in the parable, is presented as the voice of the devil; what does it tell you? He invites you to concentrate on these material realities and to think only of them, and to consider them as the absolute, 'commit yourself to them and nothing else.' Food, house, health, profession, success, being well... 'that's what counts—the evil one tells you—forget the rest.'
The phrase of the devil addressed to Jesus, "Command this stone to become bread” means 'be interested in the material needs of people, devote all your time to building up this world in which all are well, and that is enough; place your abilities at the service of the material needs of the people, and this done, your mission is accomplished; teach your disciples to engage in these material things, and that's enough. And you will realize that if you build this world, everyone will love you because people want this and nothing else.' This is the reasoning of the evil one.
We experience the same proposition today and we will have to give the same answer that the Son of God gave to the true God, not the Son of the god of this world. What is the mentality that circulates in our world? The one that tells you that you are a god, but to be considered a god by everybody, you must produce material goods. If you produce them, you are a god; if you don't produce them, you are nobody; so, think about this and leave the rest; show yourself as a son of what the world considers god. And this voice is so strong that it appears in disguise, even in those who consider themselves believers.
Without realizing it, even the believer can give biological life absolute value as if it were the only life. Sometimes we hear, even in the mouths of Christians, certain expressions that are not beautiful; they do not reveal that they are believers in Jesus of Nazareth. For example, when they say that the important thing is health. Health is important but it is not the most important thing; when we hear people say, 'Let's try to be well here, then we'll see if there's something on the other side... Religion is good if it's good to feel good here. Religion at the service of this life.' How many times do we hear people say, 'I prayed, I'm not cured, so what is faith for? What is a prayer for? Always at the service of biological life, the only one that matters, as if it were the only life. As we all need these material things to live, the temptation is to live for things and consider them our god.
Jesus' response to this evil voice that he also experienced as we experience it, "One does not live by bread alone." Jesus does not deny that we must work for the bread that feeds this perishing life. Biological life, however, only lasts a certain number of years. Bread is important; indeed, in the Bible, the verb "to eat" ('ahal') is one of the most used verbs as it occurs 910 times in the Old Testament, and this shows how much it matters to God that man should lack nothing, but man does not live by material bread alone; they need food to nourish the life of the son and daughter of God in them, not the life that perishes, which is important; but the life that does not perish, the life that the heavenly Father has given us and must manifest, must grow and develop in us.
We have a biological father who has given us the life that perishes, but we have a Father who has given us his own life, and it must be nourished with the word, with the wisdom of God that comes from heaven. If one does not look up to discover the ultimate meaning of his existence, one will always remain centered on the realities of this world; one does not become a god, does not become a superman or superwoman, but go back to the primate world from which our biological life derives.
Lent is a precious time to reflect on how we relate to the goods of this world, as believers or as pagans who only believe in material life. Let us then ask ourselves if certain expenses are compatible with the choice of the Gospel, certain investments, certain fabulous sums left as an inheritance to our children, pleasure trips, bank accounts... Let's be careful because it is difficult to be content with the daily bread... so that all may have what is necessary to live, and the temptation to accumulate is strong.
After having made this wrong proposal with the goods of this world, let us now listen to what the evil one suggests to Jesus:
“Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, ‘I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’”
We have seen what the evil one suggests about the way we relate to the goods of this world; he tells us to keep them for ourselves, not share them but accumulate them. And we have also heard the answer that Jesus gave to this impulse, which is that of the flesh, as Paul calls it, and taught us to give the just value to the goods of this world, but we do not only relate to the material realities that are below us, we also relate to those who are next to us, to our fellow men and women, and here also, the devil gives a wrong suggestion, opposite to what the voice of the Spirit suggests.
Even Jesus experienced this conflict between the Spirit and the flesh, and Luke presents this conflict in a second parable, he says that the devil took Jesus on high and made him see all the kingdoms of this world. I have put in the background the forum of Augustus. What did the evil one say to him? 'See how many kingdoms... I will give you all of them for they are all in my hands, I run the world. The logic which I present to people is the one they accept.' It is not difficult to imagine the reasoning that the Evil One made to Jesus because it is exactly what the evil one suggests to us. What does the evil one tells us?
