1st SUNDAY OF LENT
1Peter
Mark 1:12-15
“…the spirit drove him out into
the wilderness...
and was tempted by Satan…”
.
Today is the
first Sunday of Lent. The season of lent is again an occasion for us to
meditate on the mystery of Christ's passion and death. As we begin this season,
today’s gospel leads us to ponder on two important themes: temptation and repentance:
1. We start with the reality of temptation. Sometime, somewhere, an article was published with its title: "Does God tempt us? If not, then, why pray ‘Lead us not into temptation’?” True, there are a lot of questions attached to the reality of temptation. Some of them are easy to answer; others, however, are just difficult that perhaps their satisfactory answers rest only in the hands of God. Anyhow, we know that temptation is real. It is not just a product of an idle mind, as some say it is. Both idle and busy minds are fertile grounds for temptations. The gospel of today is purposely narrated to us in order to teach us that even Christ himself was subjected to it. Temptation is, therefore, part of man's life.
Temptation is understood, in a more healthy way, as
test. God allows temptation only in the context of a test. That is why God can
never give a man that test which is beyond his capacity to tackle or handle.
Otherwise, he contradicts his own perfection. There are indeed tests which are
too difficult, as if they go beyond our individual capacities. But looking
deeper at them, we discover that they are indeed difficult not really because
they surpass our capacities, but because we feel we are just too weak to face
them. This is why we pray: "Lead
us not into temptation (test).”
This prayer bespeaks of our human weakness: It is man's honest pleading that God may not subject him to too difficult tests. But actually, the educative aspect of it consists just precisely in facing the difficult ones, even as we honestly implore that God may spare us from them. Can we not just imagine how meaningless life would be when things come to us through easy means? Even our common experience would tell us that parents who really labored so much just to acquire properties would always value even the least that they have founded. Only the children who come afterwards - their children who never shared the difficulty at all - are the ones who become quite senseless as to squander whatever belongings their parents had put up. And the reason is simple. These children could never value or even appreciate those things because they never labored for them.
The temptations of Christ which happen not only in the wilderness but practically during his lifetime teach us that the meaning and beauty of Christian life consists in doing the hard way. Of course, we must not this as if God takes pleasure in man's sorrow. No. But this goes in harmony with human experience. Even in games that we play, victory is sweeter when won in a hard way. In other words, we appreciate the meaning of success not when everything is given to us or when things always happen just the way we want them to, but when amidst difficulties and sacrifices we come out glorious and victorious. Even kids are not that as proud with beautiful things they don't make as they are with those less beautiful ones which they do.
Life makes a better sense in the interplay of positive and negative forces, just as synthesis is born from thesis and antithesis. What kind of joy would that be when, on the first place, we know no sorrow? That would be no joy at all. How could we know what sweetness is when we know of nothing bitter? Even coffee with sugar tastes better than poor sugar. Some even prefer pure coffee.
Aside from being ingredients that give life a better taste, temptations make us grow in God's grace. True, there are temptations which may lead man to ruin and perhaps even to eternal damnation. But temptations as tests are meant to strengthen our faith as we sojourn in this valley of tears. This makes the saints spiritual champions. They are in no way exempt of temptations. In fact, theirs are even greater. But in their constant dependence on God's grace and in their consistent adherence to God's word, they have indeed become the real “masters of their faith and captains of their souls." Of course, we don't want to believe that saints don't fall, for the truth is that they do. But the happier part of it is that even though they are down they are not out. They have enough allowances to human failures and strong hope for God’s forgiveness as they bend their knees in sincere repentance.
2. “Repent and believe in the Good News.” Repentance is the second theme of our gospel which Mark puts immediately after his brief account of Jesus’ temptation. Mark seems to tell us an amazing point to ponder upon. If temptation is an ingredient to life, so too is repentance an “ingredient” to temptation. Meaning, a Christian takes repentance as necessary companion – if not a consequent weapon – against temptation.
Man is by nature weak. But the heavier reason why man
becomes out when he is down is not so much because he is that weak, but because he pretends to be strong even in his
weakness. Repentance means bending one’s knees before God’s mercy when fallen
by temptation. This is why saints always out do the proud and the haughty. The
latter insist to be strong in their weakness, while the former admit weakness
in their strength. The saints get the real strength from the power of God, for
truly, it is in man’s weakness that the power of God is strong (cf2Cor
It is no wonder that repentance and belief in the
Good News are also inseparable from the reign of God. They are in fact the
indelible marks of God’s kingdom. For God's reign means living according to the
imperative of the gospel. This consists not only in turning one's back on sin,
but also in laboring much in order to get rid of the temptations to sin. Now,
the temptations to sin in the context of God's reign are not only personal but
also social. This includes, then, the danger
to succumb to massive accumulation of wealth, power and affluence in the midst
of dire poverty, powerlessness and oppression. This is even portrayed in the
temptations of Jesus where he was seduced not only to mere self gratification
but also to power and dominion (cf Mt 4:1-11). Thus, the struggle against these
tempting realities ranges from the person to the society, from the self to the
world. And overcoming them is part of our quest for personal conversion and
social transformation. But more importantly, living according to the spirit of
the gospel is a positive kind of life and action. It is not only avoiding
injustice but doing justice. It is not only getting rid of hatred but also
practicing acts of love and charity. In other words, the good news of our
redemption demands of us not only to omit from what is bad but also to commit to
what is good. After all, a tree is considered good not because it does not bear
bad fruit (lest it may not bear fruit at all), but because of the good fruit
that it bears.