At the beginning of Lent, the
Church reads to us the account of Jesus doing spiritual combat with the devil
in the wilderness, reminding us that Lent is a time of warfare. Through our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting,
and almsgiving, we do battle with the power of the devil in our lives, and with
God’s grace, defeat him decisively.
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“The priest shall receive the basket from you
and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.
Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God,
‘My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
But there he became a nation
great, strong, and numerous.
When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us,
imposing hard labor upon us,
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers,
and he heard our cry
and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.’
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence.”
“The priest shall receive the basket from you
and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.
Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God,
‘My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
But there he became a nation
great, strong, and numerous.
When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us,
imposing hard labor upon us,
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers,
and he heard our cry
and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.’
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence.”
The First Readings during the
first five Sundays of Lent are designed to provide an overview of salvation
history, with a special emphasis on the Passover and Exodus from Egypt, because
from Holy Thursday to Easter we will re-live these events in our own
liturgy. Therefore, we prepare for Holy
Week over the five preceding weeks by pondering the meaning of the pivotal
events in the story of God’s people.
This First Reading, at the
beginning of Lent, is particularly suitable because it provides a summary or
overview of Israel’s story from the time of Jacob (the wandering “Aramean,”
that is, Syrian) through the Exodus, to the conquest and settlement of the
Promised Land.
In this passage from
Deuteronomy, Moses commands the Israelites to come regularly to the central
sanctuary in order to worship. When they
come, they are to recite the history of salvation in order to commemorate it
before the Lord.
This passage reminds us of
the importance of memory in
worship. To this day, when we celebrate
mass, we do it “in remembrance of
me,” that is, the Lord Jesus. One of the
enemies of the spiritual life is forgetfulness.
We forget what God has done for us.
We forget who we are, what we have experienced as God’s people, where we
come from and where we are going. As
they say, those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. Applied to the spiritual life, that means:
those who forget the bondage God has saved them from, will slide back into that
bondage. Therefore the Church wisely
requires us to come to mass weekly in order to remember God’s salvation.
Furthermore, in the Bible, remembrance
is not just mental recall. Remembrance involves a new saving act of
God. God remembers Noah in the ark.
God remembers the people of
Israel in Egypt. In both cases, God’s
“remembrance” involves salvation. This
is the reason the Psalms frequently ask God to “remember” his people (Psalm
20:3; 74:2,18; 89:50, etc.). When we
come into mass to “do this in remembrance of me,” we are asking God to pour out
his saving power on us once again, for the coming week.
Much of American Christianity
has religious “amnesia.” Their churches
are as bare as malls. There is no
remembrance of the saints, the councils, the persecutions, the missionary
martyrdoms, or the history of God’s people.
Even the Old Testament often gets ignored. As a result, there is little sense of being
part of one people of God through the ages.
Memory creates identity. The
Church in her wisdom constantly encourages us to remember, so that we know who
we are.
R.
(cf. 15b) Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
This Psalm is the
quintessential spiritual warfare psalm, and was employed for the purpose of
exorcism and protection against evil spirits already in ancient times. To this day, it is one of the psalms used for
optional recitation during the rite of exorcism. The “asp, viper, lion, and dragon” mentioned
in the psalm were understood as references to evil spirits, which were
worshiped under the form of animals in pagan cults. The singing of this Psalm in today’s mass is
particularly appropriate, because it ties into the theme of combat with Satan
in the Gospel Reading.
Brothers and sisters:
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
For the Scripture says,
“No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
For the Scripture says,
“No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The Second Readings during
the first five Sundays of Lent are classic passages from St. Paul in which he
summarizes the Gospel message. This
reading is a good example. At its heart,
the Gospel is simple: believe in Jesus Christ and his resurrection, admit it
openly to the world, and you will be saved.
As a Protestant pastor, I
often used this passage in evangelism. I
would encourage people to place their faith in Jesus, pray to receive his
Spirit into their lives, in order that they would be assured a place in heaven.
That was well and good. The only danger comes in reducing the whole
Christian faith to just believing and confessing in order to be saved.
