Lent 1A (Matthew 4:1-11)

In our relationships with others, power is never seized; it is entrusted. Authority arises when others give us the freedom to act on their behalf. For instance, you give me the power to pray the Eucharistic prayers. This sacred act—by which bread and wine become signs of Christ’s presence and we are re-membered as his body—cannot be done alone. The power entrusted to me is neither for my sake nor yours alone. It is for the life of the world, in keeping with Jesus’s own prayer: “Thy kingdom come.” In this shared exchange of trust and power between you and me, we enact a glimpse of how the city of God operates.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus confronts the temptation of power. The tempter offers him forms of control and dominance, and while this figure is personified as “Satan,” the story speaks more broadly to how each of us encounters temptation. Often, no one is really tempting us; we tempt ourselves. Our desires—which we imagine to be our own—are, in truth, shaped by others, by systems, by unseen forces that define what seems valuable or possible.

1. The temptation to produce and provide.
Jesus’s first temptation—to turn stones into bread—arises from compassion for human hunger. But beneath that compassion lies the danger of mistaking production for salvation. Our modern economy thrives on turning what seems worthless into something saleable. Both capitalism and communism, in their distorted forms, participate in this logic whenever they dehumanize or oppress. Jesus resists this by remembering that “one does not live by bread alone,” recognizing the Spirit as the true sustainer of life. He neither rejects material need nor accepts an economy built on manipulation of desire. Instead, he reveals that divine grace works through the cracks of every system.

2. The temptation to master mortality.
The second temptation—throwing himself from the temple to test God’s protection—can be reimagined today as humanity’s struggle with the power of medicine. Modern science constantly strives to defy aging, to postpone death, even to achieve immortality. Yet few societies teach us how to die well. Jesus’s reply, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test,” reminds us that faith is not control over life’s outcome but trust amid its fragility. True healing comes not from escaping mortality but from embracing our shared dependence on God.

3. The temptation to dominate.
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: power attracts pathological personalities,” writes Frank Herbert. The issue is not simply that power corrupts, but that it entices the corruptible. The third temptation—a promise of worldly power—exposes this allure. When desire becomes a will to control without responsibility or consequence, power turns godless, atheistic in the truest sense. In the city of God, however, power does not hoard or oppress; it self-empties. It is continually relinquished, poured out, and shared so that others may flourish. True power empowers. It is the power of grace working through the goodwill of God, calling each of us into harmony and fulfillment.