The devil departed from him for a time

17 FEBRUARY (Lk 4,1-13)

The three temptations of Jesus Christ are paradigmatic of all human existence. It is as if human life were enclosed in three great moments. Therefore, they are universal and not particular temptations. Jesus is tempted in every moment of his life and in his whole life. No moment and none of his works are excluded. His whole human life is summed up in these three initial temptations.

The first temptation is toward the body. The body of a man is subject completely to the will of God. He is the one who created and gave it a law. All that he needs must be a fruit of his work. Man cannot serve himself of his virtues and supernatural gifts to get what is necessary for his body. The body has to work if it wants to take care of itself. Work is both spiritual and material, but one must always have recourse to work. Without work there is no cure for the body of a man.

Today, modern societies ruined man, because they taught him that work is only the hard one of factories or fields. Manual labour is not the one and only work. Studying is also work. If it is right that a boy must be directed to the proper manual labour, certainly it is not just leaving him idle about from night to noon and then provide him all that is necessary for his body. He is obliged to work, or to a manual or intellectual work according to his characteristics. Idleness is of no man. Because idleness is not of man.

The second temptation is in the ownership of the goods of this world. They do not belong to any creature. They are of God, who with his divine providence intends to distribute them to each according to his need. Using the goods of this world to enslave men to the personal thought, to the personal court, or own power, to the own political vision is a sin against man. Man has only one Lord and this Lord is only one: his Creator, his God, the One who made him. Yesterday like today like tomorrow this idolatry is the plague that destroys man in his truth.

Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.'” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.'” Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and: ‘With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

The third temptation is that of success at any cost. Sometimes due to a futile earthly glory man is willing even to sell his soul, body, spirit, mind and heart. We know that many are the young women who sell their bodies for a short-lived success. Some men always for success sell their mind, heart and their very body. They ruin their existence for a useless and ephemeral glory.

Jesus is asked to destroy himself in his body for a futile, useless success in order to have some proselyte behind him. It would have been a proselyte of a day. Then he would have left him, seeing his body on the side of the road. The only true success for a man is his constant staying in the will of his Lord and God. Putting himself outside of God’s will is certain death. There is no success apart from God. Satan, who is the father of lies, know it. He deceives men because he wants their body and soul.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, anchor us to the will of God.