Temptations of Jesus

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The first temptation is to get our priorities, our loves out of order.

The devil says: 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves'.

Jesus responds, Man does not live by bread alone but by listening to God.

Jesus says, the top priority is a relationship with God, listening to Him every day – then everything else will fall into place.

The devil says no, that is totally unrealistic; you must take care of your material responsibilities first, because no one else will take care of you. And make sure you take care of your health – if you lose your health you have nothing left. Oh, and don’t forget that you need down-time, time to veg and rest – you need entertainment. You will always have time for God later.

That is the temptation of the devil 

Do we fall into this trap? Do we take care of the tyranny of the urgent and leave God for later? When we do this – are we really happy, at peace and content?

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The Second Temptation:

'If you are the Son of God' he said 'throw yourself down; because Psalm 91 says: He will put you in his angels' charge, and they will support you on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, 'Scripture also says: You must not put the Lord your God to the test'.

Satan says: Make God prove he is God.

The point at issues is this: You must not put God to the test.

Pope Benedict writes:

God has to submit to experiment. He is “tested,” just as products are tested. He must submit to the conditions that we say are necessary if we are to reach certainty…The arrogance that would make God an object and impose our laboratory conditions upon him is incapable of finding him. For it already implies that we deny God as God by placing ourselves above him, by discarding the whole dimension of love, of interior listening; by no longer acknowledging as real anything but what we can experimentally test and grasp. To think like that is to make oneself God…Christ did not cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple. He did not leap into the abyss. He did not tempt God. But he did descend into the abyss of death, into the night of abandonment, and into the desolation of the defenseless. He ventured this leap as an act of God’s love for men. And so he knew that, ultimately, when he leaped he could only fall into the kindly hands of the Father. This brings to light the real meaning of Psalm 91…If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One who loves you.

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The Third Temptation

In the final temptation Satan offers Jesus an earthly kingdom if he will forget about the Kingdom of God.

Again Pope Benedict writes

No kingdom of this world is the Kingdom of God, the total condition of mankind’s salvation. Earthly kingdoms remain earthly human kingdoms, and anyone who claims to be able to establish the perfect world is the willing dupe of Satan and plays right into his hands…Well, what did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we must take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny:

God created us not for this world. This world is just a passage-way. This life is simply the time we choose what we want forever: God and His Kingdom of Heaven or ourselves and Hell.

The only point of this world and this life is to make our choice and help as many people as possible to the Kingdom of Heaven. Period!

That is why we must be the Donkeys of Mary who carry Jesus to all people and the best way is through friendship, good conversation and the Rosary.

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The mountain on which Jesus faced the first temptation of the Devil is at Jericho, the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. Before Jericho began – people were hunters and gatherers

·      Too busy to think, ponder and pray

Then at Jericho they became agricultural

·      Which gave them the time to think about the most important questions in life: Where do we come from; what is the real purpose of life; where are we going after death? This led to thinking and wonder and philosophy, and to prayer and religion.

·      Through this humans evolved from hunters and gathers to those who think and pray and talk and worship God.  

But we have Devolved

·      We’ve gone back to the busyness of the hunter-gatherer

·      Now we have no time to think, no time to pray, no time to talk or to worship God.

This is the temptation of the devil – “Jesus – get busy and make bread.”

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What is at the heart of all temptation is the question: What is most important in life? Bread – wealth, security, comfort; Power – position – influence; Or a relationship with the Living God, Who can provide for all your needs (Matthew 6:25-32)

The CCC says: It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission and in the ultimate struggle of his agony…such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer

Jesus showed us the way to perfect and lasting happiness by making his priority time in friendship and conversation God the Father in prayer. Friendship takes time talking, listening and just being together. That is what we do in the meditation on the Word of God in the Rosary Podcast.   

What all people need is deep friendship with Jesus and deep friendship with others. That is precisely what this movement is about. I invite you to become a member of the Movement of the Holy Family and commit to praying the Rosary every day. But don’t stop there. Invite others into your routine and then have good conversation with them after the Rosary. The Podcast give you a lot to think about. Just ask them what caught their attention and why and talk and listen and share and grow in friendship with God and others.

Become a member of this Movement, this spiritual army who are the Donkeys for Mary, carrying her with Jesus to others

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Benedict in his book Jesus of Nazareth says: At the heart of the Temptations we find this question: What is the most important thing in life?

·      Material security and power

·      Or a relationship with the living God

“At the heart of all temptations, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion – that is the temptation that threatens us in many and varied forms.”

Pope Benedict writes: The devil does invite us directly to do evil – no that would be far to blatant. He pretends to show us a better way, where we finally abandon our illusions and throw ourselves into the work of actually making the world a better place. The devil claims that God is not real; What is real is what is right there in front of us – power and bread. By comparison the things of God fade into unreality, into a secondary world that no one really needs.

The devil tempts us to push God aside because we perceive him as secondary, in comparison with the apparently more urgent matters that fill our lives…

Mike, I believe in God and I have a relationship with Him, I say prayers; but Mike you are unrealistic

·      I have a profession, employees, clients I am responsible for.

·      I have kids sports and homework

·      I need to be a responsible adult

·      Focus my time and energy on what is real

·      What is right here in front of us

We are tempted to always choose what is lesser, all things in this world, over what is greater – a relationship with the Living God.