Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13
First Sunday of Lent
Open, Not Your Stomach, but Your Heart: Accept Difference as Richness!
There was a Nigerian man, who sent his two sons to the United States to study. Since he was not particularly rich, his sons did not return home for the five years their studies lasted. Their father is a real Nigerian, who eats well, in quantity and quality, at breakfast, lunch and dinner. On their return to Nigeria, after five years, his sons realized that their father had become “plenty” (Nigerian for being fat, American extra-large). So, they advised him to go with them to see a doctor. He cooperated with his sons’ suggestion and accompanied them to the doctor’s. It was his children who explained to the doctor their fear of their father dying of heart-attack or a heart disease on the account of his body mass. The doctor shared the preoccupations of the two young men and placed their father on a diet; but their father asked the doctor to explain to him the meaning of a diet. The doctor said to their father to have a toasted bread and a cup of tea for breakfast, a bit of French fries for lunch, and soup at dinner/supper, as his diet. All three thanked the doctor. While leaving the doctor’s office, at the door, the man turned to ask the doctor a final question: doctor, he said, the diet you prescribed, when are mine to eat it, before or after meals?
Traditionally, the three Lenten themes are Fasting, Arms-giving and Prayers. These three remain perennials in meaning. However, on this first Sunday of Lent, is it possible to make sense of pope Francis’ 2015 Lenten suggestion: Let your fasting be to overcome indifference? “In his annual Lenten message, the pope writes, ‘Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.'”
The root of indifference today is the attitude of difference: I am a man, let women fight for their rights; I am Caucasian, let Africans fight their fights; I am a virgin, let prostitutes worry about their salvation, etc. We struggle to maintain our comfort zones to the neglect of those who need help, an attitude of “us” versus “them;” we have always been “up,” members of the upperclass, and they have always been “down,” lower class.
The presentation of the first fruits, in our first reading today, makes the virtue of gratitude quintessential in religious practices, especially for the Jewish people, in recognition of God’s salvific actions in their lives. What is hidden in the letters of the text of our first reading is the rise of Jewish exceptionalism – God saved us because we alone are the people of God: we are different, that is why he saved us; he did not save them or he punished them because they are not his people, but we are his people.
Of course, no one can deny that “worship” of God is the human response to divine beneficence, but does that mean that there are people whom God has not blessed in one way or another? The forty days journey of Lent is, foremost, to realize that God is the God of all peoples and he blesses all peoples. If today the emphasis of the first reading is the human response in thanksgiving for God’s beneficence, it is an invitation to reciprocate God’s gesture of generosity towards those in need. Furthermore, it helps us to realize that human beings, irrespective of their race, gender and social status, are all children of God; as a result, we need to purge ourselves of superiority complex. In order to make this point abundantly clear, that their is only one humanity for the races, genders and social positions of human beings, the three-fold temptations of Jesus Christ, in today’s gospel, reveal the sources of our indifference in contemporary times.
The people with economic powers think they have the right to decide who survives and who dies. The first temptation of Jesus to transform stones into bread shows that only an evilly inclined person turns food into a weapon of war, and not a God-given right, as attested by Genesis 1.
Jesus’ second temptation on the worship of power, no matter its source, challenges the supremacy of God, and enlarges the camp of the devil because he (the devil) does not serve, but he is served. The craving for power and its manipulative use, above all, those who accept to be used by the powers that be need to wake up to the proper source of power – God. God as the ultimate source of power is an invitation to see power as synergy of human wellbeing.
Contentment with what one has and maximizing one’s potentials keep one within the range of God’s will. This is the attitude Jesus supplies at his third temptation. On the contrary, we tempt temptation in our foolhardiness because we think that life, human life, is an expendable commodity at whim.
