Father Chas Canoy
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Reflect on the contrast between the original Adam and the New Adam, Jesus Christ. In this message, we explore the root temptation of self-reliance, the distortion of love after the fall, and how Christ’s victory in the desert reveals the path to true fulfillment through trust in God.
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So if the first reading is about the original Adam, today’s gospel is about the new Adam, Jesus Christ, and how the new Adam is successful in overcoming Satan’s threefold temptation. So ultimately Monsignor Albacete said this, there is only one temptation, the temptation to believe that the fulfillment of the desires of the human heart depends entirely on us. If every man and woman wanted to wield that power for themselves, that would mean moral chaos and the disintegration of the human family.
Sound familiar? It would indeed mean spiritual death. So there it is, right? The temptation to believe that the fulfillment of the desires, deepest desires of my human heart depend entirely on me. And so I end up wanting to take rather than receive.
Before the fall, the scriptures said that Adam and Eve were naked without shame. But now, because the darkness of the evil from which God desired to shield them crept into their minds and their hearts, they experienced a different gaze from each other than there was there before. Before it was a gaze of pure love, right? In which one sensed the goodness of the other and how much they desired your good.
So they were free to be totally transparent and vulnerable to one another. But now with the fall, love was tainted by lust. And we know innately how we are not meant to be used for other people’s selfish pleasure.
That’s why our first instinct from an unwanted gaze is to cover ourselves. We cover ourselves in a fallen world because our bodies are so good, they’re meant to be sacred. They are meant to be sacramental expressions of God’s love.
But guess what? God wouldn’t leave it at that. Enter the new Adam. And today’s gospel in which Satan tempts Jesus right after his 40 days in the desert, he’s famished.
Talk about having human needs and desires, right? And thus begins this battle, just the beginning of the battle royale that involves you and me as well as members of the body of Christ who have also have human needs that God calls us to trust in him. Remember the end of today’s gospel after he was successful in driving out the evil one, the angels came and ministered to him and his needs. God sent that provision.
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