Hearing The Word

A weekly newsletter delivering context and insight into the Sunday Gospels.

Jesus' Miracles: Signs of God in Our Midst

~ Rev. Paul W. Galetto, OSA

Pastor, Saint Paul Parish + Philadelphia, Pa.

After his baptism, Jesus is tested. Forty days expresses an extended period of time in the wilderness, tested as the Jews leaving Egypt were tested. The three temptations here are akin to the temptations Jesus confronted throughout his public ministry: that miracles be self-serving rather than self-emptying, that Jesus use the miracles to seek power and control over the Roman occupiers and that miracles be performed to show off.

Turning stones into bread: Both stones and bread are good things in and of themselves, but you don’t eat stones and you don’t build a house with loaves of bread.  To take something and to misuse it is a distortion of creation.

The temptation to have power is the same temptation that got us into this mess – the serpent promised Eve that she would be like God if she ate the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Her hubris led to her downfall. The first lie spoken by humanity was for the man (Adam) to blame the woman; he did not want to accept responsibility for his actions. In this gospel, the devil promises Jesus something upon which he cannot deliver – the deceiver is at it again! The only power and glory the devil can offer comes from corruption, dishonesty and lies. True power comes from reliance on the Word of God. We can never be God, but we can realize what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God by heeding the words: “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.”

The last temptation happens in the location where the final battle between good and evil will take place – Jerusalem: the place of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. In this encounter the devil wants Jesus to show off. The power of Jesus is never for entertainment; it is always done out of need and is a display of care and compassion. At times Jesus could work no miracles because of a lack of faith on the part of the recipients.  If you approach miracles with an attitude of faith, you will understand the outcome even if it is not what you had asked for. The resurrection overcame the power of death and was more than anyone could have ever imagined.

When Jesus began his ministry, we came to understand that the blind seeing, the lame walking, the deaf hearing were not a distortion of the natural order, nor an attempt to grasp power and certainly not magic tricks but the sign that Jesus is the Messiah and that God is in our midst. Be gone, Satan!

Strength for the Journey: Resisting Temptation with the Word and the Eucharist

~ Conor Donnelly

Saint Maron's Maronite Catholic Parish + Philadelphia, Pa.

As we enter into Lent it is a good time to ask the question: what is it that makes us Catholics and Christian? We pray, we go to mass, we fast, we try to live a good life. But, what is it that specifically makes us Christian and Catholic? The answer to that is, more precisely, we have been baptized and confirmed. We are marked with the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Gospel begins with, “Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan.” He had just come back from the river where He had been baptized by John and God had strongly affirmed and confirmed His Son. All those formative years in Nazareth saw Jesus growing in age, favor, and wisdom, but now, as He begins his ministry he is baptized and affirmed. It’s at this very moment, when the Holy Spirit is made present, that the devil becomes aware of Jesus.

With 40 days of our own preparation for Easter, what can we make of these three temptations?

Jesus fasts as a spiritual preparation and the devil tries to tempt Him with food. Our Lenten observation doesn’t involve starvation, it is a period of fast and abstinence. These days some might consider “gluttony” a strong word, but behind it lies the temptation of “too much.” Perhaps a better way to reflect on this temptation is to think about how our Spiritual life suffers when we give in to excess.

The second temptation reminds us that during Lent we might do better to think more about our salvation in the eternal kingdom. How much of our thought is caught up in the temptation to try to succeed in earthly life at the expense of our faith and morality? In the Gospel, the devil is offering Jesus the ultimate promotion: you can be in charge of everything and get all the glory. Jesus rejects this offer. We can use Lent to help us reorient our lives to reject this, too.

The third temptation takes place on the parapet of the Jerusalem Temple. For us as Catholics the new Temple is Christ, the new Temple is His Church, and God is fully present to us in the Eucharist, as He once was present in the flesh to his disciples. Many take the opportunity during Lent to attend the Eucharist on a daily basis. Perhaps the greatest medicine against temptation is to be present before the Lord, bringing our unworthy selves to hear His Word and to receive His Body and Blood.

The true Word of God was Jesus’s defense against the temptation of the devil. Let it be ours, too. We will be tempted again after Lent ends, but the Eucharist gives us ete rnal food that sustains us until we one day are reunited with God in Heaven.