In Paul’s statement, “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek” (Rm 10:12), according to our second reading, he widens the scope of what fasting means during Lent. Paul’s essential argument is the equality we all have in God’s salvation. Therefore, Paul teaches us that working to overcome indifference, and seeing in difference richness, in our divided world, makes Lent a period of building bridges across divides. This is to say that with a full stomach, Lent is till observable. The kind of hunger that does not seem to get enough attention is acceptance of those who are different than us in gender, race and status. When people who seek for love, justice and inclusiveness see us reaching out to them, then a new humanity is being created, and a new kind of Lent is being observed; after all, last judgment includes the following: “I was a stranger and you made me welcome: enter into the joy of your Father!” This Lent, love and bring in all the strangers of homophobia, xenophobia, etc.
Assignment of the Week
Which of the human races or religions do you despise the most? Find someone that fall under either category and show them some love!
An Exegetical Homily on Luke 4:1-13 for First Sunday of Lent, 2016
Step I: What does the Text Say?
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, (Luke 4:1 NRS) where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. (Luke 4:2 NRS) The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” (Luke 4:3 NRS) Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.'” (Luke 4:4 NRS) Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. (Luke 4:5 NRS) And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. (Luke 4:6 NRS)If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” (Luke 4:7 NRS) Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'” (Luke 4:8 NRS) Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, (Luke 4:9 NRS) for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ (Luke 4:10 NRS) and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” (Luke 4:11 NRS) Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” (Luke 4:12 NRS) When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. (Luke 4:13 NRS)
Step II: What does the Text Mean?
Control the Body, in order to Activate the Holy Spirit in You!
1. A literary analysis of our text pit against each other the sayings of two persons, namely, Jesus and the devil. Apart from the introductory section (Luke 4:1-2), which is written altogether in past time/tense, and provides the context or circumstance for the actions that follow, the remainder of our text is an admixture of present, past and future use of times/tenses.
2. What is unique about the two forms of the present tense/time used in the text is that they are quotations from Scriptures (Old Testament); as quotations, they establish permanent statements of fact, on the basis of God’s commandments. This will mean that God’s injunctions are permanent and perennial.
3. Interestingly, Jesus quotes the bible as back up or supporting arguments for not doing what the devil asks of him, for all three temptations. But the devil comes up with one quotation from Scripture (Psalm 91) to prove his own knowledge of the Bible and to encourage Jesus to do his bidding! We shouldn’t fail to see the nuance in the third temptation of Jesus, where the devil quotes Psalm 91: the difference between the two uses of Scripture in question is functional: i) for Jesus, it is a question of fidelity, and ii) for the devil, entitlement. Consequently, the devil’s prior question, “if you are the Son of God,” challenges Jesus’ identity as Son of God, although God had declared Jesus as such at Jesus’ baptism.
4. Luke 4:1-2 makes the fasting of Jesus the occasion for the temptation of the devil. Obviously, after a fast, one becomes hungry; but what is the point of Jesus’s refusal to turn stone into bread, but he multiplies loaves for the hungry? The answer to this question is the meaning of today’s gospel. Those led by the Holy Spirit of God, as Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to fast and triumph over the devil’s temptation, situates human strength in the realm of the Holy Spirit. When the body is under control, the human spirit becomes alert to the presence of evil, and the devil itself.
5. Of particular importance for us is this statement: “where for forty days he was tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:2a). The temptations of Jesus are not limited to the three listed in today’s gospel. The three of them listed are a summary of the ways the devil tempts us, but it is not an exhaustive list. A literal understanding of Luke 4:2a suggests that every day of the forty days was a temptation day, above all else, it was a victory day.
Step III: Points for Homily
1. The copious use of citations from sacred Scripture today may be a homily point. Here, one may underscore the need to have the knowledge of sacred Scripture, to be able to quote it, but above all, to live it out and evoke it for protection against the wiles of the devil.
2. The importance of living in the Holy Spirit is another possible theme. The presence of the Holy Spirit puts one on guard against temptations.
3. “Sin of the flesh” and all kinds of contexts of sin could be a homily topic this Sunday. One may want to see how economic poverty, hypocrisy, bribery and corruption, etc make social and material progresses impossible.