First Sunday Gospel of Lent

Hubby and I had mass yesterday at Megamall. We wanted to do the grocery together so we decided to have mass at the mall then afterwards, go shopping. But the reverse happened.
We had mass at 1230 pm and did the grocery earlier. The drive to Megamall took longer than usual since the driver kept on stopping at every individual he saw on the road. lol.. Well, i could not blame him. Its a Sunday and there are less people travelling. In tagalog, "kelangan maghapit".

Anyways, back to my story about the Mass. The first reading talks about how the first Adam was tempted and fell into temptation which brought about death into this World. The Gospel was about Jesus being tempted by the Devil and become triumphant over temptation which gave us the Good News: Salvation. Below is the Gospel on Jesus' temptation at the desert:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

³The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” ⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶”If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

‘He will commend His angels concerning you
and they shall lift you up in their hands,
So that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

⁹”All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Father (did not heard his name when the usher mentioned him on the start of the mass --lol!) described that Satan/Lucifer is a good fisherman and how he catches us into falling into temptation without us knowing it. A good fisherman he said knows 3 things in order to have a great catch. One, he knows his water. Two, he knows what type of fish is to be caught and lastly, he knows what bait to use in order to catch his fish. The water signifies the world. This is where Satan lurks. The fish signifies us - people. He wants to get our souls. The bait on one hand, signifies the temptation that he gives us in order for him to catch us.Father related the bait to Jesus' temptation in 3 forms. The first temptation of turning bread into stones. He said that Satan is giving us the idea to get away from the difficult life by doing the shortcut. Life will always be difficult we just have to live with it because through that difficulty we become better persons. It shapes us and makes us mature. It teaches us value for our daily undertakings.

The second temptation is for Jesus to throw himself from the temple and angels will catch Him. We are tempted to this by the idea that every time we did something wrong, someone will 'always' be there to catch us. This is especially true for parents to their children. They give there children the impression that as their parents, they can always save them. This leads to the problem of the youth today - full of wishbones but lacks backbone.


The last temptation is for Jesus to fall down and worship Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms of the earth. This is the temptation that we always fail to resist. Satan is giving us the impression that we can have everything in this world, even if we acquire it in either good or bad ways. Yes, we can gain all the earthly possessions in this world but little do we realize that we came into the world with nothing and we shall leave this world with nothing. Father further added that it is not bad to acquire wealth as long as you acquire it with dignity and in good means. And it will be more pleasing to God if you share your wealth with the poor and the less fortunate.


I love how Father describe how Satan is tempting us into falling into sin. This is true but we do not really realize it. We often think something small can be winked at, easily rationalized, even though we know at the time it is not what God wants. Hard as it may, we must learn how to counter his attacks for he knows how to lure as into his bait. We should follow Jesus' example on how He is prepared against Satan. Despite the fact, that He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. He became triumphant because of His knowledge and use of the Word of God. It also clearly shows how strong His faith is to the plan of God for Him and He clearly knows His mission by heart. That is to give us life through Salvation.