Lenten Reflections: Understanding the Three Temptations of Christ
Readings for Mass and Virtual Homily, March 9, 2025, First Sunday of Lent; Retreat Season; My Teens and Their 'Babies'; March Schedule
Readings for Mass this Sunday
Deuteronomy 26: 4-10
Psalms 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
Romans 10: 8-13
Luke 4: 1-13
Dear Friends and Family,
Well, it is the first Sunday of Lent and we find ourselves in the desert, facing temptation, with regard to the readings. The passage from Luke this Sunday is that of the temptation of Jesus. This experience (omitted by John) is also reported by Matthew and Mark. It is testament to the humanity of Jesus, among other things. And while there is a variety of possibilities, with regard to structuring a homily this weekend, I want to just stay with the three temptations themselves. Between them, I think, most of us can find resonance with Jesus, in his humanity, in his susceptibility to temptation. That fact should comfort us. As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews points out, Jesus was tempted in every way, just like us -- but never sinned. Having himself been tempted, though, Jesus is able to identify with us in our temptations and he is eager to forgive us our sins (Hebrews 4:14-15).
The first temptation, not surprisingly, given that Jesus has been fasting for forty days, is to turn stones into bread (vs. 3). Jesus would have known genuine hunger, maybe also thirst, and the fact that he COULD turn stones into bread evidently tempted him.
Something to be aware of here: the demons know our weaknesses. They know them because they have tempted us and have seen where we are vulnerable. No tempter angel worth his damnation is going to bother trying to tempt a person with a naturally calm, easy-going and forgiving temperament with the sin of anger. But seeing that this same person is weak in the invitation to lust, that is the sin the demon will work with.
After forty days of fasting, it could reasonably be assumed that Jesus was hungry. The devil knew as much; reasoned that Jesus would be susceptible to the temptation to break his fast. Hence, the first temptation.
Jesus replies simply by quoting Scripture (vs. 4). There might be something in this for all of us, when facing temptation. In any event, Satan moves on to a more elaborate attempt to get Jesus to sin.
The second temptation, of course, is that the devil shows and offers to Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" in an instant (vss. 5-7). It may be speculated here that it was not just the first-century kingdoms that Satan showed Jesus, but all the nations, all the empires, all the kingdoms of the world for all time. It may be inferred that Jesus was shown the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas, the caliphates of twelfth-century Islam; that he was shown sixteenth-century Spain when Madrid ruled the seas, shown Victorian England and the extent of the British Empire, shown contemporary America, China, Japan and Western Europe. The kingdoms of the world, the devil assures Jesus, were his to give to whomever he pleased (vs. 6).
In this event, Satan would have been offering a different sort of "deal" to Jesus -- a co-rulership that would go on 'til the end of the world. All that Jesus needed to do, to receive this "kingship" was go down on his knees and worship Lucifer. Again, Jesus answers with a reference to Scripture (vs. 8).
It is a question to which there is (to my knowledge) no definitive answer, just whether Satan recognized in Jesus the Second Person of the Trinity. In the event that the devil really did know just who he was trying to tempt, it says something about Satanic ambition. I am personally inclined to the line of argument which says that the demons did NOT recognize the divinity of Jesus. They did not recognize it, that is, until it was too late. This is a substantial argument and a deep theological reflection and more than can be supported by the limitations of a Sunday homily, so I will not go further with it. Whatever may be the truth with regard to the demons realizing that Jesus was God incarnate, certainly, Lucifer did understand Jesus to be the Messiah, as is evident in the third temptation.
From the parapet of the Temple in Jerusalem, Satan dares Jesus to leap into thin air, and quotes Scripture which assures the Messiah of God's protection (today's psalm, Psalm 91:11-12). Lucifer assures Jesus that the psalm seems to guarantee that he will land, hundreds of feet on the pavement below, intact and unharmed (Luke 4:9-11). That the devil quotes the psalm is clear evidence that, whether or not he knew Jesus was God, Lucifer knew Jesus was the Messiah. He knew the Scriptural passages which referred to the Messiah, and here he accurately quotes one of them.
This third temptation sometimes leaves people baffled. St. Augustine, if I am not mistaken, referred to it as the temptation to (or of) the thrill. I think a more relevant interpretation of it is that we can be tempted, at times, to get out over our skis. We can sometimes charge out ahead with some mission or vision or plan which we have assumed to be of God, and...find ourselves, to use a military metaphor, stretched beyond our supply lines. An army on the march needs supply lines -- of food, of water, of medicine, of basic infrastructure and support. March too fast, charge ahead with a confidence that looks like recklessness, and the army might find itself stranded and starving.
