GOSPEL COMMENTARY LK 4:1-13
The legendary golfer, Jack Nicklaus, had an annual spring ritual.
Despite his countless career achievements, every year he would revisit his old
golf teacher, Jack Grout, and together they would review the three fundamentals
of the game: grip, stance and swing. When asked how an all-time great such as
Nicklaus could possibly benefit from such instruction, he replied, “You can
never overemphasize the basics.”
None of us is a “great” in the spiritual life. We are all mere
beginners. That’s why every year during Lent, the Gospels revisit the three
basic practices of the spiritual life — prayer, fasting and almsgiving. And
there’s no better teacher than Christ himself.
It’s been said that the human heart has three primal fears — the
fear of being alone, the fear of being obscure and the fear of being destitute.
Or to put it another way, we fear to have no one, to be no one and to have
nothing. These three basic fears give rise to three basic temptations:
temptations of the flesh, such as lust and gluttony; temptations of pride, such
as envy, arrogance and jealousy; and temptations of greed, such as
covetousness, selfishness and avarice. It’s also been noted that each of these
three temptations are strongest at different points in one’s life. The
temptation toward unchastity is strongest when we’re young. In middle age, the
greatest temptation is pride — the desire to be distinguished, accomplished or
admired. In the autumn years of life, the greatest temptation is greed — to
find security in money rather than in God.
These three basic temptations are the same three faced by Christ
our Lord in the Gospel this Sunday. First, a temptation to a sin of the flesh:
to misuse his divine power for the sake of his body. “If you are the son of
God, command this stone to become bread.” Second, a temptation to greed: to
misuse his divine power for the sake of what he could obtain. “All the kingdoms
of the world I will give to you,” the devil said, “if only you will worship
me.” Third, a temptation to the sin of pride: to misuse his divine power to
prove himself. “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here, and
let the angels catch you.” Later in the Gospels, Christ will counter these three
temptations in his teaching, with the three evangelical councils of poverty
(the opposite of greed), chastity (the opposite of indulgence) and obedience
(the antidote to pride). As Jesus offers his life on the cross, the summation
of all his teaching, he shows us the diametric opposites of pleasure, power and
pride.
In our church’s mystical tradition, we fight the three primal
temptations with the triple discipline of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Like
a table designed to stand on three legs, all three of these practices are
needed. Remove any one of them, and your spiritual life will falter. Prayer is
the raising of your mind and heart to God, and it requires a daily commitment
of time. Fasting is an umbrella term for any type of bodily self-denial, and is
the root of our Catholic tradition to “give up something for Lent.” Almsgiving
may be the least understood of these three disciplines. Most people imagine
almsgiving to be the donation of money, but my favorite definition came from
St. John Paul II. He once said, “Almsgiving means giving in abundance from that
which you would most jealously guard for yourself.” As such, almsgiving will
always be your toughest Lenten challenge.
Our Lord taught many things, but he is not primarily a teacher.
Our Lord worked many miracles, but he is not primarily a wonder-worker. Our
Lord helped many people, but he is not primarily a social reformer. Jesus is
first and foremost a savior who came to reconcile us to God, and yet, even he
cannot make that happen without our cooperation. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving
are the means by which we do so. Lent is not a 40-day endurance marathon after
which we merely relapse back to the same spiritual stance we started. You can
never overemphasize the basics. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving can make this
Lent the best one yet.
Fr. Hudgins is pastor of St. Jude Church in
Fredericksburg.