Commentary on the Gospel of
“If”
Read:
Remembrance of God’s intervention helps us surrender our lives into His hands. We are invited to trust that memory and believe in our hearts and confess with our lips the Lordship of Christ. Jesus has such trust in his Father that he refuses to test God’s fidelity.
Reflect:
All three temptations of Jesus are predicated on conditional clause: “If you are the Son of God” (temptations 1 & 3), “provided you worship me” (temptation 2). Jesus resists such temptations, because, in his heart, there is no “if” clause with regards God. For Jesus, the Father-Son relationship he has with God is not a hypothesis to be tested and proven; it is an experiential truth he has lived eternally. His life is so one with God that there is no space for worshipping someone else, even when the Father is seemingly absent or silent. When the devil, quite ingeniously, tempts Jesus with words from the Scriptures, Jesus does not budge: You do not put conditions on God; you simply live God.
Pray:
In your relationship with God, do you use “if” clauses, such as: “if God heals…” or “if I get a job…”? If you do, pray for the grace of abandonment to God’s will.
Act:
Make an act of abandonment to God’s will.
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1st Sunday in Lent - "The temptations of Jesus and our temptations".
The temptations of Jesus are continued and prolonged in each of us. God allows Jesus to be tempted, as he allows the temptation of man. Sometimes we have idealised the humanity of Jesus under the pretext that he is God; so much so that the humanity of Jesus almost disappears. And yet Jesus, who is true God, is at the same time true man. And as a man he behaves, suffers, like other men.
In any case, temptation appears inseparable from the life of the Christian. It is in temptation that the believer shows his fidelity to the Lord, the firmness of the choice he has made for God, as the meaning of his existence. For the Christian, it is like the plot that the Christian needs in order to become blessed. Therefore the Christian view of temptation is not distressing, but hopeful. "We should count ourselves blessed when we are besieged by all kinds of trials. Know that when our faith is put to the test, it will prove you. Blessed is the one who endures the trial, for once he has been tested, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him", the apostle James reminds us. ( Saint 1,15 ).
May our petition during this Lenten season, and always, be that of the Our Father. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Lord, leaning on your word, we will always be faithful to you in whatever trials you send us.
(Psalm 90) Be with me, Lord, in tribulation.
"HAPPY LENTEN SUNDAY TO ALL".
