Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desrt that he be put to the test by the devil. After spending 40 days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry.
Then the devil came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, order these stones to turn into bread." But Jesus answered, "Scripture says: one does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city, set him on the highest wall of the temple, and sait to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for scripture says, God has given orders to his angels about you. Their hands will hold you up lest you hurt your foot against a stone." Jesus answered, "But scripture also says: you shall not put to the test the Lord your God."
Then the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain ans showed him all the nations of the world in all their greatness and splendor. And he said, "All this I will give you, if you kneel and worship me." Then Jesus answered, "Be off, Satan! Scripture says: worship the Lord your God and serve him alone."
Then the devil left him and angels came to serve him.
So Fr. Go said, if you think about it, why did Jesus refuse the offers? First, turning stone into bread when you're hungry...what's wrong with that? You need it to survive, is eating a sin? Second, falling down where everyone can see you. If you think about it, if Jesus would have done that, then Christianity wouldn't be that difficult to propagate, everyone would believe him right away. (For the last one, I forgot what he said ehehe). So anyway, why did Jesus turn away from the devil's temptation? Fr. Go said, it's because Jesus knows the intention of the devil. So you see, the 3 temptations are deceptions and in fact, these are deceptions on how we know ourselves.
He (Fr. Go) said that in the midst of knowing ourselves, we define ourselves of 'What drives us'. In the gospel, you can actually associate these things...
1st temptation - Money and Riches - Wealth
2nd temptation - Relationship and Recognition - Honor
3rd temptation - Power and Control - Pride
If you have the first as your drive, you define yourself as
"you are what you HAVE"
If you have the second as your drive, you define yourself as
"you are what you SEEM"
If you have the third as your drive, you define yourself as
"you are what you DO"
So, what is your drive??? If you have any of these three as your drive, then you would definitely be easily tempted.
So, I asked my classmate, Ellie, what should be your drive, in that case.
The answer: FAITH!
No comments:
Post a Comment