Exactly what he said to Jesus: 'In your relationship with others, try to emerge, stand out, dominate to subdue others, and make yourself be served.' And he said to Jesus: 'You, to obtain the goal of building your kingdom; you must listen to me. You have the abilities, you are intelligent; you can move the masses, you can become a star, and the whole world will bow at your feet, and you will leave a sign of your passing in this world; history books will talk about you, will call you great, think how many cities will bear your name. Caesar has given the name 'Caesarea,' and there are 30 of them, then Alexandria, in Antioch, you will have imperishable glory and live in luxury.'
He certainly showed him the famous Villa Jovis, one of the twelve villas that Tiberius had built in Capri, and he went to live in this Villa Jovis, which is 300 meters above sea level, just in front of the Bay of Naples. It is precisely the year in which Jesus begins his public life. Tiberius left Rome and went to live in this villa. The devil said to Jesus, 'You can have all these kingdoms, but on one condition: you must listen to me, you must adore me.' What does it mean? 'You have to obey my criteria, my orders... you see, I teach you how things go in the world because the world is in my hands, and people listen to me and follow my suggestions. Don't you see that people compete with each other? It's in chapter 4 of the Qohelet... Jesus, if you read the Qohelet, you will see that everything that people do is to compete with each other. Listen to me; enter into this competition; you will dominate, win, and establish your kingdom.'
That is the deceptive proposal he made to Jesus, and that is what he does to us. All the kingdoms of the rulers of this world start from a pact with the devil. Whoever exercises dominion over his neighbor, wherever there is a struggle to prevail over others, wherever anyone is compelled to bow down to a neighbor, there the evil one is worshipped, there, an agreement has been made with the devil. What was Jesus' response to this eagerness to prevail, to dominate and, therefore, to relate to others in an attitude of superiority? The choice is between dominating and serving, between competing and being supportive, between dominating others or being of service of others.
Jesus answered: “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’” What does it mean to worship God? We have seen what it means to honor the evil one: listening to and following his suggestions. To worship God means listening to and adhering to his proposal; what does God's word suggest to you? The Spirit suggests the opposite of what the evil one, the flesh, suggests.
God says: 'You are right in wanting to be great, and now I am going to show you how; if you want to be great and dominate others, it is false greatness; it is a disease, it is dropsy. If you want to be truly great, put yourself at the service of your fellow men. You are great not when you occupy the first places, when you climb to the top so that everyone can see you and applaud you; you are great when you go down to the bottom and choose the last place; you are great not when you resort to violence to subjugate others, but when you work for peace.
Jesus began this new world by becoming a servant, as it says in the famous text of the letter to the Philippians, chapter two: “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” So far, we have seen the danger of relating incorrectly to the goods of this world, and then the danger of wrongly relating to our fellow men next to us.
There can also be a wrong relationship with the one above us, with God, and then there is the third parable that Luke tells us; let's listen to it:
“Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, Throw yourself down from here, for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and: ‘With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”
When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.” The third temptation is placed on the pinnacle of the temple, where it was at that time. In the background, I have placed a reconstruction of the royal entrance, a spectacular construction that occupied the entire southside of the temple esplanade. Four rows supported this building of 185 meters and two floors of 40 columns each, ten meters high, plus a Corinthian capital of one meter eighty. Just at the eastern corner of this entrance was the pinnacle of the temple. From the top of this pinnacle, looking towards the Kidron torrent, there was a drop of about 60 meters at that time. Today the bed of the Kedron torrent has risen about twenty meters, but it is still impressive to see this difference in level.
What was this temptation? From the top of the pinnacle of the temple, it was possible to contemplate the whole esplanade; one could see the religious practice of the people of Israel, the Jewish religion at the time of Jesus. The people would offer sacrifices to God, burnt offerings with lambs. It was how, through mediation of the priests, one could obtain the favors of the Lord since one did not receive anything for free; one had to merit his favors. You could go to implore the graces, make promises, fast, and above all, lead a life according to the commandments. If you obeyed God, then God was also ready to grant you wonders and miracles; if, on the contrary, you angered him by transgressing his commands, then he punished you.
There is the temptation to accept that image of God worshipped in the temple. The evil one said to Jesus, 'adapt yourself to this religion because people like this God very much because if you invoke him, if you give him something, he will grant you his favors.' This is the God with whom one established a business relationship: If you gave him something he liked, you received his deserved gifts.
