FOR WE ARE OVERCOMERS OF TEMPTATION

HOMILY FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR B

 

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Temptation is a reality. We are tempted daily. The more we overcome temptations, the more we become stronger as humans and as Christians. Temptations can have a positive connotation –they are tests from which we emerge better persons and fighters of God. When we are tempted, we are given the opportunity to prove our strong faith and steadfastness in God. And the more we do better as regards overcoming temptations, the more we must expect heavier challenges. The more we overcome heavier challenges, the more we rise in faith. Today, we are told a very concise story of the temptation of Jesus in the Gospel according to Mark.

The Gospel (Mark1:12-15) relates how Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit where he remained for forty days, and then was tempted by Satan. Forty here is a significant number, and ought not to be taken literally. We must recall that in Exodus 24:18, Moses spent 40 days with God on top of the mountain. In 1 Kings 19:8, it was in duration of 40 days that Elijah went in the strength of the meal the angel had given him. And so, in juxtaposition of all these, 40 here signifies most probably the period of divine sustenance, divine encounter and retreat. It is a period of spending an ample time with God and abandoning ourselves to the protection and sustenance that ensues from the divine majesty. Jesus had spent a good time with God, alone and in prayers to such an extent that natural food was no longer the issue, because the divine meal had become his career. Developing a relationship with God requires patience, endurance and perseverance. We must give God a good time. We must not rush to leave the presence of God. We must make it our abode with the conviction that our ever-presence in God’s sight makes him ever-present in times of our temptation.

Satan tempted Jesus. It was not God, nor the Spirit that led him through the desert. He was tempted by a being who works so hard to thwart the will of God for humanity. This is the Satan. The conception of Satan and the development of the terminology in the Bible is an interesting one. There are two major perspectives we see concerning this term in the Old Testament: an Adversary and an accuser. An adversary is an opponent who stands in the way of someone. An adversary serves as an obstacle to one’s progress. So, the Satan who came to tempt Jesus was trying to block Jesus who was on the way to our salvation. When we see the light in others and desire to quench it, or even work towards frustrating them from achieving their aims, we become the Satan. An accuser is one who pleads a case against a person. Satan is the accuser of Christians. He tried to accuse Job in front of God (cf. Job. 1:7). He pleaded against Job. His task was to say everything that could be said against a man. The devil continues to work so that we appear evil before God. When we ourselves nurse the intent of misrepresenting others to pull them down and to make them seem evil before others, we become the Satan.

In the New Testament, the Satan is the devil. The word devil comes from the Greek diabolos, which literally means a slanderer. The devil is a slanderer. Satan continues to work against God. He is God’s adversary. Satan is the essence of everything that is against God. However, the Satan was not victorious nor did he succeed in his plans. Jesus was victorious. He showed us the way of victory. As the result of his victory, the angels came and ministered to him. Our victory draws our angels to us. When we are victorious, we draw people to ourselves; victory is contagious. Victory makes many to look up to us and to see us as motivators in their own times of temptation. It is steadfastness and fidelity to God that guarantees this victory. No one may set out to be victimized always by the forces of darkness, but we really do when we do not allow God into our lives to guide and show us our mission. A discovery of mission helps in overcoming temptation. Jesus knew his mission, and so he knew the devil has nothing to give him. Little wonder then the last lines of the Gospel spelt out the content of the message of Jesus: repent and believe in the good news. His mission served as a motivation for his victory over temptation, and he remained faithful to that mission. When we become victorious over temptation, the clarion call to become more steadfast and faithful becomes more intense.

Overcoming temptations recreates us. It is not only that we help draw people to God because of the victory we have gained; it is also the case we ourselves are recreated, and are made anew. We are washed. We become cleaner, more pure and closer to the perfect nature of God. It is this subject matter of recreation that we see in the First Reading (Gen. 9:8-15). God was to recreate the earth having washed her clean in the waters of the flood. Noah is the subject of this recreation, and of this fresh covenant being established as a result of this recreation. God wishes us to be recreated always. He recreates us. Purity is his nature. To maintain this purity, we must avoid sin. It was sin that necessitated the initial cleansing of the earth. However, the covenant God made with Noah was that humanity will not again be destroyed by the waters of the flood. The waters would no longer be for destruction but for purification. He is a merciful God. He does not want us to be destroyed by sin, but to be saved by grace.

The Christian baptism of cleansing which was instituted by Christ assures us of this grace. The same purpose of leading us all to God was the reason for which Jesus Christ suffered to get us all into the ark of salvation, which is no longer like the ark of new where eight persons were saved, but the ark of the Church where uncountable will be saved. This is the message of the Second Reading (1Pet. 3:18-22). Our lives should become a life of imitating Christ in his victor over temptation and sin, up to the point of dying so that we too might become victorious over temptation and sin. We are overcomers of temptation. Try hard during this Lenten season to be conscious of the devil’s tactics, so as to beat him down in his own game. May the new week be a blessed one for you. God bless you.