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Luke 4:1-13
Today's Gospel recalls the story of Jesus' temptation by the Devil. If you are unfamiliar with the story, it goes a little something like this. . .
Jesus spends 40 days in the desert to offer penance and prayer to His Father. (This act alone should be enough to affirm the efficacy of prayer and penance-- but, I will leave this to another post.) At the end of these 40 days, Jesus was hungry, weak and tired. No doubt about that. This is when the Devil struck.
The Devil tempts Jesus three times. First, the Devil goats Jesus to turn stone to bread. Second, the Devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the Earth. Third, he dares Jesus to jump from the parapet of the temple to tempt God to save Him.
You see-- the Devil strikes when we are weak. The Devil tries first to tempt Jesus through his physical senses. Use the unnatural to satisfy a physical need. Then, the Devil tries to tempt Jesus through pride. Use the unnatural to satisfy a spiritual need. Finally, the Devil tries to tempt Jesus through a perversion of His relationship with God. This takes the most audacity. But ultimately, the Devil fails.
Think about all the ways little and large-- physical and spiritual-- that we are tempted everyday. With most of us, the Devil gets off easy. We succumb without much fight. But, perhaps you can recall an instance when you were tempted in a way that perverted your very relationship with your Creator? Think of the audacity of that. Did you succumb?
We all fail. But, rest assured that there are those praying that we get up, brush ourselves off and understand that even the best of us are tempted. . . and Jesus proves that it doesn't matter if we fail. There is someone who has won.
There is logic in the madness.
You see-- the Devil strikes when we are weak. The Devil tries first to tempt Jesus through his physical senses. Use the unnatural to satisfy a physical need. Then, the Devil tries to tempt Jesus through pride. Use the unnatural to satisfy a spiritual need. Finally, the Devil tries to tempt Jesus through a perversion of His relationship with God. This takes the most audacity. But ultimately, the Devil fails.
Think about all the ways little and large-- physical and spiritual-- that we are tempted everyday. With most of us, the Devil gets off easy. We succumb without much fight. But, perhaps you can recall an instance when you were tempted in a way that perverted your very relationship with your Creator? Think of the audacity of that. Did you succumb?
We all fail. But, rest assured that there are those praying that we get up, brush ourselves off and understand that even the best of us are tempted. . . and Jesus proves that it doesn't matter if we fail. There is someone who has won.
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