First Reading –
Deuteronomy 26:4-10 ©
Responsorial Psalm –
Psalm 90(91):1-2,10-15 ©
Second Reading – Romans
10:8-13 ©
Gospel Acclamation –
Matthew 4:4
The Gospel of Luke 4:1-13
©
(NJB)
Whenever
you are reading the sacred text, remember this: God does not intervene in human affairs. God made human beings and the
whole of creation free. There is no coercion from the divine.
God did not give any land to the Israelites,
they took it for themselves, and God does not love war or condone bloodshed.
The way of God is the way of peace.
It is always good to give thanks for the good
things that come to you; just as it is wise, not to despair when bad things
befall you.
Do not pray for or count on God to intervene
in your affairs, to free you from danger, or to rescue you from peril.
Rescue yourself, and failing that, do not
despair, your perseverance must be through faith., for this life is not the
end. It is the beginning.
Be mindful of the teaching of the apostles,
they are often wrong.
Learn from this.
Reflect on what it means to be saved, to be
saved means: to be made well.
We are not saved by words and thoughts.
It is not right doctrine, right belief or a
magic-formula of mystic utterances that saves us, or brings us near to God.
Neither are we saved by good deeds or through our accomplishments.
We are saved because God loves us. God loves
us in the same way that God loves all creation. God’s love, which is utterly
dependable, God’s love is the agent of our salvation, the catalyst and the
cause.
Have no fear.
God, who created the universe; God will save
you no matter what you confess and no matter what you believe.
You were marked for salvation when you entered
into life.
Christian or not; salvation is yours, because Christian
or not, you are God’s child and God loves you.
Remember this!
We are not Gnostics. We do not believe that
our salvation is dependent on our possession of special knowledge. You do not
need to know of the Christ to be saved by the Christ.
God heals your wounds, because God loves you. It
is as simple as that.
Be mindful of this!
There is no devil, there is no Satan. The only
deceiver that you need to contend with is the voice of deception that speaks to
you in your own heart, and that voice is yours.
God, the creator of the universe, has given us
the ability to know the truth and to discern good from evil.
God has also given each of us the ability to
deny the truth, to reject it and lie.
The lies we tell always originate in our own
heart. We tell them first to ourselves, before we try to convince others. And when
we believe the lies that other people tell us, it is not them we believe but
the voice within ourselves that tells us what they are saying must be true.
The path to wellness is in cleaving to the
truth, in rejecting the sugar-high of the expedient lies, and in savoring the
hard truths that are made plain through the contemplation of the divine.
Come
to the Gospel with clarity of mind.
Know
that what you are reading is not the literal truth. The tale of Jesus’ temptation
in the desert is an allegory, wrapped in myth and rifled with metaphor.
Jesus
was not tempted by the devil. We know this because there is no devil.
God
did not create a universe at war with its creator.
God
is not a king, God does not have armies, there are no legions of the damned, there
are no hosts of fallen angels.
There
is only God, the creator, and the creation which God loves, we are together with
God, from end to end.
The
antagonist in this story is Jesus’ own self, it is the same antagonist we all
face when we struggle to know and do the right thing in the face of the
temptation to do what is wrong.
We
are our own enemy.
The
voice of temptation does not come from without. It comes from within.
In
the narrative, Jesus set out to fast. His first temptation was to break the
fast. He was tempted by hunger, not the devil.
Be
mindful of the power of hunger, hunger can bring a person to do terrible
things.
The
first temptation Jesus face was the temptation of hunger and he surpassed it.
The
second temptation Jesus faced was the temptation to transform the movement he
had begun into a political movement. This would have meant taking up arms
against the Romans, taking up arms against his own people, going to war with
the world.
Jesus
knew in his hear that this was not the way of heaven, he also knew that his
closest followers would have gladly taken up arms for him. This was the temptation
to possess worldly power, it was born from his own doubts and he rejected it.
It
is sad to note how in the centuries that followed, the Church that was founded
in jesus’ name would not.
