Gospel Reflections
First Sunday of Lent
9 March 2025, Church Year C
Reprinted by
permission of "The
Arlington Catholic Herald"
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We live in the modern
world, and its
secular worldview often rubs off on us without our realizing it.
But if we think like
modern secular
people, it can be hard for us to understand why Christ went into
the desert to
be tempted by the devil. We
know that
Jesus is God, and therefore he could not commit sin. His humanity knows no
sin, nor does he have
any disordered desires that dome from sin.
Therefore, he experiences no attraction whatsoever to the
devil’s
proposals.
So, we ask, “What is the
point of his
being tempted if he could not have sinned?”
Our modern sensibilities cry out, “Where is the drama?” We want to be on the
edges of our seats
waiting to see whether Jesus will choose to sin or at least toy
with the
idea. The fact that
Satan’s suggestions
are completely unappealing to him makes the whole affair seem to
us like Christ
is just playacting, like he is not “really” being tempted.
To understand the point
of Christ’s temptation
in the desert we need to think more like the ancients. Moden approaches tend
to be preoccupied with
our own subjective experience and to project our own psychology
back onto Christ’s. The
ancients, on the other hand, were more
interested in what Christ was objectively accomplishing in our
human nature,
which opened them up to appreciate the far greater drama
unfolding in the
biblical narrative than the drama we moderns might write. What they had was a
biblical worldview - that
is, a sacramental worldview that sees every event of Christ’s
life as a
“mystery” that continues to echo throughout the centuries, being
lived out
again and again in the members of Christ’s body. Hence, we refer to the
“mysteries” of the
life of Christ, not just simply “events.”
Blessed Columba Marion
said that the
mysteries of the life of Christ are, “ours as much as they are
his.” Christ has
united us to himself as a body is united to its head (Cor
12:12-31), or as
branches are united to the vine (Jn 15:5).
We are truly one with Christ. And
because of our union with him, what he as our head has undergone
during his
earthly life is meant to be lived out in us, the members of his
body. Each of the
mysteries of his life touch us as
we contemplate them, and especially when we celebrate them in
the sacred liturgy. Everything
he did and said in his earthly
life is for our salvation, and so each mystery of his life
brings us a
grace. It brings us
a new participation
in Christ’s life, and thus in the divine life of the Blessed
Trinity. Graces
flow from the head to the members,
from the vine to the branches.
When Christ goers into
the desert to
tempted by the devil, he does this for our sake. He, who is fully God
and fully man, takes our
human nature into the desert.
He, a
divine person, allows himself to be confronted by Satan. He enters into the
experience of temptation
so as to conquer it. This
is what he accomplishes
in our nature: complete victory over the temptations of the
devil.
Satan tries everything. He appeals to the
flesh (bread), to the eyes
(the kingdoms of the world), and to pride (command of the angels
and of
God). Nothing works
against Christ. The
devil can make no inroads with him at
all.
Victory over temptation,
then, is the
grace we receive from living out this mystery of Christ’s life. St. Augustine said,
“If in Christ we have
been tempted, in him we overcome the devil.
Do you think only Christ’s temptations and fail to think
of his
victory? See
yourself as tempted in him,
and see yourself as victorious in him.”
And this is what the
season of Lent can
be for us. Christ’s
forty days become
our forty days. We
are given the chance
to participate mystically in his fasting in the desert; our
penitential and
devotional practices are taken up into his, and this is what
gives them
value. Our union
with Christ is
deepened, specifically as it pertains to victory over temptation
and sin.
When you are tempted,
realize that you
are alone. Christ
dwells in you, and it
is Christ who conquers temptation,
Contemplate
his temptations in the desert so that you may live in him, and
he in you, to
conquer sin in you.