Prize of obedience

Our Lord Jesus obeyed the will of God the Father so perfectly and well that He obeyed even when He had to bear the burden of His Cross — that is the multitudes of our many and innumerable sins, evils and wickedness, our faults and corruptions, all of which should have led us to our death and destruction.

I once heard a Roman Catholic priest who opted to follow his spiritual director instead of his legitimate superior. He left his Order and founded a local community here in Quezon City with the idea of practicing “responsible freedom.” I will discuss this in my next column.

One of the struggles that a consecrated person has is Obedience. Obedience to God, to the Pope, to the local bishop, to one’s own superior and to the legitimate civil government.

Adam and Eve were given the freedom to make a choice to live for God, dependent upon and obedient to His will, or to say no to God. The temptation to evil led Adam and Eve to an act of faithlessness and sin. In contrast, today’s Gospel from Saint Matthew shows us how Jesus Christ conquered temptation by relying on Faith in God’s Word and authority.

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is primarily the time of intense spiritual preparation for conquering our temptations, using the means Jesus used during his forty days in the desert in preparation for his public life. It is also the time for repenting for our sins and renewing our lives so that we can celebrate Easter with our Risen Lord Who conquered sin and death by His suffering, death and Resurrection.

Today’s readings teach us that we are always tempted by the devil, by the world, and by our own selfish interests. So we need to cooperate actively with God’s grace if we are to conquer our temptations and practice prayer, self-control, and charity.

Christ regained for us a right relationship with God by his perfect obedience to God His Father.

Today’s Gospel teaches us how the “desert experience” of fasting, praying, and soul-strengthening enabled Jesus to confront his temptations successfully and then to preach the Good News of salvation. The tempter urged Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread. But Jesus rejected that temptation — to mistrust His Father by satisfying his own immediate, temporal needs — thus reducing His Divine mission to self-satisfaction.

The tempter then suggested that Jesus prove that he is really the Son of God by jumping from the parapet of the Temple. Jesus rejected this as a temptation to act as God’s superior and a demand that He prove His Trustworthiness! Finally, Jesus rejected the temptation to idolatry, even if worshipping Satan would enrich and empower Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world.

Every one of us is tempted to seek sinful pleasures, easy wealth, and positions of authority, power, and glory, and to use any means, even unjust and sinful ones, to gain these things.

Jesus serves as a model for us in conquering temptations by strengthening Himself through prayer, penance and good works.