We need to remember other
Scriptures as well, like the following:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day.” John 6:53-54
“He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Mark 16:16
He who says, “I know him” but disobeys his commandments
is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1
John 2:4
It is true that “everyone who
calls on the name of the LORD will be saved,” but to “call on the name of the
LORD” presumes an attitude of repentance and humility, an acknowledgement that
we cannot save ourselves, that we need God’s help, and we are ready to do what
God tells us to do in order to be saved. To “call on the name of the LORD,” but
then disobey God’s instructions for salvation—which include baptism (Mark
16:16), Eucharist (“eating his flesh and blood”, John 6:53), and a transformed
life (1 John 1:6))—doesn’t really make sense.
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.
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.
It may sound strange that the
Lord was not hungry until after the
forty days. Yet during long fasts, the
body adapts to burning stored fat, and after a few days one does not feel
hungry until one’s fat stores are burned up, which may take weeks. At that point, the body begins to break down
muscle to stay alive. The body is
beginning to die, and the hunger returns.
Jesus was at that stage after forty days.
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.”
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may 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.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, 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.”
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.
The three temptations of
Christ correspond to the “threefold concupiscence,” that is, the common three
ways in which we experience the temptation to sin. In 1 John 2:15, St. John summarizes them as
follows: “Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” “Lust of the Flesh” is physical lust, for
food, sex, drugs, comfort, etc. “Lust of
the Eyes” is greed or avarice, the desire to own and possess things of beauty
and value. “Pride of Life” is simply
pride.
Sin entered the world when
Eve gave in to the threefold concupiscence.
Genesis 3:6 says that she looked at the apple and saw that it “was good
for food” (Lust of the Flesh), “pleasing to the eye” (Lust of the Eyes), and
was “desirous to make one wise” like God (Pride, to be equal with God).
In the temptation in the
wilderness, Jesus undoes Eve’s threefold disobedience. First Satan tempts him in the area of Lust of
the Flesh: “Turn these stones to bread.
Wouldn’t some nice, hot bread taste so good after all your fasting?”
Then, Lust of the Eyes: he shows him all the “power and glory” of
the kingdoms of the world in an instant and offers it to him.
Finally, Pride: Satan takes
Jesus to the most public place in all of Israel, the Temple, and encourages him
to perform a miraculous “stunt” that will make him a celebrity, receiving fame
and adulation from the whole populace.
In every case, Jesus responds
to Satan’s temptations by remembering God’s
Word. Of course, this is what Eve failed
to do: she refused to remember, that
is, to call to mind and obey, the command of God.
There’s another connection
here, this one between Jesus the Son of David and Solomon the Son of
David. We remember that on his death
bed, David charged his son and heir Solomon to “keep the Law of Moses,” which
meant Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy has three
laws for the king (Deut 1716-17): the king was not to have excessive wives
(lust of the flesh), nor excessive gold (lust of the eyes, greed), nor
excessive horses and chariots (pride in his military strength).
How did Solomon do with
that? Not so good. In 1 Kings 10-11, we read that he had 700
wives and 300 concubines, 666 talents of gold a year, and so many horses and
chariots he had to build cities to house them all. Three strikes, you’re out, Solomon.
So Solomon failed to uphold
the Law of Moses and fell prey to the threefold concupiscence.
How does Jesus do? He is also tempted according to the threefold
concupiscence, but each time he responds by upholding God’s Word: specifically,
the Book of Deuteronomy, the Law of
Moses. Our Lord quotes Deuteronomy
three times (8:3; 6:13; 6:16). In this
way, he shows that he is the better Son of David than Solomon. Truly, “something greater than Solomon is
here” (Luke 11:31). Jesus is the true
king.
As we begin Lent, we should
remember that the three acts of piety—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—are meant
to help us resist the threefold concupiscence.
Thus we learn to be kings and queens like Jesus: persons who rule their
passions and are not ruled by them, who command demons and are not commanded by
them.
Prayer combats Pride, because
prayer is the humble acknowledgement that we need God’s help, that we cannot do
it on our own.
Fasting combats the Lust of the
Flesh, teaching us to have control over our physical appetites.
Almsgiving combats Lust of
the Eyes, teaching us to be detached from our wealth, to give up on greed, to
share our wealth rather than hoard it for ourselves.
During Lent, we re-live Jesus’
forty days in the Wilderness in our own experience. Through an intense life of prayer, fasting,
and almsgiving, we do spiritual warfare with the Devil and drive him from our
lives with the help of God’s grace. We
don’t struggle by ourselves, because we have received the Spirit of Jesus the
victor through baptism and the other sacraments. We call to him for strength, and can be
assured of victory because “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be
saved,” and as our Psalm said:
“He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.”
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.”
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