Joke: Learning from the three moments of temptation of the Lord Jesus, little Johnnie develops three questions whenever he asks for help. One day, when he was walking down the beach, he spotted a woman sitting under an umbrella on the sand. He came up to her and asked, “Are you a Catholic?” “Yes,” she replied. “Do you go to Mass regularly?” he asked. “Yes, I do.” The woman nodded her head. Little Jonnie asked the third question, “Do you pray often?” Again the woman answered, “Yes.” “Ok,” Jonnie said, “Hold my iPhone while I go swimming please!”

Every year, the story of Jesus’ temptations in the desert is retold on the first Sunday of Lent. The temptations that the devil seduce Jesus, not when he is physically and mentally sound right after he finishes his forty days of fasting in the desert. Desert is an image of loneliness, of no life, of drying without water, and of being isolated, have we ever experienced the desert in our lives? The desert that we might experience is loneliness, not wanting to live anymore, losing faith because of suffering from difficult illness or other difficult conditions of life, and being isolated. We live, not in the desert, but in the most technology country in the world, a blessed land, we would believe that it would help us live peacefully and happily, but this doesn’t seem the case when the marriage breakup rate in America for the first marriage is 41% to 50%; the rate after the second marriage is from 60% to 67% and the rate for the third marriage are from 73% to 74%. There is nearly one in every five children, 19%, run away before turning eighteen years of age. There are at least 2,225 child offenders serving life without parole sentences in American prisons for crimes committed before they were the age of eighteen. There is no prison is called the land of freedom. No land broken marriage couples live that is called the blessed land. They all sound like deserts.

In today’s Gospel, St. Luke describes three temptations that Jesus faced after forty of fasting, we would believe that it is worth meditating on this first Sunday of Lent: To change stone into bread, to fall down and worship the devil, and to jump down from the parapet of the temple. In each of these three temptations, the devil is saying to Jesus, “Come on. Use what you have to get what you want.” This is exactly what the devil says to us in our own temptations, “Come on. Use what you have to get what you want.” A mentality that Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, developed a theory called, “The will to power.” In this theory, it motivates a person to do whatever it takes to achieve or to possess whatever he desires or he wills to achieve or possess.

Some years back, if you wish to recall with me, in the heat of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair, the head of a women's support group spoke on CNN. This is what she said, in essence: “Monica Lewinsky has done nothing wrong. In the world of corporate establishments and the White House bureaucracy, women [I want to change the word ‘women’ to people] who want to advance must use everything at their disposal: Power, connections, and sex. If that is what she has done, we see absolutely nothing wrong with that.” The name of the game is: Use what you have to get what you want. Many people indeed take it as their philosophy of life.

In today’s Gospel, however, Jesus shows that the principle of using whatever you have to get whatever you want is not always right. When that principle is applied without putting God first, it becomes a philosophy of the world, the devil's philosophy, a philosophy that should be rejected as Jesus did.

At the first temptation, St. Luke describes what the devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” At the second temptation, the devil said to Jesus, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours if you worship me.” Jesus said to him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’” At the third temptation, the devil said to Jesus, standing on the parapet of Jerusalem temple, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and ‘With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” Using what you have to get what you want was rejected by the Lord Jesus, even though the baits that the devil used were very attractive to his human nature.

Take some time to examine yourself, especially during this Lenten season, to see in the moments of your own temptations, what kind of bait the devil used to seduce you. Is it the bait like food, drink, shelter, leisure, and many others that are so attractive to our basic human needs? Is it the bait that helps you gain popularity or gain power? The kind of bait that might block your vision so to lose faith in God and to believe in the devil. The Devil is very smart, he knows how, when, and where to attack you. He attacks you right on your basic human desires and needs that the Lord wires into your bodies the moment that you come into existence with all these desires and needs when he attacks us, it is very difficult for us to avoid or to overcome it. Therefore, in the moments of temptation, I believe, when it seems impossible for us to overcome, remember to call on the Lord Jesus since he said, for man is impossible, but for God, everything is possible that all three evangelists: Matthew, Mark, and Luke expressed in their writings. May God give us strength and courage to overcome the moments of temptation during this Lenten season, so that when Easter comes, we rejoice with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The decision is always yours.