Gospel: Mt 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was at last hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made into loaves of bread”. But he answered, “It is written, ”Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.“” Then the devil took him to the Holy City, and set him on the eaves of the Temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ”He will give you to his angels, and in their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone“. Jesus said to him, ”It is also written, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God”". Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to him, "All these things I will give you if you will bow down and worship me". Then Jesus said to him, "Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou worship". Then the devil left him. And behold, angels came and ministered to him.
Guidelines for action:
The scene is surprising, unprecedented. The desert offers a propitious setting for a singular combat. After forty days of fasting and prayer, Jesus, the Prince of peace, confronts the great enemy, the ”prince” of this world. This combat fills us with questions: why did Jesus go through the temptation? He was the Son of God and true God, he had no need to prove his adherence to God. And how did it occur to the devil to tempt the Holy One, the immaculate Lamb who takes away the sins of the world? Did not this pugilist, full of trickery and deceit, know that it was impossible to defeat Christ? Surely the mystery of God made Man for the love of man was forbidden to the devil. His myopic pride was incapable of knowing who this poor Nazarene was, born in a stable, son of one of so many humble families of Judea.
1. Jesus' attitude
It was very different, no doubt, from the world's idea of dominion. As St. Gregory the Great says, Satan fell into the trap: “Like a brainless fish he was captivated by the bait of Christ's humanity and the hook of his divinity drew him out to public shame”. Yes, Jesus Christ, true God and true man, endured temptation and overcame it, not to give himself a proof of his power, but to show us, who are daily tempted, how to overcome temptation. And how did Christ overcome? He overcame because he kept the door shut. Like every man, Jesus held in his hands the key of access to his inner self. The devil well knows that all the temptations to which he can subject a man remain on the outside. He can create imaginations, he can take the Lord to the pinnacle of the temple, he can place before his eyes all the kingdoms of the earth, but he cannot bend his freedom, he cannot move his will even a millimeter, if man does not consent, does not accept it, does not follow it.
2. To do your will
Jesus is a heart turned towards the Father, and this Heart maintained in the temptation the same attitude it has always maintained: “Behold, I have come to do your will”. This affirmation proper to the Son is hidden behind the answers Jesus gives to the devil and behind every affirmation of the Redeemer: man lives by the “word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. God is the only one who deserves the worship and humble adoration of our will; therefore he will never tempt his Father, going out of the path that he has lovingly set for him and that he also lovingly accepts. Later, when temptation appears to him again, in Gethsemane, Jesus will say, in the midst of the spasms of agony: “Not my will, but yours be done”. His heart, his will, his soul was an enclosed garden in which only the Father walked as Lord and Master. We too are assailed daily by temptation. That is why Christ wanted to suffer it. He is our model and our defense in temptation. In the temptation of the Christian it seems that the devil follows the same tactics as in the temptation of Jesus and is defeated in the same way. He takes advantage of our weaknesses as he took advantage of the hunger of the Lord. “Say, let these stones become bread”. Was it not logical that the great thaumaturge should use his power to satisfy his hunger? Deep down he was asking him to renounce his trust in his Father, to seek a shortcut to God's will. But Jesus was faithful, and he was faithful for us and for love of us.
3. Hunger for the sky
Perhaps he will not tempt us with hunger, but with the search for the immediate, fleeting good, which fills the soul with weariness and leaves the hands empty. However, Christ had a greater hunger than physical hunger. He was hungry to fulfill God's will. In the same way, we too will overcome the temptation of what is easy, of what is comfortable, of mediocrity in our life, if we exercise ourselves in the hunger for the things of heaven, hunger for prayer, for charity, for theological hope. The devil is not going to take us to the steeple of the Church. He is not going to say to us: “Well, if you have so much faith, throw yourself down, you will see how you reach the ground unharmed, before the astonishment of the people”. But he does tempt us daily with presumption, with the vanity of appearing to others as pious, as generous... In those moments: “Do not tempt the Lord”. That is to say, seek to do the will of God and do not expect God to try to do your whim. The creature must serve God and not serve Him. Finally, He will not show us the kingdoms of this world, nor will He ask us to worship Him, but how many temptations of ambition beset us every day! One can seek a career, a position of influence by ways that are not always honest and justify oneself before one's own conscience by saying that one chooses “to do good to others”. But one can also be tempted to be lord and master of one's own inner world. “In my heart there is no god but me”, “I am the sun and the others revolve around me”. Christ shows us the way to overcome this temptation: “Get thee behind me, Satan, thou shalt worship the Lord God, him only shalt thou worship”. That is to say, not to forget the principle and foundation of all human life: to love, serve, honor God and through this to save one's own soul. If we exercise ourselves in this awareness, the temptation of ambition, even if it arises in the epidermis, will never dull the heart. The devil enters only if we open the door to him. Yes, the devil uses the same tactic with the Christian. And he is defeated in the same way.
Purpose: In our life we are subject to constant temptation. If we trust in God and are faithful, like Christ, to his most holy Will, temptation will be a golden opportunity to grow in love.
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You may be interested in: The temptations of the desert.
