1st Sunday of Lent (A) March 13, 2011
Vatican Radio - Christian Horizons
Biblical Commentary by Don Fabio Rosini
Temptation
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter approached and said: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread." 4 But he said: "It is written
not live by bread alone man,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said: "If you are the Son of God, thrown down, it is written
will command his angels concerning you,
and they bear thee up with their hands,
lest you dash your foot against a stone .
7 Jesus replied, "it is written,
not groped the Lord your God .
8 Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, and said 9 "All these things will I give thee, if, prostrate yourself and worship me." 10 Jesus said to him: "Go away, Satan! It is written
worship the Lord thy God
and worship Him alone .
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.
Word of the Lord.
Apparently a sort of fairy tale, this book hides a depth not sondabile - It seems a bit a challenge a bit 'far from our life where one stands as a spectator to see that Jesus is better than the devil. There. In fact, this text is absolutely no depth sondabile in the few words that we say now and in the many words that one could say with plenty of time.
The theme of temptation as an opportunity to choose given to us- This text is the text you want to open Lent. This is the text that confronts us at the time of truth. The time in which to address the theme of our change. Pull out of our beauty and analysis of the wrong things.
Here we are faced with the theme of temptation. The temptation is this reality linked to the exercise of our freedom. The tempter has to perform his ministry, because we can not love God "for strength." We can not serve "to coercion." We need to choose. But choose what? Here appears the temptation, the other hypothesis. So we see in this fight, in this controversy that exists between Jesus and the devil, the two options. And concern about what the two options? The basic theme of two of these three temptations is to be children of God
The first temptation: things will always be edible? - How it appears the temptation in Jesus? " If you are a child of God .." But, as you are the son of God? If I am the son of God, how I feel? What follows from this condition here? If you are a child of God, then the stones will become bread. Meaning? Things will always be edible. Even the stones must be functional to my satisfaction. I can never be frustrated. If God is my father, I have to be good forever. I must always have a full belly. I can not be frustrated, disappointed by the things. I must always have a satisfaction. That's all that needs to become bread. It must be edible.
A chilling solution to those who live alongside those who have accepted this logic - This thing looks like a great offer, it looks like a really nice, pleasant, but it is chilling. You think you feel the other side than those who attempted to live like that. Having always tried to live all over compensation. Having everything from satisfaction. This man, if he marries, his wife must always satisfy. The wife must always be an edible sandwich. One thing nice. A child must be for him something that comes about. The work must be something rewarding. A relationship of friendship should be something where he forages, have fun, all right, is well and still doing well. Sieves beside you, a piece of this kind of selfish!
So, we live very badly, because our life is not that. Living well means means to live as the children. The children who are starting to suck the life from taking breast milk, should receive, receive, receive. So this is a phase that never changes. It is the hearing that never ends. One has to go to eat all his life, all life to satisfy them, a lifetime to fulfill. And when you love a man who has never done so? When a man who has never done so will be able to do an act of self-giving? Even if the stones to be bread, even the stones you should eat this one, but then imagine what it must be around anyone who has embraced this logic. Must be reduced to being a servant. To be available.
Accepting that in life there are not only rewarding, but there is something more than meets: the good that we do! - This fight here is a very serious battle. It's the battle of accepting that they live not only that. We do not live only in satisfaction. But there is something that satisfies more. The will of the Father. It is to make a mission: to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God There is a mission. There a being able to perform the word which God has written in the depths of our soul. Even the most pagan, as far as foreign to the things of God, is not foreign to an interior light, deep, which indicates that something good: the light of the good. This is the word of God! This is the word for us Christians, fortunately, is given explicitly. It is something that God tells us. It tells us that we must make good. The mission to which God has called us. You can not live like the children, thinking only of satisfaction. Must know how to accomplish a mission.
And this is only a temptation! Think about how important all the rest!
The second temptation: to force God to go on the spectacular and give us feedback? - And the second? Also, " If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down!" brought him into the holy city. At the highest point of the temple. " Thrown Down!" mean? Do one thing striking, extraordinary, amazing, because God has protected. But how? He did not say in Scripture that will protect you in every situation? Which will avoid any danger to you? E So what? Thrown out! Compel God to go on the show.
The temptation of having suffered a return - is the temptation to success. Of the statement. It's that temptation to which a person must always be reflected. Must have answers. Must always be faced with things that are clear, where God responds immediately, where all things are effective. Where has happened. Living this life is a worrying prospect!
life but also provides for the failure, the waiting, the irrisolvibilità - Because in life there is a failure. There is the expectation. There are things that are not resolved immediately. Because many things are done with patience. Many things are done by starting small. You can not expect soon to have results in a lot of things in our lives. Many things must be built slowly.
The man who reasons according to this logic: the son of haste and anxiety - And who is that man can not live in a state of frustration? That can not live in a situation where there is an immediate success or otherwise in which there will be? There will be other things to do. There will be other things to do. He is a concern. A dangerous man. He is a man who will not be able to live in precarious reality. In indefinizione of reality. Just want feedback. He has to throw and they immediately have to respond. This is not a child of God! This is a child of a hurry. A child anxiety. It is one that must have suffered all that respond.
But you think about it, but it can be a good wife, a woman who wants results now and in any case? But it can be a good mother? But how that frustration will grow and grow children a woman who demands that their soon to see the fly that things meet, are effective, fruitful, bringing results? Mamma mia. A child needs patience to grow. We all need for patience.
The second temptation to use a logic contrary to love - This logic of success is a terrible logic. This logic is contrary to love. Love implies the failure. Love involves silence, waiting, patience. Implies, requires, needs to be able to sustain a difficult situation and do not change or escape and not just wait now that everything is resolved.
unsolvable problems have a task: to solve - Sometimes the problems we have to keep them there. Sometimes we have to solve them. Other times they have the task of solving us. To make us grow, make us mature. To make us capable of patience, love, gentleness and understanding. There. Think you know how important it is to accept God's times and do not jump down from the pinnacle of the temple. It does not always stay in force, pulling the reality which has to go, pulled the jacket, where we expect, where we want.
The third temptation: I propose to become master of slavery! - And more. The last temptation is that of ownership. " All these things I will give you . Possession. Have it all. have it all. But have all asked to bow down to everything. "To have , prostrate!" To have power, you give your power. That is the question. " All these things will I give thee, if thrown at my feet worship me!" So you're telling me that I become a master or become a slave? It seems that I become a master, but for now let's start by making the slaves.
The logic of possession - So is the possession in life. The possession in life, seems to give us chance to have autonomy, but it is actually an expropriation. Possession expropriation. The possession in our lives leads us into a situation that anxiety. That slavery of things. It is a total falsehood.
So we can not have anything? No. We can with the logic and timing of God is clear that we must have things in our lives. According to what God wants. And according to a quiet, peaceful, serene state of expectation to the will of God to accomplish a mission, as we said before, accepting as God leads our real history. By the time we are dead, because there must be. To have that? To possess God that no one can ever steal it.
Click here to download the episode of "Widening horizons" in which, in the end, it says this gospel
