A lot of people think temptation is a sin, or at least is wrong. But temptations are opportunities for us to look at ourselves and see where we are going on our journey of life. If we think of God as some super being out there somewhere it is easy for us to think that this god is testing us to se if we will pas and are doing all the right things. But this is not the case. God is not “out there” but is in and with us. Some of us need to believe God is testing us because we need to feel that we are doing all the right things and have to earn God’s love. In other words, we believe that if we are not doing the right things, believing the right dogmas, etc, God is not loving us. This causes many people a lot of pain. We don’t see any of this in Jesus. What Jesus shows us is God loving everybody without any limitation whatever. This also bothers folks who need to feel a sort of control over God — an “if I do the right things God has to love me and get me to heaven after I die” sort of thing. Having all the answers all the time offer a sense of power for us, and in our own mind qualifies us to judge others.
The basic message/journey of the Gospel is our transformation, through our openness to the Spirit who, as Jesus said,”will remind you of everything I have told you”. The Spirit helps us understand what it means for us in our particular circumstances to live as a disciple of Christ. Temptations give us the chance for us to look at ourselves at any particular place on our journey and see how open or closed to the Spirit we really are.
Lent is a tradition; to look at this in our daily living.God does not need our prayer and penance, and we do not do them to keep God happy. We do them to help ourselves be open to the grace of God happening in us, and, consequently, in others.
