1st Sunday of Lent 22 February 2026 Temptations
When Jesus began His public ministry the devil was aware of
Him but did not know that Jesus was God.
Accordingly the devil launched an attack on Jesus, presuming that he would overcome any merely human opposition, as he usually did.
He put three temptations before Jesus, temptations which contain all the essential points of the conflict between good and evil.
He tempts Jesus to seeking pleasure above all other considerations. Turn these stones into bread.
He tempts Him to put all His trust in Himself, and not God. Be resourceful, use whatever is available to get what you want.
He tempts Jesus to accept Satan’s patronage; it would be rewarding, again appealing to the short-term, immediate fulfilment.
There is no need for God in such a world. If I can do it
myself why bother with God?
To all of which Jesus replies simply with a direct rejection,
and then pointing to what we should be doing instead: live on the word of
God, bow down before Him alone; do not try to tell Him what to do (put Him to
the test)
The battle between good and evil comes down to a matter of assertion. Do we regard ourselves to be gods, or are we happy to deflect all the glory to the real God?
Humility will enable the right response. If we are humble we can see ourselves in the right perspective.
This is what Lucifer and the fallen angels were unable to do. They saw their own beauty and concluded that such beauty was enough for them. They could not give praise to any other – such as God, nor to humans as it turned out.
The angels, like the humans, were created to give praise to God. To share His life and the beauty of creation, but most of all to praise God.
They were so distorted in their self-love that they could not defer to God. As they breached their own nature in rejecting the true God they were cast out of Heaven and condemned to an eternity of rejection, of God and from God. Ugly deformity.
In a spirit of revenge they have come back to attack the human race in every way possible, and we certainly feel the effects of that.
However, if we are led by Jesus and His example we will resist the devil’s cunning and take refuge in humble compliance with the will of God.
Jesus as Man gave us the path to follow. Listen to God's word, take instruction from Him.
Repent of our sin, always a
major theme of Lent.
Obey at all times and without
dispute.
Worship the Lord (which means
stating God's worth, which is infinite.)
Doing these things and doing them over and over will keep us spiritually sane.
When the creatures obey the Creator then we have success and nothing to detract from it.
The devil can tempt but he has been deprived of most of his influence, with the coming of Christ.
Doing penance is one more part of our response. We voluntarily and freely offer to God something of what He has given us, such as food, pleasure, games etc
We thereby show that we value Him more than what we have given up.
We outgrow those first desires, distorted by sin. We embrace instead the balanced, reasoned, controlled divine alternatives.
It is as simple as this statement: You shall worship the one God and Him alone.
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