The third temptation:
“Throw yourself down from this height…” (Lk 4:9)
The New Lent
“Throw yourself down from this height…” (Lk 4:9)
The New Lent
February 21, 2010
1st Sunday of Lent 2010
Deuteronomy 26:4-10 Romans 10:8-13 Luke 4:1-13
Deuteronomy 26:4-10 Romans 10:8-13 Luke 4:1-13
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over He was hungry. The devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” (Deut 8:3)
Then the devil took Him up to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. The devil said to Him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it’s been all given to me, and I can give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.” (Deut 6:16)
Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and made Him stand on the highest point of the Temple, and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from this height, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” (Deut 6:13) When the devil had exhausted every kind of temptation, he departed to wait for a more opportune time.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Lent: the yearly invitation to a `desert experience’
On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, we liturgically left Ordinary Time and entered the Extraordinary Time of Lent. Green, the color for Ordinary Time, is now exchanged for purple -- the centuries-old liturgical color for repentance and penance. In honor of the forty days Jesus spent in the desert fasting, the Council of Laodicea in 360 prescribed a penitential season of forty days in preparation for Easter. This year Easter is April 4; counting back forty fast-days from April 4 (Sundays not counted because they’re never a fast day) makes Wednesday, February 17, the first day of Lent this year of 2010.
Something remarkable always happens on Ash Wednesday: though it’s not a Sunday or holyday of obligation, the churches are packed! Ash Wednesday mysteriously fascinates us! We go flocking to church to have our clean faces smudged with ashes and to be reminded (what we always try in subtle ways to forget) that “we are dust and unto dust we shall return. “
More positively, Lent, which commemorates the forty days which Jesus spent in the desert, is the yearly invitation for us to undergo what spiritual writers refer to as the `desert experience,’ to take stock of our spiritual lives.
Something remarkable always happens on Ash Wednesday: though it’s not a Sunday or holyday of obligation, the churches are packed! Ash Wednesday mysteriously fascinates us! We go flocking to church to have our clean faces smudged with ashes and to be reminded (what we always try in subtle ways to forget) that “we are dust and unto dust we shall return. “
More positively, Lent, which commemorates the forty days which Jesus spent in the desert, is the yearly invitation for us to undergo what spiritual writers refer to as the `desert experience,’ to take stock of our spiritual lives.
Scripture’s three temptations of Jesus
Jesus’ forty-day ordeal of fasting and being tempted in the desert is always recounted on the first Sunday of Lent in all three liturgical cycles. (Mt. 4:1-11; Mk. 1:12-13; Lk. 4:1-13) Mark's account is typically very brief; it simply states that Jesus was tempted for forty days in the desert -- no mention of Him fasting and getting hungry, or of being tempted three times. Matthew and Luke’s accounts, on the other hand, were written later, and are filled in with the accretions that normally build up around an event, as it is told and retold before it’s written down. Both evangelists mention three specific temptations, and each temptation is rejected by Jesus quoting Scripture
The first temptation
The first temptation is simple enough to understand. Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, and Satan offers Him a presto way to feed his hunger: turn the bread-shaped stones scattered on the desert floor into loaves of bread. (Lk 4: 3-4) The other alternative is a long hike 20 miles to the nearest town for food. (There is no fast-fix for bread; there is only the long haul: wheat ground into flour, flour kneaded into dough, and dough baked into bread.) Is the first temptation of Jesus a yen for the fast-fix?
The second temptation
When that first temptation of Jesus fails, the Devil takes Him to a high mountain, shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and promises to give it all to Jesus, if He would only fall down and worship him. (Lk 4:5-8) Is the second temptation of Jesus a yen for authority and power?
The third temptation
When the second temptation of Jesus fails, the Devil takes Him to a very high peak of the Temple and challenges Him to prove He’s the Son of God by bungee-jumping from a Temple height and counting on God’s angels to snatch Him up before hitting rock bottom. (Lk 4: 9-13; Ps. 91, vs11-12) Is the third temptation a yen for the spectacular?
