First Sunday of Lent

February 22, 2026

Matthew 4: 1-11

The first two readings give us the beginning and the end of humankind’s need for salvation and redemption. We begin in Genesis with the story of humanity's creation and how our first parents soon came to confrontation with the devil. They had everything going for them, and yet when evil comes into the picture as a temptation against what God has decreed, our parents fold under the attraction of power. After all, who would not want to be equal to God. We were given the will to power from the very beginning; perhaps this was because Our Father gave us free choice with the gift of free will. We might complain that it was not fair that God put the fate of all of us tied to the decision of Adam and Eve. But the second reading shows us that this was really a blessing, a happy fault.

The reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans holds the key to this. It points out the blessing that “through one man sin entered the world, and thus death to all men, inasmuch as all sinned...how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow to the many.” Each of us does not have to be given freedom from sin and death individually, since it has been given to each of us as members of the body of Christ, children and heirs of the Father. This is the gift given at the end of the story of creation. It begins with the gift of human life and ends with the gift of eternal life. That second gift is what we begin to celebrate this Lent which concluded in the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus the gift of life is overtaken by the gift of eternal life, and we can be with God forever, if we deal correctly with the temptations of life we see afflict Jesus in the gospel from Matthew.

When this gospel opens, Jesus identity as the Son of God has been established by the account of his birth, the finding of the Magi, and his baptism. Now at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, Matthew brings up any lingering doubts that the reader may have by his description of the temptations Jesus experience is the desert. The first temptation of turning the stones into bread offers the possibility of gratifying our own hungers for our own sake; notice Jesus in his refusal takes care in his ministry to take care of people by feeding them with both physical and spiritual food. 

The second temptation of surviving a fall from the top of the Temple is concerned the desire for a showy display of power to prove that Jesus is indeed God by showing God’s power to rescue Jesus from such a deadly fall. But Jesus remains true to his mission of being “God-with Us,” rather that God-lording-it over us. Jesus mission is not a pretentious show of power, but rather meeting people in their human needs and bringing them healing and empowerment. Jesus does not compel us to believe by a showy display of power, but through inviting us to become one with him.

The third temptation concerns the idolatrous misuse of power by urging Jesus to bow down to Satan and thereby receive universal political power. This is a power that Satan does not possess. But Satan is trying to make Jesus declare that he is equal to God as a man, before Jesus is ready to reveal himself to us as God’s Son who is fully human and fully divine.

We might be tempted to think that Jesus experienced these temptations in the desert, and then never had them again. But this is not the case as we can see as we read the gospels. Even at the end, Jesus is tempted to feel abandoned by God on Calvary. Jesus is showing us that even in our humanity, we can resist temptation as he did as a human being. This gives us courage, but also a challenge. We must not think that it was easy for Jesus to turn Satan down in what he offered. If Jesus was truly human, the temptations were real and had their pull. Jesus is not asking us to do what is humanly impossible. After all, the temptation to power and equality to God could have been overcome by Adam and Eve. Now, each of us has that opportunity again to remain one with God and faithful to what the Father really wants for us: eternal life with him.

Fr. John Tran