I Sunday Of Lent Year C
Readings: Deut. 26:4-10; Rom. 13:8-13; Lk. 4:1-13
“Temptation” is certainly a constant theme in the Bible: since love is a free act, it is ‘wanting’ good, one can always say no to God’s proposed covenant, one can always reject his offer. The possibility of saying no to God, of looking elsewhere than in him for what is good and happiness for man, has been present since the experience of Adam and Eve (Gen 3), of Abraham (Gen 22:1-19), of Job (Job 1:9-12; 2:4-6), of the whole of Israel (Deut 8:2-5). Temptation is part of our being free (Jdt 8:25-27): it is the consequence of our being “in the image and likeness” of God (Gen 1:26), capable of love and thus of voluntary acts. In this sense God “sends” us temptation: that is, he has given us the possibility of relating or not relating to him in a free choice. Even Jesus, a real man, had this possibility: that is why it is said that “he was led by the Spirit (ed.:!!!) into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Lk. 4:1).
What temptation is Luke talking about? In Luke this term “peirasmos” points in three directions:
- Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Lk 4:1-11). which according to Luke is the type of the temptations of the Church: the continuous choice between service, the weakness of the cross, and the search for human security.
- The temptations that the believing community will encounter in the time of passion and persecution, doubt and turmoil (cf. Lk 22:28). Jesus prayed that the disciples would not succumb.
- Finally temptation is anything that can weigh down the disciple’s heart so that the Word is stifled in it: temptations are the daily trials that, in the long run, wear down initial courage (Lk 8:13-14).
The real temptation is to abandon God himself. The Jerusalem Bible writes, “We ask God to deliver us from the tempter, and we beg him not to enter into temptation, namely, apostasy.” And it refers to Mt 26:41 when Jesus tells the Apostles in the Garden of Olives, “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.” Here the temptation consisted in abandonment (apostasy) of the Lord: “then all the disciples forsook him and fled” (Mt 26:56).
“According to J. Jeremias, the word ‘temptation’ does not refer to ‘the little daily temptations,’ but to ‘the great final temptation…, Satan in the place of God’” (L. Coenen, E. Beyreuther, H. Bietenhard).
We pray to God not to succumb to temptation. The Latin text of the Pater prayer has always read, “Et ne nos induca in tentationem” (Mt. 6:13). In Greek there is the expression “eisenènkes” which means “to introduce, to lead in, to let fall in.”
In Italian so far it has always been translated “do not lead us into temptation.” Such earlier translation might have implied that God tempts people. But this cannot be because God does not tempt anyone. He himself said this through the mouth of James: “Let no one, when he is tempted, say, ‘I am tempted of God’; for God cannot be tempted to evil, and he tempts no one” (Jas. 1:12).
Paul reiterates that temptation does not come from God. God allows it, but at the same time always gives the strength to overcome it: “For God is worthy of faith, and will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but along with the temptation, he will also give you the way out of it so that you can withstand it” (1 Cor 10:13).
The Greek “eisférein‘” or “induce” had only a concessive sense (“don’t let in,” “let us not enter”), while the Italian “induce” has become overloaded with a volitional connotation (“to introduce,” “to push in”) that no longer makes it say the same thing. Even in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, the corresponding verb has a permissive rather than an active meaning.
Perhaps “do not let us fall into temptation” would have been better than “do not forsake us” because it reminds us that without God’s help we cannot overcome trials. Or, as the great biblical scholar Jean Carmignac proposed, “based on the original Semitic hidden beneath the Greek text, it would really be faithful to the words of Jesus a ‘do not allow us to submit to temptation (of the Evil One).’” Carmignac, while not fully satisfied with the new official translation (“do not allow us to give in to temptation”), certainly judged it consoling that “no Christian, uttering the dearest prayer, will have more to fear to blaspheme than to pray,” saying that God “leads us” into temptation.
The First Reading (Deut. 26:4-10) immediately frees us from the idea of a “tempting” God: our God is the God “who hears the prayer of the wretched, who sees our humiliation and oppression…and who comes to deliver us with signs and wonders.” As the second reading says (Rom. 10:8-13), he is the God who is close to us, “putting his Word in our mouth and in our heart…. And whoever believes in him will not be disappointed…, but will always be saved.” That is, the believer has the assurance that he is not subject to the forces of evil, but that he always has God with him, who enfolds him in his Love, who holds his hand, who guards him, who gives him the strength to overcome every trial and temptation.