Parish Bulletin
PARISH NEWS
DEACON MARKS SUNDAY GOSPEL REFLECTION
Luke’s gospel tells (Lk 4:1-13) of Jesus deliberately going into the wilderness and wrestling for forty days with the question of his vocation and how he would give himself for others. He rejects the way of power and glory, rather choosing the way of service and suffering. In our own lives, we too face those temptations to accumulate material riches, to seek popularity and to build worldly power and we ask how we might fortify ourselves to overcome these temptations.
Pope Francis has preached[1] about the temptations encountered by Jesus in Luke’s gospel (Lk 4:1-13), pointing to three ruinous and misleading paths: greed for possession, human vainglory and the exploitation of God.
Particularly in the modern western world where many of us have so much already, we easily recognise the first temptation in that crazy impulse to accumulate even more. The devil tempts us to believe “nourishment, life, fulfilment, happiness … is possible without God.” Jesus tells us otherwise.
“Vainglory”, the second temptation, we recognise too, that excessive pride in oneself or one’s achievements. The vanity, conceit or egotism of thinking we are better than others. Not so!
But what of the third temptation, “exploiting God to one’s advantage.” Pope Francis teaches us, “In response to the devil who, citing Scripture, invites Him to seek a conspicuous miracle from God, Jesus again opposes with the firm decision to remain humble, to remain confident before the Father: “It is said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’”. Thus, Jesus rejects perhaps the most subtle temptation: that of wanting to ‘pull God to our side’, asking him for graces which in reality serve and will serve to satisfy our pride.”
Rationalising that the ends justify the means, cutting deals with the devil or taking shady short-cuts, compromises, gamesmanship, these are the temptations drawing us away from humility and confidence in the Lord.
Deacon Mark Kelly