Spirituality of the Readings

You Are My Beloved

In Sunday’s reading, Jesus has been swept into the desert by a voice that said “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22).

These were God’s words.

Notice that they are nearly the same as what God had uttered eight hundred years before, as follows:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1-4).

The voice of God still speaks again to his servant, making it quite clear that Jesus is that chosen one.

Was Jesus surprised to hear this? In some ways, no. He already knew in his deepest soul and all the way outwards how close he was to God. Yet he was simultaneously human, and completely so. Therefore, in another way, he was shocked. He had read and re-read the Isaiah passage above since he was at his mother’s knee. Now it all clicked into place.

He was to be the chosen one.

Jesus needed to ponder this stunning message. He had to listen in silence and with an openness so holy that it would seem almost like emptiness. So he went to the desert.

The devil, for his part, had already known about Jesus, with a dumb and greedy knowledge. He saw that this great servant of God could be used for ulterior motives. From the moment the Jesus-child was born, all this, his strength, his God-like holiness, the fame he would acquire, could become a tool for subjecting the world to Satan.

  “No point in being empty,” the sly tempter said to the hungry Jesus. “Just give a Godly command and this stone will turn into bread.” You are God, aren’t you? Take whatever you want. Have a great life!

Note to reader: How do you relieve your hunger?

Jesus answered from the scriptures. “One does not live by bread alone.” These words paraphrase Moses’ great second speech to the people of Israel:

Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

The devil, rapacious, scurried on to a second temptation, this time an invitation to glory. Join me, worship me. All the kingdoms of the world will be yours, as they already are mine. (Translation: you can be bigger than this heavenly father of yours.) Jesus answered, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve” (see Deuteronomy 6:13).

Note to the reader: what do you and I worship and serve—instead of God?

Two temptations had now failed. As we know, “even the devil can quote scripture,” so he uses Psalm 91—the part about God commanding angels to guard the beloved one (verses 11 and 12). Just throw yourself off the heights of this temple, the devil suggests smoothly. God’s angels will have no choice, they will have to come save you. Take advantage of who you are.

Note to the reader: Don’t you want to show off your power sometimes?

Jesus again answers from the same book of scripture (Deuteronomy 6:16). “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” The meaning: God the Father is above all. If you think you can bribe him to save you, then you might seem to yourself equal to him! But you aren’t.

Note to all people: do we sometimes think we are God?

Instead, imitate the Son of God.

John Foley, SJ

**From Saint Louis University