Breaking Open the Word
February 22
Introduction
Today we begin the 40-day countdown to Holy Thursday, the Forty Days of Lent begin on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday. The 40th and final day will be Holy Thursday. During Lent the Church returns in spirit to a time when the people of God were in exile, waiting for the Redeemer-Messiah to come and save them. We anticipate Christ's second "birth" from the tomb. We also join Moses and the Israelites in a spirit of exile, struggle and purification where the faithful join together in saying, “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” –Psalm 51
Our focus in Lent is not on rejoicing but on mourning our sins and reflecting on those things that keep us from a personal relationship with God. Once we have experienced sorrow for our sins and their consequences in our lives through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can rejoice again at Easter. It is not only Christ's Resurrection that we celebrate but also our rebirth in our covenant relationship and friendship with the Most Holy Trinity.
We do not sing the "Gloria" ("Glory to God in the Highest ...") and the "Alleluia" before the Gospel during Lent. These joyful hymns are omitted during this penitential season. Their return in the Easter liturgy crescendos our praise and JOY!
Gospel Explained
The English word temptation brings to mind seduction to evil, an enticement to sin or to take the wrong path. In Greek, however, the term used by Matthew to describe Jesus’ experience in the wilderness was peirazein, which means to test. Just as tempered steel is tested to determine its strength and its resistance to stress and strain, so the experience of Jesus was intended to test the degree of His strength and ability to withstand difficulties.
Matthew placed the account of Jesus’ testing immediately after His baptism. Having been identified as the “beloved Son”, who was endowed “with the Spirit of God”, with whom “the Father was well pleased” (3:22-23), Jesus was then tested in His capacity as Son and Servant of the Father. The indication that He “was led into the desert by the Spirit” affirms the fact that His experience was in accord with God’s saving plan.
Jesus first temptation recalled God’s gift of manna to Israel in the desert (Exodus 16:4-8) and tested Jesus’ capacity as the Son of God. Would Jesus use His powers as God’s Son to play the role of a political and social messiah by feeding a hungry mankind? Jesus’ responds that God’s Will and God’s Word would be His food which He will offer to a hungry humankind.
The second temptation recalled Israel’s complaints against God in the desert and their demand of Moses to reveal God’s power and presence. Refusing to test God, Jesus’ quotes Deuteronomy (6:16) which reads in full, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah.”
In the third test, Jesus is offered a vision of all the world’s kingdoms in their splendor. People would remember Moses vision atop Mt. Nebo of the promised land (Deuteronomy 34:1-4). Refusing to worship His tempter, Jesus remained a faithful Son of the Father saying, “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve.”
Later in the gospel, when Peter attempted to divert Jesus from His Father’s saving plan, Jesus would dismiss him just as He did the tempter, “Away with you Satan.” Jesus’ testing as God’s Son would continue during His passion. . . “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (27:40). But Jesus was not to be deterred either from living or from dying in fulfillment of His Father’s will.
Today's Theme
Our first parents introduced temptation and sin into the world. God did not tempt them to sin. But by their free will, they chose to willfully break the love relationship with God by placing their selfish will over God's divine will for their lives. The same circumstance of temptation and sin continues throughout salvation history. For most of us, those temptations that erode our relationship with God come about through our indifference toward God that leads to failure through sin.
In the First Reading, we remember that God formed humankind from the soil of the earth. Humanity is corporal (formed from matter) and spiritual. In the New Covenant, Jesus instituted the seven Sacraments, which are corporal and spiritual. In creating the first man and woman, God placed them in a protected space that served as the meeting place for fellowship with God. The Tree of Life in the Garden Sanctuary symbolized immortality and was a sign of God's covenant with our first parents. The "tree of life" became a covenant sign and a symbol of immortality again in the Cross of Jesus Christ, the New Covenant "Tree of Life."
The theme of the Responsorial Psalm is that the confession of our sins opens us to God's mercy. In Psalm 51, attributed to David, we receive a beautiful example of genuine, heartfelt repentance and the psalmist's confidence that God is merciful and will extend His forgiveness to the humbled and repentant soul.
The Second Reading and the Gospel teach us about the consequences of sin and the power to overcome temptation or testing. St. Paul addressed the origin of sin and death. Adam’s sin and the subsequent sins of humanity constituted an offense, Christ’s appearance and His saving words were a gift. However grave the offense and its consequences, even death for all, the gracious gift of God in Christ is immeasurably greater. Through Christ, God’s grace and the gift of His justice bring acquittal and life for all people.
Theme in our Life Today
Temptation is not meant to lead us into sin but to enable us to conquer it, it is not meant to make us bad or to weaken us but to make us good, stronger, purer and finer. At the root of all temptation lies the capital sins: pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and laziness. More than mere attitudes, these vices replace the vision of the good with illusions of self-fulfillment, self-power, and self-advancement. When we prefer only ourselves, we reject others and God.
The Tenth Commandment keeps us from two capital sins: greed and envy. Greed desires the excessive amassing of material goods. Envy festers within us a great desire for more at the sight of another's gain. In both cases, others lose as we win. With winning comes pride. With pride comes lust for power. Coveting begins with things and ends with people.
Jesus fought against greed and envy (the first temptation), pride (the second temptation), and lust for power (the third temptation) through poverty of the heart and a desire to serve God. Poverty of the heart means spiritual detachment from material goods. It helps us consider others' needs alongside our own.
A desire to serve God flows from the heart's poverty. From humility, we can see the end point of our true desire: life with God. Jesus showed us the way (endurance through humility) to overcome temptation and the end result (revelation of the Father) of conquering temptation. More importantly, Jesus showed us the reason He endured temptation and eventually death: to destroy evil for our sake. We might be tempted, but He has been tempted before; as He overcame the evil one, so can we with His help.
This is the reason we enter into the Forty Days of Lent. We enter the desert with Jesus, knowing we will be tested and assured Jesus has gone before us, He walks with us, and He has guaranteed the outcome. At the end of Lent comes Resurrection and victory over evil!
Prepare for Sunday
What are the great personal temptations people face? What lies or illusions convince people to give into this testing?
What are my personal temptations? How has God helped me in the past to endure this testing? How can He help me in the future?