I know this temptation inside out. Depending, I suppose, upon one's native degree of self-confidence, and too, on one's intuitive sense of being able to discern God's will, this temptation can trip up the best-intentioned, hardest-working, most dedicated disciples. We need to let God be in charge. When we charge ahead, certain that we "know the plan" and how to execute it, we open ourselves up to crash-landings on the pavement hundreds of feet below; to being the army that has moved like lightning across the frontier, only to find itself stranded and without sustenance, because the supply lines are hundreds of miles behind. I've lost count of how many times I have experienced this dynamic -- that is, this temptation. I'd love to be able to say that I have "learned my lesson" in this regard, but I can't. What I can say is that when I do get out over my skis with some plan or hope or ambition or vision which I assume has been given me by God, and I find myself stranded, without the supplies needed to complete the job, I have learned to sit down and...wait on the Lord.
Jesus, in any event, answers the devil here in just the way he has in the previous temptations: He quotes Scripture (vs. 12). Again, there may be something in that for all of us, going to Scripture, I mean, when we are facing temptation.
Well, we have dived into Lent and true to the season's traditions, I have four (count 'em, FOUR) retreats over the next two weeks. The reason I have only got the Sunday evening Mass this weekend is that I am at St. Clare Retreat Center in Soquel Friday evening to noon Sunday, giving a women's Lenten retreat. The theme, one I developed a decade ago, for a Shalom World Television presentation, is the Psalms in Lent.
Next week, the high school is holding our final three-day Kairos Retreat for the juniors at San Damiano. The following week, we will be back at San Damiano for the second (and last) retreat for the senior class. And the weekend of the 15-16, the parish is sponsoring our Confirmation Retreat in Redwood Glen, near Pescadero. I will only be at this last retreat Saturday evening to help our pastor with confessions, but it will be all Saturday evening. We have eighty students making the retreat.
The retreat this weekend came about as a result of my having been at St. Clare last fall, to give the weekend retreat for the women's group at St. Bonaventure (Clayton). The sisters who run the center liked my presentations and asked if they could put me on their short list for retreats without a priest. I so much enjoyed the Bonaventure experience that I told them yes; in addition to the retreat this weekend, I have another at St. Clare in May.
I am reticent to re-engage the sort of speaking-engagement-retreat-parish-mission schedule I kept for several years before COVID, in part because I want the time and energy going to San Gabriel Media. But as I say, I really was myself blessed by the October retreat with the women of St. Bonaventure, and so I am signed up at St. Clare's for two additional retreats this spring.
Finally, news from the Teen Front: My students this semester have got babies. That is, the students in our Marriage and Family course (which I am teaching for the first time this semester, as I mentioned a few e-mails back) have the opportunity to take responsibility for a mechanical "baby" for 24 hours. The "baby" is better called a robot than a doll. It cries when it wants to be burped, fed, have its diaper changed and I forget what-all else. Students have to figure out what the baby is crying for and provide it; and the babies are programmed to cry regularly over the 24 hours, including in the middle of the night. The robot then generates a computer report which is received by my colleague (and fellow M & F instructor) Liz Remigio. The robot "grades" its care over the 24 hours. It is a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment.
Given that "having the baby" is only one of four options for this particular assignment (students may watch three films about marriage and family life and write up a report, for instance, as just one of the other options), I am really surprised at how many of my kids want a baby -- including the boys! The robots cost over a thousand each and we have eleven of them, so starting this assignment in early March, we should be able to accommodate all the requests by May. Were I one of my students, though, I would choose to watch three films!
Okay, that'll wrap this one. My prayers and best wishes for a blessed and serene Lent.
Love,
Fr. Brawn
March Mass Schedule
Sunday, March 9
6:30 PM (English)
Sunday, March 16
CATHOLIC COMMUNITY OF PLEASANTON/Seton Campus
11 AM (English)
St. Clement
6:30 PM (English)
Sunday, March 23
8 AM, 11:15 AM (both English)
Saturday, March 29
5 PM (English)
Sunday, March 30
6:30 PM (English)
Weekday Masses (all English, all 8 AM, except where noted)
Monday, March 10
Monday, March 17
Tuesday, March 18 at 8
Tuesday, the 18 at 7 PM (Spanish)
Monday, March 24
Friday, March 28
Monday, March 31
Saturday, April 5
If you are wondering, given the schedule above, whether I am ever going to have a Sunday Spanish Mass again here at St. Clement, well...actually, so am I! I love celebrating the Mass in Spanish and certainly have some good friends among our Hispanic parishioners, but Fr. Jesus (our still-new pastor) does the scheduling himself, and I abide by his decisions. He is a joy to work with and he is the boss.