The Father's Love

"How does Jesus resist the temptations of the devil?  He is not relying on moral strength or trying hard to adhere to a code of ethics.  It is Jesus' unwavering love, trust, and affection for his Father which renders the devil and his temptations powerless.

"...Jesus sees everything, from bread to all the kingdoms of the world, as meaningless without the love of his Father.  When the devil tempts Jesus to test his Father's love, Jesus knows that love which is manipulated is not love at all and cannot compare to the free and abundant Love which is his Father.

"The devil wants Jesus to doubt the Father and to conceive of himself without the Father; for when Jesus' heart is with his Father, the devil's temptations are revealed for the nothingness that they are.

"As long as I conceive of myself as alone, and as long as I conceive of God as far away from the truest and deepest longings of my heart, I will always sin.  I will continually set my heart on things that will never answer its infinite longing.

"...Our hope is not in our strength, but in gazing upon Christ who first gazes upon us."

~Father Richard Veras, The Magnificat Lent Companion, Lent 2013

Lord, show us the Father,

and it is enough for us.

~John 14:8