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Homily for First Sunday of Lent

READ: (Gen 2: 7-9; 3: 1-7; Rom 5: 12, 17-19; Matt 4: 1-10)

REFLECT: Please, possess and take pride in God our creator...

Dear friends we are in the first Sunday of lent. The liturgy of the word invites us and gives us the ways we can overcome temptations and the allurements of the world that detaches our unity and communion with God. We all know that temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals. Temptation is also triggers a person to committing an act by manipulation, curiosity, desire, fears of loss something important and dear to us. Of course, temptations are part of human life and no one could escape from it but we all have the power of God in us that assists and enables us to overcome the succumbing temptations of daily life. So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you points for reflection as how we can overcome the three temptations that most of us face in our human life;

1.     Temptations to Pleasure:

Pleasure is a feeling of enjoyment or satisfaction. We obtain pleasures from good and the bad. The good pleasure enables us to be good, adds joy and makes us live that joy to the fullest. But bad pleasure gradually makes us to lose the good that we even have and become inclined to seek pleasures in immodest, immoral ways and means. However, we all want to have pleasures of life but what counts are its ways and means that we obtain pleasures. One of the temptations that we face is pleasure for hunger. We are hungry for food; we want to have food, good food or stuff. Of course hunger or food is one of the basic necessities of human beings for survival.

We have hunger for pleasure and pleasure for hunger. But when it exceeds more than the required it becomes a hindering block for growth as God’s children. Pleasure for hunger is to satisfy the stomach with food or edibles but hunger for pleasure could mean many. Temptations come in ways and means of pleasure that we obtain. It can be social, psychological, physical, spiritual, moral etc. it is good as long as they are helpful and enlighten us the purpose of living. But when the hunger for pleasure or pleasure for hunger takes a different direction, without focusing on the good and healthy, it becomes detrimental to growth as human persons and Christians.

Today the gospel reading presents to us one such point of pleasure, where Jesus makes a right choice and overcomes the temptation of the devil concerning hunger. The devil tricks Jesus to satiate the hunger for daily bread than the daily nourishing eternal bread, the word of God. Jesus does not out rightly reject that human person does not need bread at all but affirms that the human beings do not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Yes, Jesus asserts and reminds us that we need daily bread but that alone does not suffice because daily bread can make us fit and fine, make us physically healthy but what about our spiritual well-being or the satisfaction of the soul by which the soul become healthy. Today we encounter enormous pleasure that tempts or tricks us, deviate or dissuade us from God. It can be our immodest and immoral ways, misuse of social media or mechanized system of our world or acts pleasing to human senses. We need to make efforts to overcome them with the help and grace of God.

Someone has very beautifully said, “Do not satisfy the society but satisfy your soul.” Yes most of have learned to satisfy the society by whatsoever means possible or available, good or bad, but forget to satisfy the soul by good deeds or good pleasures. So let us pray that we overcome the pleasures that lead us away from the focus of life, away from one another, away from God. Let us remind ourselves that when our spiritual well-being is taken care, God gives us the strength, ways and means to sustain the physical, psychological and moral well-being on earth.

2.     Temptation to Possessions

Possession is something that we have or own. It is something we care for so deeply more than anything else. We feel that such valued possessions are important. It could be anything we cherish so close to our heart. We hold on to such possessions and wouldn’t like to give up because we like the most or obsessed with it. The possession can be a thing, place, person, power, position, honorary titles etc. The possession or obsession for such things is because of the overly attachment. At times possession can be dangerous, it can lead to deviation of right focus and purpose or to depression if it is beyond control. We feel lost, defeated or powerless without the possession that’s so dear to us. So being possessive of people, place, time, honorary titles, power can be temptations that trigger us to do harmful or mislead others.

We see such temptation in the life of Jesus too, but Jesus overcomes the trick of the devil as he was attached to God and gave primary place to God in his heart. The Satan tempts Jesus saying, “All the kingdoms of the world and their glory I shall give to you, if you would fall down and worship me.” But Jesus does not give consent to the temptation of Satan but affirms the primary act of him to God by saying, “you shall worship the Lord your God and you shall serve him only.”

The kingdoms of the world and their glory refer to possession and position, name and fame of the world. But Jesus does not consent to Satan but shows faithfulness to God in worship and service, because he knew that primary kingdom is the Kingdom of God and primary glory is the glory of God.

Today many of us succumb to such temptations of possessions and positions, name and fame. We feel possessions and positions as the core of life without which we can do nothing. We feel that name and fame can play a good game on earth. We do anything to attain such heights even by misuse, abuse, spoiling the reputation of someone, devaluing and disappointing others by comments etc. But in all these we fail to realize that possessions or positions, name or fame are only earthly and not heavenly. It is temporal and not eternal. 