In Dostoyevsky’s novel Brothers Karamazov, the Grand Inquisitor asks Jesus, “Dost thou think that all the combined wisdom of the world could have invented anything in depth and force equal to the three temptations put thee by the wise and mighty Spirit in the desert?” (Ch V, Bk V) Scripture’s account of the three temptations is, indeed, mystical, and there are as many interpretations of them as there are mystics and preachers.
In Dostoyevsky’s novel Brothers Karamazov, the Grand Inquisitor asks Jesus, “Dost thou think that all the combined wisdom of the world could have invented anything in depth and force equal to the three temptations put thee by the wise and mighty Spirit in the desert?” (Ch V, Bk V) Scripture’s account of the three temptations is, indeed, mystical, and there are as many interpretations of them as there are mystics and preachers.
Nikos’ fourth temptation of Jesus
To Scripture’s three temptations of Jesus Nikos Kazantzakis adds a fourth and last temptation in his novel The Last Temptation. In the novel Jesus is subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression and, yes, even lust – the fourth and last of Jesus’ temptations. Kazantzakis’ book and the film depict Jesus being tempted by imagining Himself engaged in sexual activities. Struggling to do God’s will, Jesus does not give in to any of the temptations.
The very thought that Jesus could have sexual temptations caused a great outcry among Christians. The Church put the novel on the list of forbidden books, and staunch faithful picketed the movie. If the novel had depicted Jesus as a man tempted to scam investors of $50 billion (as Wall Street icon Bernard Madoff did), the reaction would not have been so intense. That strong reaction simply squares up with a populist mentality and morality which believes that “the sin of sins is sex!” That mentality (prurient in its roots) makes juicy headline news out of the sexual escapes of world- famous golfer Tiger Woods, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and South Carolina governor Mark Sandford. Perhaps it was that mentality which made Kazantzakis feel the need to `round off’ Scripture’s three temptations of Jesus with a sexual temptation.
At the end of the day, The Last Temptation, resonates well with Letter to the Hebrews, which proclaims the Good News that in Jesus, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have One who has been tempted in all things as we are tempted, but did not sin.” (Heb 4:15)
The very thought that Jesus could have sexual temptations caused a great outcry among Christians. The Church put the novel on the list of forbidden books, and staunch faithful picketed the movie. If the novel had depicted Jesus as a man tempted to scam investors of $50 billion (as Wall Street icon Bernard Madoff did), the reaction would not have been so intense. That strong reaction simply squares up with a populist mentality and morality which believes that “the sin of sins is sex!” That mentality (prurient in its roots) makes juicy headline news out of the sexual escapes of world- famous golfer Tiger Woods, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and South Carolina governor Mark Sandford. Perhaps it was that mentality which made Kazantzakis feel the need to `round off’ Scripture’s three temptations of Jesus with a sexual temptation.
