The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent is always the Temptation of Christ in the Desert. This year, we have St. Matthew's version and while there might be some differences between the gospels, they all agree that Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert. It is from these forty days of fasting that the liturgical season of Lent came about. If you take out the Sundays, which even in Lent are a celebration of the Resurrection, Lent is forty days long and imitates Jesus' time in the desert.
It could be difficult to know what to make of Christ's temptation since most of us wouldn't think the offers the Devil places before Jesus are very tempting. Jesus, being completely unique, needed to have his own tailor-made set of temptations. The kinds of things which would tempt us wouldn't tempt Jesus and the kinds of things that might be thought to tempt Jesus definitely wouldn't interest us.
I say ‘the things that might be thought to tempt Jesus' very deliberately because I don't really think that Jesus is susceptible to temptation. When you read the accounts in the Gospels it doesn't sound as though he was interested in anything the Devil was offering. The things Jesus was presented with sound more like challenges or taunts.
We know, of course, that the Devil was a loser from the very start. How is it even possible that the Son of God could be tempted by any created thing? He had perfect communion with the Creator, settling for anything less would be unthinkable! Maybe the best way of looking at his trial is to regard it as a sort of spiritual work-out that Jesus went through. It was a period of time at the beginning of his public ministry during which he stretched his spiritual muscles before entering three years of healing and teaching.
In the desert, Jesus engages in a kind of spiritual joust with the Evil One. They are fencing using scripture rather than swords; each one quoting from the Word of God in alternate challenge and counter-challenge. Something very similar happens every day in our soul, whether we realize it or not. It can be a life-saver to reflect on how to deal with temptation as we begin Lent. This is the time of year when we make worthy resolutions which we are quickly tempted to back out of. Lent is always a time during which we struggle with temptation. We might think the temptations we experience are fairly low-grade such as being tempted to eat sweets, drink alcohol or whatever we decided to give up.
However, the lessons we learn about resisting little temptations are not so different from those we need to deal with much greater temptation such as sexual sin, theft, gossip, or other deadly sins.
The first golden rule in resisting temptation is to pray. If we think we can overcome temptation and sin by sheer willpower or heroic discipline, we have already fallen into the trap of pride and self-reliance. It’s humbling to me how often my first response to temptation is to call on my own power and strength. Only in God can we be victorious and experience life-changing conversion! One of the very best prayers in time of trial is the Our Father, especially the line which says, ‘lead us not in to temptation.' Say this prayer slowly and really mean it. You will be surprised at the effect it has.
The second golden rule is to do our best to avoid situations where temptation will be waiting for us. Obviously this won’t always be possible because some circumstances are beyond our control. It is a sign of true humility and self-awareness to know what things tempt us and to respect our weakness enough to stay away from those situations.
So, if you are trying to give up sweets, don't have them laying around the house. The same goes for more serious things. If you are tempted to visit inappropriate sites on the internet then don't put your computer in the bedroom but in the living room. If you access the internet in an environment where other people are around, you are far less likely to visit sites you shouldn't. When an occasion of sin presents itself the key word is to flee. Along with prayer, this is the best way to deal with temptation from the very beginning.
The third golden rule of resisting temptation is to make a decision to reject it —— but this is much more difficult. At this stage we are face-to-face with the cause of our temptation and what now begins is a battle of wills. Once we are at this point, the best way to deal with it is to make a decision. It sounds simple but a decision here means something firm and decisive, an absolute decision you might call it.
Most people have made many decisions during their lives, often in the form of a rule such as ‘I will never tell a lie'. Decisions such as these are good because they keep us safe. The important thing in making a decision is to wait until you are in a calm, prayerful frame of mind and then decide what rule you want to make. And time matters; if you can keep a resolution for a week then you are much more likely to be able to keep it for a month and then a year, and even much longer.
Never underestimate the power of a decision. ‘I will never tell a lie,’ ‘I will never take something that is not mine,' and ‘I will never speak badly of another person,' these are all examples of rules we make which help keep us on the straight and narrow.
Remember these three things: praying, fleeing, and deciding. Make these golden rules part of your life and be confident they will help you become spiritually strong and fit during these 40 days of lent.
