Resist Temptations Like Jesus

First Sunday of Lent

21 February 2021 

 

First Reading:  GN 9:8-15

Responsorial Psalm:  PS 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Second Reading:  1 PT 3:18-22

Gospel:  MK 1:12-15

 

Reflection

By: Jose Paulo M. Gonzales

 

Clear today in the Gospel is how, though God and Human, Jesus was tempted no less than by the enemy. As Matthew 4:1-11 recounts elaborately, the scene first takes place in a desert—a barren land. Jesus was hungry after fasting for forty days and nights, so the enemy thought that it was perfect recipe for disaster. He showed himself to the Lord and said: "If You are the Son of Man, command that these stones turn into loaves of bread."  But Jesus unperturbed, responded: "It is written: one does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." And so passed the first temptation.

 

The story was much the same for the second and the third temptations. In the second, on top of a synagogue, the devil goaded Jesus to throw Himself down, for the angels of the Father would surely come to His protection "lest He dash His foot against a stone." Jesus said back: "Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."

 

In the third temptation, the devil took his brazenness to the brim. Looking down a mountaintop, gazing at the magnificent properties sprawled across the land, he told Jesus to swear allegiance to him instead of the Father. Jesus, with character confidence, retorted: "Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship, and Him alone shall you serve."  The devil left Jesus, convinced finally that our Lord cannot be moved the other way.

 

Such is the obstinacy of sin: it is not content with us, humans. It insists on spreading its teasing—its temptations—even in the face of our Lord in His humanity; but the marvel is how unlike us, Jesus did not waver.

 

Daily tussles with life would prod us over and over to succumb. Struggles of varying degrees would compel us to relinquish integrity: to sin as if deplorably, so inevitably, to live. So is the dark side of human nature: in its limitlessness, it looks to circumventing rules in its exhaustion of ways to subsist—to barely live, more so with uprightness.

 

This is no condonement to sin when one gives in to temptation, but it is not like we have a God who does not understand. He took on human form here on earth. He occupied the same flesh as we did, and was subject to the same fleshly limitations. He knows what we are—who we are, and how far down we can fall in desolation. But though subjected to temptation just the same, unlike us, Jesus did not sin. We can only hope to be like Jesus through the persistent struggle to be good, but in that endeavor, we are not fallible. So let us take to Jesus to help us in our ordeal and to forgive in times of need, "for we do not have a High Priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way just as we are—yet He did not sin."  (Hebrews 4:15)

 

As if the temptation stopped with the third, the Gospel today provides us with an apparent fourth that also could have urged Jesus to surrender. John was apprehended by the officials, and this could have been cause enough scare to flee and desist from spreading the Gospel; but similar to the first, second, and third temptations, Jesus was unswerving to the devil's machinations. He continued His evangelization of the Gospel. "This  is the time of  fulfillment," Jesus said. "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel." (Mark 1:15)

Prayer

 

Jesus, amid temptation, please help us to become like You, unbending as much as possible. In the times when we fall, please extend us Your forgiveness and restoration. Please help us to turn down sin and its temptations. Please help us spread Your word, our ultimate Mission. In Your Most Holy Name, o Jesus, Amen.