My Dear People, 

As we begin this season of Lent, a very important season of the year, and a time when we should concentrate on trying to improve our spiritual lives, we realize the need to do some kind of spiritual exercise.  The church chose, on the first Sunday of Lent, the reading of Jesus fasting in the desert for forty days. The Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness before He began his ministry. There Jesus encountered the devil and temptations. Today, Luke’s Gospel mentions three temptations that Jesus encountered. This is significant because the temptations represent three ways we can experience the temptation to sin. They are summarized as:   1. Lust of the flesh; 2. Lust of the eyes; 3. Pride of life.  

 Lust of the flesh is physical lust—for food, sex, drugs, comfort, and so on.

 Lust of the eyes is greed or avarice—the desire to own and possess things of beauty and 

 value. 

Pride of life is sinful pride. 

Sin entered into the world when Eve gave in to the threefold concupiscence. Genesis 3:6 says she looked at the apple and saw it was “good for food” (lust of the flesh); “a delight to the eyes” (lust of the eyes) and was “desired to make one wise”; as in Godlike (pride, to be equal with God). 

In the wilderness, Jesus undoes Eve’s threefold disobedience. First Satan tempts Him in the area of lust of the flesh: “turn the stones into bread. Wouldn’t some nice, hot bread taste so good after all your fasting?”

Then, lust of the eyes: he shows him all the “power and glory” of the kingdoms of the world in an instant and offers it to Jesus. 

Finally, pride: Satan takes Jesus to the most public place in all of Israel, the Temple, and encourages him to perform a miraculous “stunt” that will make him a celebrity, receiving fame and adulation from the whole populace. 

In every case, Jesus responds to Satan’s temptations by remembering God’s Word.  This is, of course, what Eve failed to do. She refused to remember; or call to mind and obey, the command of God. 

There’s another perspective here, this one between Jesus the Son of David and Solomon the son of David. On his deathbed, David charged his son and heir, Solomon, to keep the law of Moses, which meant Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy has three laws for the king (Deut. 17: 16-17): The king was not to have excessive wives (lust of the flesh), nor excessive gold (lust of the eyes, greed), nor excessive horses and chariots (pride in his military strength). How did Solomon do? Not so well! In Kings 1:10-11, we read he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, 666 talents of gold a year, and so many horses and chariots he had to build cities to house them all. So, Solomon failed to uphold the law of Moses and fell prey to the threefold concupiscence. 

How did Jesus do?  He is also tempted according to the threefold concupiscence. But each time he responds by upholding the Word of God, specifically, the Book of Deuteronomy, the law of Moses. Our Lord quotes Deuteronomy three times (8:3; 6:13; 6:16). In this way, he shows that He is the better Son of David than Solomon. Truly, “something greater than Solomon is here.” (Luke 11:31). Jesus is the true King. 

As we begin Lent, we should remember that the three acts of piety-prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are meant to help us resist the threefold concupiscence. Thus, we learn to be kings and queens like Jesus--persons who rule their passions and are not ruled by them; who control demons and are not commanded by them.

 Prayer combats pride because prayer is the humble acknowledgment that we need help, and cannot do it on our own. 

Fasting combats the lust of the flesh; teaching us to have control over our physical appetites. 

Almsgiving combats lust of the eyes; teaching us to be detached from our wealth,  give up on greed, and share our wealth, rather than hoard it for ourselves.  

Have a Happy Lent

Yours in Christ,  

Fr. Vincent Clemente