ARTISANS OF SYNODALITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE, BREAKING AWAY FROM MEDIOCRITY AND VANITY (POPE FRANCIS)
Each Lectio follows the usual pattern:
– the biblical text
– brief commentary
– hints for meditation
– key words to pray with the text
– challenges
– prayer
A PERSONAL METHOD (keys) FOR PRAYING THE TEXT
– I lift myself up dreaming of the place where Jesus is working
– I ask the Holy Spirit to help me understand the depth of the words
– I stop at some words that stir my attention and my life
– I feel that God wants to walk with me and reveal His love
– I hand myself over to Him and ask Him to renew me in my life journey
Pope Francis invites us: In Lent we are invited to climb a high mountain together with Jesus, to live with God’s holy people a special experience of asceticism. WE MOUNT WITH HIM: At the end of the climb the three disciples are given to see him shining with supernatural light. “As in any challenging mountain hike: on the way up one must keep one’s eyes firmly fixed on the path; but the panorama that opens up at the end surprises and repays for its wonder.
Let us descend to the plain, and may the grace experienced sustain us in being artisans of synodality in the ordinary life of our communities.
WALKING TOGETHER – warns the Pope – “often seems arduous and at times we may become discouraged”, but something wonderful awaits us that “will help us to better understand God’s will and our mission in the service of his Kingdom”.

First week of Lent
THE STYLE BY WHICH THE BELIEVER IS TO LIVE IN THE WORLD
Lk 4, 1-13
1Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, departed from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2for forty days, tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, but when they were finished, he was hungry. 3Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. 4Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone. 5The devil led him on high, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the earth 6and said to him, “I will give you all this power and their glory, for it has been given to me and I give it to whom I will. 7So if you bow down in worship before me, everything will be yours.” 8Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘The Lord your God you shall worship: to him alone you shall worship. 9He took him to Jerusalem, set him on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here; 10for it is written: To his angels he will give orders concerning thee, that they may keep thee; 11and also, They shall carry thee on their hands, lest thy foot should stumble upon a stone. 12Jesus answered him, “It has been said, You shall not test the Lord your God. 13After he had exhausted every temptation, the devil departed from him until the appointed time.
BRIEF EXPLANATION
– The Lucan version of the temptations of Jesus emphasises the reason for the struggle and the path of faith. After reporting the genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:21-37), the evangelist presents the Lord “filled with the Holy Spirit” who is led from the Jordan into the wilderness. It is emphasised that Jesus is “led by the Spirit”. The indication emphasises the necessity of the trial, before beginning the public mission.
– In the desert Jesus experiences temptation: he is subjected to the test of his divine sonship, the test of his obedience to the Father.
– The “fasting in the desert” belongs to the practice of the ancient religious tradition that indicates in this deprivation of the essential the dependence of man on God, the giver of life (Deut 8:3). The evangelist emphasises that Jesus fasts for “forty days and nights”, placing the figure of Christ in close connection with that of Moses on Sinai (Ex 34:28; Deut 9:9) and with the subsequent mission of the prophet Elijah on Horeb (1 Kings 19:8). In the same way as the people of Israel (Is 63:14), the Lord too is led by the Spirit into the solitude of the desert. So Jesus “remakes the desert path” marked by the temptation and mistrust of Israel: he takes upon himself the weakness and sins of his people, who have fallen many times into loneliness, mistrust and unbelief.
Finally, at the very moment of greatest need and weariness, the tempter approaches.
– Luke shows that Jesus is tempted by the “devil”. The term “devil” means “he who separates” and his work consists in dividing the Son from the Father and trying to destroy the relationship of deep communion that exists in the Trinitarian mystery.
– The dialogue of the three temptations recalls the context of Deuteronomy (Deut 8:3; 6:16, 13) and in the narrative succession the path of the exodus. It is necessary, however, to distinguish the succession in Matthew from that in Luke.
In Matthew 4 we have:
a) the temptation of the bread (vv.3-4) which evokes the manna in the desert (Ex 16);
b) the temptation of the temple (vv. 5-7) which recalls the episode of the water from the rock (Ex 17:2-7);
c) the temptation of power (vv. 8-10) which recalls the theme of the gift of the land (Deut 34:1-4).
In Lk 4, however, the second is reversed with the third, placing the city of Jerusalem at the end of the sequence.
– A key to interpreting the three temptations is undoubtedly the messianic model proposed by the devil to Jesus: a “horizontal” messianism, which is opposed to the fatherhood of God.
– The first temptation is based on the theme of liberation from the economic-social slavery of the people. Jesus is provoked by the tempter to live a socio-economic messianism, against the background of Jewish expectations and expectations, through prodigious and miraculous events (Acts 21:38). The hunger in the desert of the world must be fed witha prodigious transformation of stones into bread: only thus can Jesus show that he is the “Son of God”. The Lord’s response is an appeal to the centrality of God’s promise: “man does not live by bread alone” (Deut 8:3). Jesus teaches to put God first, trusting only in His providence. The righteous man who lives his faith in the expectation of Christ’s coming cannot but follow this path, overcoming the temptation of miraculousism and of a spectacular and merely exterior religious vision.
