Temptation

The biggest temptation surrounds us rather quietly.

The Gospel story of the temptations of Jesus involves the Evil One promising to turn stones into bread, to bring fame and greatness, and to tempt God’s provident goodness.

Jesus turns Satan down with exhortation “Got thee behind me!” – the equivalent of “I am not going there!”

This incident portrays Jesus’s humanity, his being like us in every way, including enduring temptation, but not giving into sin.

The moral of the story is avoiding sin – destroying the relationships in our families and friends, in our community and with God – which at times is a huge challenge for all of us.

But we often think of sin as something we do rather than something we don’t do.

We might be tempting God’s goodness towards us most by not doing anything about the needs of neighbors and relying on others to register and vote for social justice, to provide food for the hungry and comfort to the lonely, or simply to make life more joyous for a family at home and our colleagues at work.

In a word, the biggest temptation we might face is enjoying the comfort of our personal world and doing nothing about the needs of others.