Because of st. mark's brief account of the temptation of Jesus, my mind has the tendency to think of it in general as the temptation in the desert. Of course, when we read St. Matthew's version (as we did just now) or the one by St. Luke, we realize that the temptation is described in terms of a broader geography that just the desert. We see Jesus tempted in the Holy City of Jerusalem and upon a mountain top from which he can somehow experience all the kingdoms of the earth. Simply put, Jesus is tempted everywhere: from the desert, to the city, to the mountains, to all kingdoms. Everywhere.

If we look at what he is tempted about, St. Matthew will tell us that in the first instances it was about food, fame and power. These three temptations seem to me to symbolize all the base urges we all experience day to day: always wanting to indulge ourselves (the stones into bread), seeking neurotically to have others admire us (the jump from the parapet), wanting to control everyone and everything (even when we don't control ourselves)—yes, to control the tiniest details about life and the people around us (the kingdoms of the earth).

It is precisely these temptations to self-indulgence and the lure of fame and power that have dogged the Church and dulled her witness throughout the centuries right up to our own time. So, if I were asked what it was that Jesus was tempted about, I'd have to say "everything that we are tempted about.".

In the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of John, when the realization comes upon Jesus that his Hour has come, our Lord utters these words from his depths: "Now my very soul trembles. Should I say, 'Father, save me from this hour'?" Our Trappist brother, Fr. Michael Casey says of this scene: "Let us not water down the heroism of Jesus in pursuing his mission. Perhaps he experienced something of the seething inner duality of which the prophet Jeremiah wrote. From the outside, Jesus' life may have appeared to be like a boat tranquilly holding its course in midstream. The inner reality, as suggested by this narrative, was more energetic—a constant battle to hold the rudder steady against contrary currents, with much vigilance and heavy toil necessary to avoid coming aground. Jesus' solidarity with fallen humanity was not merely a polite gesture that left him untouched by the storms that so often make our life a misery." ;

Matthew reports that, in the agony in Gethsemane, Jesus says to his dearest disciples: "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." And to his Father he prays: "My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will." In answer to the question about whether Jesus' temptations were real for him, I enjoy invoking the insight of C.S. Lewis that the person who gives in to temptation and sins, never learns its full power. It is the one who resists it. The Old Adam gave in to temptation; the New Adam resists it. Jesus is the man to ask about what is the full power of the devil's temptations, because he has known them in their utmost extremity.

In his Introduction to the New Testament, Fr. Raymond Brown points out with his usual bril-liance that the three temptations in today's Gospel of Matthew (the temptation to work a bread miracle for the wrong purpose, or to show off greatness in Jerusalem, or to be gain kingly power inappropriately) all have a counterpart in the narrative of the ministry of Jesus found in the Gospel of John. The theme of temptation is thus not limited to the synoptic Gospels. For example, the crowd in the sixth chapter of John reacts to the multiplication of the loaves by seeking to make Jesus an earthly king who can continually feed them with this dole of bread. Jesus doesn't meet this temptation with some kind of detached rationality; he heads for the hills alone to pray to his Father.

When we consider all the temptations, trials and challenges posed to Jesus in all four gospels by Satan, by the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees, by his relatives, by his own disciples and apostles—even by St. Peter, whom on one occasion he calls "Satan" when Peter tempts Jesus away from the Passion—when we consider all this we have to say that Jesus was tempted almost continually by someone.

Many people would counter that Jesus in himself is not tempted, but that Satan and others pose temptations that are easily dismissed or ignored by him. After all, the temptations in the gospel today, at first sight, seem silly. Yet, in reality, the three temptations are, as Raymond Brown (again) points out, the Satanic attempt to divert the proclamation of God's kingdom so that it will become a kingdom according to the standards of this world. Writes Brown: "The devil tests Jesus to turn stones into bread for his personal convenience; Jesus will multiply loaves of bread but only for others. The Devil tests Jesus by offering him all the kingdoms of the earth; Jesus will receive all power in heaven and earth, but not by seeking it and only when it is given by God."

And, as we have seen, he has known them everywhere, been tempted in every way that we are, and continually, but did not sin. There is a stunning passage in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned. But in the redeeming love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin (I repeat: he assumed us in the state of our waywardness to sin), to the point that he could say in our name on the cross: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God 'did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,' so that we might be 'reconciled to God by the death of his Son.'"

The Epistle to the Hebrews proclaims all this as Good News. In chapter 2 of Hebrews we read: "Because Jesus himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted." Later, in chapter 4, Hebrews gives a fuller statement of this good news: "We have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Yes, let us all who are gathered here now draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that is this altar, upon which will soon be enthroned the sacrament of sacraments, the source and summit of the Christian life, our Bread of Life in this desert, the eucharistic Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. Angels will come and minister to us.

-Fr. Luke Truhan, OCSO

Sunday, March 13, 2011