OVERCOMING TEMPTATION THROUGH THE GRACE OF PRAYER, FASTING, AND ALMSGIVING
The Lenten season is a moment of grace given to us by God through his Church´s liturgical celebrations to overcome the temptations of life through the grace of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Our temptations are what we desire or what we try to renounce. Hence, we will constantly be confronted with temptations from within us and outside us. We need grace and mercy to overcome temptations that plague us daily.
Therefore, Lent is a desert experience that calls to renounce all our inclinations. It calls us to a profound interior renewal of our mind, heart and soul through prayers, fasting or penance and charity or almsgiving. Above all, we need absolute silence in Lenten if we what to encounter God.
This desert experience of silence, quietness, and aloneness with God to confront our choices and overcome our inner cravings for aggrandizement to food, drinks, things, power, and self-importance or pride is fundamentally necessary.
OUR THEME
The readings of this Sunday remind us that none of us is above temptation, not even God himself as we see in the Person of Jesus Christ. There is temptation everywhere, from us, others, and even Church. However, temptations, tests and trials are occasions to demonstrate fidelity to God because no trial, test or temptation is above our overcoming.
Hence, today’s readings teach us that we are always tempted by the devil, by the world, and by our selfish interests. So, we need to cooperate actively with God’s grace to conquer our temptations and practice prayer, self-control, and charity.
FIRST READING: GENESIS 2:7-9, 3:1-7
The first reading from the Book of Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 narrates to us the benevolence of God with abundant graces, love and goodness before the decisive choice of our first parent Adam and Eve turn the table with the concupiscence of their inner craving: of flesh, pride, knowledge and power to be equal to their Creator through instrumental scheming Satan.
The Book of Genesis shows how the tempter overcame Adam and Eve separating them from the loving communion with God. They failed to the three principal failings of every human: feelings of the body, desire to be in control or charge and longings for the eyes.
Hence, the divine formula of temptations to sins and the consequence of sins: separation and death.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 5:12-19
The Letter of St. Paul to the Romans 5:12-19 analyses the concept and reality of Original Sin through Adam and Eve with its consequence of death and the restoration to the originality of grace by God: the Father through Christ´s redemptive and merciful sacrifice in the Holy Spirit.
St. Paul using the Jewish belief system of the salvation of the whole hangs on an appointed individual emphasises how through Adam’s disobedience and failure – sins, disgrace, disharmony and death came into the world. Fortunately, balancing the equation in Christ Jesus’ obedience brought victory over devils, sins and death by the grace and mercy of God.
CHRIST AND ADAM
Christ and Adam show two opposite reactions in face of temptation: Adam, the archetype of sinful, evasive, self-seeking humanity, finds plausible reasons to yield to it, and rebels against God’s will.
Jesus, the archetype of the new God-seeking man, resists temptation even repeatedly. It can only be conquered by this blend of patience and loyalty, supported by the trust that what God requires of us is what is best for us.
THE GOSPEL: MATTHEW 4:1-11
Jesus’ temptations exist in the line of Adams’ with the exception that He proved his faithfulness to God. He was tempted by human feelings, desires and longings. Equally, he demonstrated to us how to be overcomers with the grace of God’s Word.
The gospel of Matthew 4:1-11 presents us the internal struggle of Christ with the tempter who carefully, subtly, and skilfully uses his inner craving and inherent nature and power to seduce him to disobedience and be unfaithful to God and his Word.
THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD TEMPTATION
The biblical concept of temptation from the etymology of the Greek language shed deep light on the theological concept of temptation today in modern times. Temptation from the English perspective always means to entice a man to do wrong, to seek to seduce him into sin, to try to persuade him to take the wrong way.
While the Greek word “peirazein”, for temptation has a quite different element in its meaning. It means to test far more than it means to tempt in our sense of the word.
HENCE, THERE IS A GREAT AND UPLIFTING TRUTH IN TEMPTATION AS TESTING.
a. What we call temptation is not meant to make us sin; it is meant to enable us to conquer sin.
b. It is not meant to make us bad, it is meant to make us good.
c. It is not meant to weaken us, it is meant to make us emerge stronger and finer and purer from the ordeal.
d. Temptation is not the penalty of being a man, temptation is the glory of being a man.
Fundamentally, it is an indisputable fact, the man or woman God wants or wishes to use for his purposes, God probes or tests him or her out for worthiness and usefulness.
THE TEMPTER LAUNCHED HIS ATTACK AGAINST JESUS ALONG THREE LINES:
(I) turning stone to bread – is a temptation of selfish and abusive power for material power and the seeking of easy and shortcut solutions to life´s problems and difficulties.
(II) throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple of the holy city and with God´s promises of no harm – is a temptation of the abuse of powers and privileges through pride for spiritual fame, recognitions and power; a miracle-seeking faith is not God-oriented faith but superficial and fluid
(III) worship Satan to get all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour– is also a temptation of lust and desire for worldly glory or material things; compromising to worldly standards by all means to gain political power, control and affluence.
Evidently, Jesus overcame his temptations through the power and knowledge of the Word of God. In this way, our trials and temptations are overcome through our knowledge of the Power of the Word of God and its appliance in our daily life.
Let us pray to Christ Jesus the new Adam who overcame Satan and his temptations to help us in our struggles and temptations. May renewing grace of prayer, fasting and almsgiving help us to preserve through Lent a period of tests and struggle with the weapon of the Word of God to conquer and overcome all strategies of the evil one.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you are tempted in all ways and manners and everywhere and time like us, but did not sin; help us to overcome our temptations during this Lenten season by our inner commitment to the Christian principles through your word and example in overcoming: the flesh and its longings, the pride of life and desire or lust for material things or persons. Amen
