By Msgr. Joseph Prior • Posted March 7, 2025

(See the readings for the First Sunday of Lent)

The season of Lent is underway. In the Collect (prayer used at the beginning of Mass) for Ash Wednesday, the priest prayed: “Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.” 

The prayer that inaugurates this season of penitence mentions four different but related elements of the season: fasting, Christian service, battle against spiritual evils, and weapons of self-restraint. The period of forty days comes from Jesus’ time in the desert. Several of these elements we see in Jesus’ encounter with Satan at the end of those days, particularly in his ability to face temptation and to resist its lure.

Jesus has fasted and prayed. He now is prepared for this particular battle with evil as Satan tries to lure him away from the mission ahead – the mission that will lead to his passion, death and resurrection. The period in the desert has strengthened Jesus for his mission but also for this battle with Satan. 

Notice that St. Luke tells us at the very beginning of the passage that Jesus was led to the desert by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is there with Jesus. His time in prayer and fasting is a holy time. It is a time set aside from his regular routine, his regular engagement and his regular work. 

At the end, he is hungry in body but not in spirit. Satan’s three cunning and alluring temptations are resisted by Jesus. Particularly evident in Jesus’ replies to Satan are his focus on the Father: “One does not live on bread alone, (“but all that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord [Deut. 8:3]);” “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve;” and “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” 

Jesus knows the Father and his loving care. He has been armed with the weapons of self-restraint. He does not give in to the temptation so Satan leaves him, “for a time.”

Temptation is inevitable. The lure to something that is pleasurable or attractive or desirable happens all the time. The attractiveness of the item in question is part of the lure. When we are attracted to something that we should not have, do or embrace then we are experiencing a temptation. While we may receive an immediate gratification when we give in to temptation, we soon realize that the fall has taken something from us and deprives us of something much greater.

Temptation is something that everyone has to deal with and we do so throughout life. The things that tempt us might change in different periods of life or in different situations but we need the same spiritual strength to resist them.

Perhaps this first week of Lent will afford us time to look at how we deal with temptations. Self-awareness in building self-restraint is helpful so we might ask ourselves: How do I respond to temptations? What are my temptations? When am I tempted? When am I prone to give in? Ultimately when we deal with temptation we have to make a choice. Having the strength to make the right choice is what we seek in battle. The source of that strength is love.

St. John wrote in his first letter: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (I John 4:10). Ultimately it is his love that fortifies and strengthens us to face any temptation, trial or test we may face in life. Jesus gives witness to this as he faces and endures his passion and death. 

Our Lenten observance and disciplines help us to recognize this love in an ever-fuller awareness as we journey toward Holy Week. The power of this love fuels our lives, our love and our service to one another. It also fortifies us for the encounter with temptation.

There is a story in Greek mythology that may help illustrate the relationship between temptation and love. The story is of Orpheus and the Sirens. The Sirens lived on three small islands. With beautiful sounds they would entice crews on ships. Their goal was to have them so taken in by the sound that they would follow it and seek its source. Inevitably the ships would crash into rocks and be destroyed, along with their crew. 

Orpheus was a great musician who was sailing with Jason and the Argonauts as they approached these islands. Aware of the danger, he took out his lyre. He began to play. The sound was more beautiful than that of the Sirens. So instead of listening to the Sirens and falling into their lure, the crew listened to the beautiful music of Orpheus and sailed through. 

The point here is that although the crew may have been tempted by the lure of the Sirens because of the beautiful sound, their attention was focused on something more beautiful which helped them reach safe shores. Instead of having the crew focus on saying “no” to the temptation, an effort which failed many crews before, Orpheus had them say “yes” to something greater.

Henri Nouwen, a noted spiritual director and author, speaks of his own dealing with temptation in similar terms. He once wrote: “I cannot continuously say no to this or no to that, unless there is something ten times more attractive to choose. Saying no to my lust, my greed, my needs, and the world’s powers takes an enormous amount of energy. The only hope is to find something so obviously real and attractive that I can devote all my energies to saying yes. One such thing I can say yes to is when I come in touch with the fact that I am loved. Once I have found that in my total brokenness I am still loved, I become free from the compulsion of doing successful things.” 

Lent affords us time to strengthen our spiritual lives. Armed with the “weapons of self-restraint” we are prepared to face temptation, to choose good, to avoid evil. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are exercises that help build us up. Underlying all of these practices is the greatest weapon of self-restraint, the ever-growing awareness of God’s love.

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Msgr. Joseph Prior is pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish, Penndel, and a former professor of Sacred Scripture and rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.