– The second temptation is that of political power over the world, which recalls the insurrectionist struggle in the Palestinian region. Already in the messianic tradition of the OT the messiah is promised the kingdoms of the earth (Ps 2:6, 8; 110:1-2). The condition set by the tempter is profoundly idolatrous, resulting in radical infidelity to God, the only Lord. But Jesus commands the devil to recognise the only God (shemah Israel in Deut 6:5, 13; Ex 32:1), pointing the way of faithfulness to the Father, as the only way for the realisation of the promises of salvation. On the mountain of temptation, as a new Moses, Jesus reaffirms the only lordship in history: that of God, to whom alone we must turn our adoring gaze.
– The third temptation concerns the sacred sphere of the temple and the priesthood, contextualised in the holy city of Jerusalem. In the Lucan picture, the city of Jerusalem acquires a central importance for the mission/revelation of Jesus as “prophet and saviour”. The devil urges Christ to use religious cover (Ps 91:11-12) to “make use of God”. The people of Israel also wanted to tempt the Lord in the wilderness with magic and miracles (Deut 32:15-18; the typical sin recalled in the Jewish tradition of the temptation to Massa and Meriba”: Deut 9:22; 32:51; 33:8; Ps 78:18; 95:8; 106:32). Jesus’ response to the devil follows the Scripture quotation: You shall not tempt the Lord your God (Deut 6:16).
– In the desert, the place of trial, Jesus overcomes temptation by trusting completely in filial obedience to the Father. In the same way he teaches us, who walk in the desert of our days, to trust in God’s promise and his mercy. The positive outcome of the threefold temptation is emphasised with the removal of the devil (v.10), but we are also reminded that the evil one will always be lurking and will return “at the appointed time”.
– The page of temptation recalls the page of Gethsemane (Mt 26:36-56), a prelude to the passion of Christ where obedience to the Father is made complete by the surrender of Himself to death on the cross (Phil 2:6-11).
FIVE POINTS FOR MEDITATION
1. THE BELIEVER’S STYLE
The account of the temptation of Jesus should not be considered as an “initial incident” in the public mission of the Lord, but rather as the style by which the believer must live in the world. We also place ourselves, moved by the Spirit in the context of the desert. Jesus: “that beloved Son” is subjected to the great temptation by Satan. We recall the admonition of the wise man in Sirach: “Son, if you present yourself to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation” (Sir 2:1).
2. THE DESERT: A “MIDDLE ZONE”, BETWEEN YOU AND GOD
The desert, an inhospitable, unlivable place, has accompanied the believers’ journey with its presence since the Old Testament: Adam experiences solitude (Gen 2-3); Abraham is in trial (Gen 22); Israel experiences sin (Ex 16); prophetic preaching and the messianic announcement are realised in the change of the desert into a garden (Is 35). The desert calls you back to the essential, to the truth of yourself and your life, it allows you to purify your heart to listen to the Word of God and make a new covenant with Him (Ex 24). The desert is a “middle zone”, between you and God, between your territory and the promised land: you are called to pass through the desert! 3. SOLITUDE: “REDISCOVERING” THE “AGONIC” FACE
When we are alone, we experience the struggle against Satan, which takes place within ourselves: therefore the real enemy is within us and we are called to reckon with him. In the centre of the pageLucan is the figure of Jesus fully man and fully God: who is Jesus for us today? The temptations suffered and overcome help us to “rediscover” the “agonising” face of the Son. Jesus is the one who fights for God!
4. THREE TEMPTATIONS: TO UNDERSTAND THE SPIRITUAL DYNAMIC
If we look at the three temptations, we can identify a series of correlations to understand their spiritual dynamic: man is marked by these three fundamental demands that become an absolute for him. The bread indicates the economic good that can turn into an idol to which we submit our will; the proposal of power on the highest mountain, towering over the kingdoms of the earth is the expression of domination instead of service and self-giving to others; the pinnacle of the temple is the use and instrumentalisation of the sacred to control and subjugate others.
5. THE TRIAL: STRUGGLE FOR FAITH
The page helps us to grasp the dimension of the struggle for faith: we are invited to enter into a spiritual journey that sees us fully committed to strive for faith and truth. God does not abandon us on our journey towards Him: He sustains us at every moment of life, especially in the hour of trial.
KEY WORDS TO HELP PRAY WITH THE TEXT
o He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil: he was hungry; o If you are the Son of God
o Man shall not live by bread alone
o Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God
o Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou worship” the devil departed o Be gone, Satan!
or the appointed time
LONELINESS: A CRISIS-OPPORTUNITY
Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent Jesus spends time in the desert in solitude and prayer.
The solitude of our lives can be difficult, painful, problematic. It can bring out our anxieties and fears (CRISIS).
Even for Jesus, the stay in the desert is a time of TRIAL.
Solitude can also be a propitious opportunity to shed light on oneself (OPPORTUNITY), on one’s faith journey and on one’s call to mission at the service of the Gospel.
“CHRISTIANS ARE NOT BORN, BUT BECOME”
(Apologetic XVIII, 4) was the firm conviction of Tertullian, a catechist who worked in the Church of Carthage between the end of the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
Prayer:
Merciful Lord,
who always listens to the prayer of your people, stretch out your hand towards us, so that, nourished with the bread of the Word and strengthened by the Spirit
we overcome the seductions of the evil one: that we may prevail in the style by which the believer must live in the world, through Christ our Lord, Amen
Happy journey to all!
Fr Joby Kavungal RCJ