Pope Francis very aptly says, “Life is for loving and not for amassing possessions.” Yes, life is meant to be loved and not goods or possessions to love. We just live the opposite; we love goods more and life or people less. Our failure to share with others what we have is another form of temptation that cripples our human living and human sensitivity.

Moreover, Pope Francis says “We live in a world that is always more artificial, in a culture of making profit, where without realizing it, we exclude God from our horizon. Often today, giving freely is not part of daily life, where everything can be bought and sold, where everything is calculated and measured. People can free themselves from the obsession of possession, from the fear of losing what we own, from the sadness of those who do not want to share their well-being with others”.

Yes temptation to possession and position, name and fame are common but what makes us rise above these ways of tempting moments is by realizing importance of the Kingdom of God and the glory of God; it is by realizing that life is for loving and not for amassing riches or wealth; it is by realizing that people are to be loved first and not the goods or possessions first. May God give us such realization in life.

 3.     Temptation to Pride:

Pride is something too high an opinion of one’s own ability or worth. It is a feeling of being and viewing that one is better than the other. Pride is often considered a negative force in human life, because such attitude makes a comparison and discriminates, disrespects, devalues others self worth and highlights one’s own self-worth. We can perhaps call it purely a self-promotion or self-projection. For such people, others do not exist. Even if they exist they are considered or labeled as least. 

Certainly, pride is something common to all of us in life. We take pride in different levels like education, social status, health, beauty, wealth, abilities and strengths of one’s own. It is a kind of comparison that we make with one’s strength in others weakness. The gospel reading of the day presents to us how Jesus handled the temptation concerning the pride. The Satan tries to trick Jesus saying, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for God will command his angels to bear up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Firstly the Satan tries to play a trick questioning the identity of Jesus as Son of God and secondly it tries to play a trick with Jesus’ trust and belief in God. But Jesus gives an apt answer and overcomes Satan’s temptation saying, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Jesus knew who he was as Son of God; therefore, he needed no demonstration and did not prove Satan. Jesus knew that consenting to Satan’s trick would imply that Jesus shows his distrust and disbelief in the power, provicence and presence of God. Therefore, he does not give consent to the temptations of the devil but proves his trust and confidence in God.

Today, Pride takes a grand ride of human life. Most of us take pride in saying “I did this or I did that”; nothing could be done without me; others are not as good or worth as I am; We take pride in vain glory for unwanted things or issues, acts and events, posts and powers of life. We forget that pride ruins one’s life. We fail to realize that our self-identity remains the same as God’s children and the extra identities are just a flavor added to the main identity as children of God. As human persons, we move to the extra identity or added flavor than the original identity as children of God. This is what causes deviation and makes us fall into the trap of temptations of life.

Very beautifully Pope Francis says, “Pride is the most dangerous attitude of every Christian life. It also infects people who live an intense religious life. There are glaring sins that make noise, and there are also devious sins, which lurk in the heart without us even realizing it. The worst of these is pride. The sin of pride divides people and makes us presume to be better than others. We always remain children who owe everything to the Father.” Yes, let us be satisfied and live for the original and a lasting identity as children of God than the identity that is obtained by one’s own pride, ego, jealousy, where it only causes division and destruction.

Yes the liturgy of the word is a timely reminder for us to be cautious about temptation of life. We are reminded in the first reading from the book of Genesis that Adam and Eve consented to the temptation by disobedience and lost the paradise prepared by God; In the second reading we are reminded from St. Paul’s letter to Romans that Jesus brought us grace by being obedient to God what was lost by disobedience by first parents Adam and Eve.

Yes, Jesus had every power to prove who he was but did not consent to the temptations of Satan, because Jesus pleased God, Jesus trusted God, Jesus gave priority to the Kingdom and glory of God,  Jesus obeyed God and fulfilled God’s will and so brought to us a paradise that was lost by Adam and Eve. So let us also have complete trust and confidence in God, work for the kingdom and glory of God. Let us please God rather than the world in its worldly pleasures, possessions and pride.

RESPOND:

Do we take pleasure in Good or the bad? Do we make efforts to please God to make us eternally happy or pleased by worldly pleasures?

Do we seek worldly possession and position or name and fame or do we seek God the right possession of life?

Do we take pride in identities or titles as created by the world or do we realize or take pride in the original identity as children of God?

Let us please God, possess God and take pride in being called as the children of God. Amen.

God bless us all! Live Jesus!

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com

9500930968