At the end of the day, The Last Temptation, resonates well with Letter to the Hebrews, which proclaims the Good News that in Jesus, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have One who has been tempted in all things as we are tempted, but did not sin.” (Heb 4:15)
The mind of Jesus
The mentality that “the sin of sins is sex” is utterly foreign to the mind of Jesus. One day some dirty old men catch a woman in the act of adultery, and drag her before Jesus in the temple. Zealous that every iota of the Law of Moses be observed, they feel it’s their religious duty to stone her to death[1]. Jesus doesn’t buy into their sexual moralism. It even bores Him; He bends down and writes with his finger in the dust on the temple floor. (One guess is that He wrote Ho-hum. Another guess is that He wrote the names of all the men who had her.) Then Jesus rises and challenges the one without sin among them to cast the first stone.[2] (Jn 8:1-11)
On another occasion, Jesus deals a blow to sexual moralism, when He tells the chief priests and Jewish elders, “Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you people. For John the Baptist came to show you the right path to take and you would not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes believed him.” (Mt 21:31-32)
Jesus straightens out our moral priority. For Him the “sin of sins” is not sex; rather, it is not loving our neighbor. Just as the “virtue of virtues” for Jesus is not chastity; rather, it is charity.[3] When a Sadducee asks Jesus what is the most important commandment in the Law, He answers him by quoting Scripture: “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, soul and mind.” (Dt 6:5) Then quoting Scripture again, Jesus tells the man what is the second most important commandment: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lv. 19:18) “The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets,” Jesus says, “depend on these two commandments.” (Mt. 22:34-40)
On another occasion, Jesus deals a blow to sexual moralism, when He tells the chief priests and Jewish elders, “Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you people. For John the Baptist came to show you the right path to take and you would not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes believed him.” (Mt 21:31-32)
Jesus straightens out our moral priority. For Him the “sin of sins” is not sex; rather, it is not loving our neighbor. Just as the “virtue of virtues” for Jesus is not chastity; rather, it is charity.[3] When a Sadducee asks Jesus what is the most important commandment in the Law, He answers him by quoting Scripture: “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, soul and mind.” (Dt 6:5) Then quoting Scripture again, Jesus tells the man what is the second most important commandment: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lv. 19:18) “The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets,” Jesus says, “depend on these two commandments.” (Mt. 22:34-40)
A new God for Lent
In the post-Vatican II era, the God of Lent is spelled out in a new way. The God of the old Lent was one who had gone into a deep pout because of our sins, and He needed to be appeased with forty days of glum and gloom. Such a God is not much better than the angry gods of ancient Greece and Rome. He is not much better than the angry God of televangelist Pat Robinson who declared the Haiti earthquake was God's retribution worked upon sinful Haitians for their “voodoo pact with the devil." The God of the new Lent is the God of the prophet Joel who in the first reading at Mass on Ash Wednesday is described as one “who is rich in mercy, swift with forgiveness and slow with retribution.” (Joel 2:13)
A new fast for Lent
In this new day, the fast of Lent is also spelled out in a new way. Before Vatican II the fast of Lent concentrated on food: only one full meal a day was allowed, and all Fridays were days of strict abstinence from meat. Vatican II greatly toned down this concentration on food as Lenten penance. Now there are only two obligatory days of fast(Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), and only the Fridays of Lent are strict days of abstinence. The new Lent doesn’t concentrate on a food fast imposed on us by the church but on a fast imposed on us by life itself. That’s the spirit of the first reading at Mass on the Friday after Ash Wednesday.
This is the kind of fasting I, the Lord, want from you: release those bound unjustly, untie the yoke of injustice and set free the oppressed. Share your food with the hungry, open your home to the homeless, clothe the naked, [aid the Haitian victims] and do not turn your back on your own. (Is 58: 6-7)
This is the kind of fasting I, the Lord, want from you: release those bound unjustly, untie the yoke of injustice and set free the oppressed. Share your food with the hungry, open your home to the homeless, clothe the naked, [aid the Haitian victims] and do not turn your back on your own. (Is 58: 6-7)
A new preface for Lent
A new preface for Lent prays in a new way:
Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give You thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Each year You give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with mind and heart renewed.
You give us a spirit of loving reverence for You, our Father, and of willing service to our neighbor As we recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ, You bring the image of your Son to perfection within us.
Now with angels and archangels, and the whole company of heaven, we sing the unending hymn of Your praise. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Conclusion
The New Lent
The New Lent
The new Lent is not a glum and gloomy journey of forty days; rather it is a “joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with our minds and hearts renewed. “The new Lent is not for changing an angry God; rather it is for changing us “by bringing the image of Your Son to perfection within us.”The new Lent does not ask us to give up things; rather it asks us to take on ”willing service to our neighbor.”
[1] Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22ff
[2] That gospel is read on the 5th Sunday of Lent, cycle c.
[3] These words can be misunderstood by those who choose to misunderstand them, and they can be rightly understood by those who so choose.
[1] Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22ff
[2] That gospel is read on the 5th Sunday of Lent, cycle c.
[3] These words can be misunderstood by those who choose to misunderstand them, and they can be rightly understood by those who so choose.