That's how he formulates himself in the temptation: 'Since you are a child of God, a good person, you are pleasing to him and, therefore, he loves you, you can throw yourself down here from the pinnacle because, with good people like you, God works miracles and sends his angels to save you.' Temptation is also born of a contorted interpretation of the word of God. Psalm 91 says 'God will give orders to his angels to watch over you so that his foot does not stumble over the stone,' if, on the contrary, you were a wicked person, God would let him fall; he would destroy him. In a moment, we will see that Jesus rejects this image of God because it is diabolical, it deforms the identity of God, who is unconditional love, who only does good to every human being, whether good or bad, because every person is his child.
There is no trade with him; there is nothing to give him, only to receive freely. If you behave well, you adhere to Him, if you follow His instructions, you behave well; you live as a person. There is no merit in this. We must only thank him for the light he has given us, but he freely gives out his favors. The God who charges you for doing something that pleases him and then rewards you, this god is an idol; this image of god is diabolical. Here is the temptation.
And in this temptation—let's say it clearly—many Christians who believe in God are involved, they know that they are his children, also convinced that they are well-behaved, and it is true, and therefore they think that God has to protect them more than others, He must protect them with favors and wonders from all evil when they invoke him. And when they, too, are struck by misfortunes, diseases, and catastrophes, as it happens to them and to all other people, believers or not, it seems to take them by surprise; they feel betrayed, abandoned by their God.
So, what do they say? 'What is the use of faith? What is the use of behaving well when the Lord treats us like the others, like those who misbehave?' Then they say: 'If there were a God, he would intervene with a miracle, why doesn't he do it?' He simply does not do it because that god does not exist; that is why he does not intervene; he is an idol invented by the evil one. And Jesus is going to overthrow the whole religious institution of Judaism that worshipped that image of God. It's the temptation that Israel had in the wilderness; what did they cry out when there was no water? 'Is the Lord in the midst of us yes, or no?' In chapter 17 of the book of Exodus, the people asked him for proof of his love, doubted God's love; they saw no miracles and did not believe God loved them.
But then, is it true that Psalm 91 says God sends his angels? Of course, it is true. Angels in the Bible have nothing to do with Hermes, with Mercury with wings on their back. Angel in the Bible is anyone who becomes a mediator of God's love, of his care for the poor, of his tenderness for those who have gone wrong in life. Angel is the mediator of the goodness of God. Therefore, let us try to recognize these angels that God puts at our side, and let us also try to be angels who help their brothers and sisters and thus present this tenderness of God in the world. How does Jesus respond to this temptation to worship that God that was worshipped there in the temple? He answers, "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'”
The one who loves trusts the loved one and needs no proof; when proofs of love are asked for, it means that there is doubt. Jesus forever cancels the business relationship with God because it offends God. Even Jesus went through this test; he certainly wondered ‘why the Father does not intervene to prove that I am right in all these disputes,’ and then, especially at the end of his life, when he will be condemned and executed: ‘Why doesn't God intervene? Why doesn't He take the side of the righteous? Why doesn't he let events take their course as if they didn't exist? Why should the wicked triumph over the righteous? Why does he not intervene to unmask the falsehood of Annas and Caiaphas?’ These are the questions that were going through Jesus' mind; dramatic questions that also accompany the people of all times, and they are these: Why do the wicked prosper? Why is life often unjust and cruel to the weak, and God lets it pass?
These are the questions. This is the temptation to doubt God's love. Jesus said, 'do not put the love of the Lord to the test; either you trust in him, or you do not.' Even in the most dramatic moments of his life, Jesus refused to ask his Father for proof of his love; he never doubted his Father's faithfulness. The conclusion:
“When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.”
This conclusion is enigmatic. In the first place, it speaks of having exhausted all kinds of temptations, and the three parables summarize everything that happened in the life of Jesus. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are tempted, to relate incorrectly with the material realities that we have below us, to relate in a wrong way with those we have next to us, our fellow men, and in a wrong relationship with God. And he always overcame this temptation.
He says that the evil one will return at the appointed time. If we read the Gospel according to Luke satan does not appear anymore; he only appears in chapter 22, in the end, when it says that satan entered into Judas who went to agree with the high priests to deliver Jesus to them.
It is the beginning that takes us to the most dramatic moment of the temptation of Jesus when he was tempted to doubt the love of the Father. And this temptation is found on his lips and is referred to by the evangelists Matthew and Mark when they tell us that Jesus said: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That was the temptation that he had, and the evangelist Luke tells how he responded to this temptation: "Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit."
Here is how Jesus presents us with the victory over this doubt that God loves us unconditionally. Jesus always trusted the Father's love; he did not need proof.
I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.
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