Thoughts on temptations

 

This past Wednesday we began our annual Lenten journey, subjecting ourselves to the imposition of ashes and the exhortation, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” The Scripture readings for the First Sunday of Lent call us not only to repent of our sins but to confront the temptations that might lead us into sin. 

From the perspective of Christianity, of course, there is a crucial difference between a temptation and a sin. Sins are “unloving choices”; temptations are occasions/invitations to make a choice. That choice can wind up being either loving or unloving. If we make loving choices even while tempted to do otherwise, we grow in virtue and holiness. If we succumb to the temptation and make an unloving choice, we alienate ourselves from peace and goodness, eroding our fundamental orientation toward God and love. Sometimes when people come to confession and state that they are “struggling” with something, what they are saying is not that they have actually sinned, but that they have been tempted to do so. Often, of course, we experience that struggle as exhausting, and so it is for good reason that we pray, echoing the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead me not into temptation.” Temptations aren’t sins, but they can wear us out!

We might dismiss the temptations which Jesus faced as portrayed in this Sunday’s Gospel as uniquely his own. That would be a mistake. Jesus’ temptations occur soon after Jesus has had the powerful experience at his baptism of being filled with the Spirit and knowing in a profound way that he is God’s beloved Son. It is this very sense of his identify that the tempter tries to undermine. So too with us. We know who we are, who we are called to be by God, and who we want at our best to be. In our lives, it is our identities as beloved sons and daughters of God, as faithful disciples of Christ, that the tempter seeks to call into question and undermine.

What is important about the temptations of Jesus is that they were real temptations over which he had to mull and struggle. In his case, all of his temptations could easily become occasions for discouragement. Let us pray that as we struggle with temptation in our lives, we not become discouraged, but find within them opportunities to grow in our deepest identity as those who love and serve in the manner of Jesus.

Lenten Blessings.

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J.