The
third temptation that Jesus faced was of a more esoteric nature.
The
third temptation was the temptation to believe the things that people were
saying about him, to believe that he was a divine being, to believe that he had
special powers, to believe that the mission he was on was given to him by God,
and therefore it could not be stopped. It could not be stopped, even if Jesus
were to throw himself off of a high wall.
This
was the temptation of vanity, Jesus rejected it.
Throughout
the temptation narrative Jesus demonstrates self-control guided by wisdom, and
humility. He rejects vanity, he rejects political power, and he rejects the
power of hunger to dissuade him.
In
each case, the enemy within Jesus, the enemy was not an extrinsic force or a
supernatural being. The enemy was altogether ordinary, it was the voice of
hunger, the desire for power, and the appeal of vanity. These are temptations that
each of face everyday, each in our own way.
First Reading – Deuteronomy
26:4-10 ©
The Creed of the Chosen
People
Moses
said to the people: ‘The priest shall take the pannier from your hand and lay
it before the altar of the Lord your God. Then, in the sight of the Lord your
God, you must make this pronouncement:
‘“My
father was a wandering Aramaean. He went down into Egypt to find refuge there,
few in numbers; but there he became a nation, great, mighty, and strong. The
Egyptians ill-treated us, they gave us no peace and inflicted harsh slavery on
us. But we called on the Lord, the God of our fathers. The Lord heard our voice
and saw our misery, our toil and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of
Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs
and wonders. He brought us here and gave us this land, a land where milk and
honey flow. Here then I bring the first-fruits of the produce of the soil that
you, the Lord, have given me.”
‘You
must then lay them before the Lord your God, and bow down in the sight of the
Lord your God.’
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
90(91):1-2,10-15 ©
Be with me, O Lord, in my
distress.
He
who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
and abides in the shade of the Almighty
says
to the Lord: ‘My refuge,
my stronghold, my God in whom I trust!’
Be with me, O Lord, in my
distress.
Upon
you no evil shall fall,
no plague approach where you dwell.
For
you has he commanded his angels,
to keep you in all your ways.
Be with me, O Lord, in my
distress.
They
shall bear you upon their hands
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
On
the lion and the viper you will tread
and trample the young lion and the dragon.
Be with me, O Lord, in my
distress.
His
love he set on me, so I will rescue him;
protect him for he knows my name.
When
he calls I shall answer: ‘I am with you,’
I will save him in distress and give him
glory.
Be with me, O Lord, in my
distress.
Second Reading – Romans
10:8-13 ©
The Creed of the
Christian
Scripture
says: The word (that is the faith we proclaim) is very near to you, it is on
your lips and in your heart. 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. By believing from the heart you are made righteous; by confessing with
your lips you are saved. When scripture says: those who believe in him will
have no cause for shame, it makes no distinction between Jew and Greek: all
belong to the same Lord who is rich enough, however many ask his help, for
everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Gospel Acclamation – Matthew
4:4
Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Man
does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God.
Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
The Gospel According to
Luke 4:1-13 ©
The Temptation in the Wilderness
Filled
with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through
the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days. During that
time he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry. Then the devil said to him,
‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf.’ But Jesus
replied, ‘Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone.’
Then
leading him to a height, the devil showed him in a moment of time all the
kingdoms of the world and said to him, ‘I will give you all this power and the
glory of these kingdoms, for it has been committed to me and I give it to
anyone I choose. Worship me, then, and it shall all be yours.’ But Jesus
answered him, ‘Scripture says:
You
must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.’
Then
he led him to Jerusalem and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple. ‘If
you are the Son of God,’ he said to him ‘throw yourself down from here, for
scripture says:
He
will put his angels in charge of you to guard you, and again:
They
will hold you up on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone.’
But
Jesus answered him, ‘It has been said:
You
must not put the Lord your God to the test.’
Having
exhausted all these ways of tempting him, the devil left him, to return at the
appointed time.
The First Sunday of Lent
(Year C)
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