Homily for the Sunday Mass of February 22: “Do not be afraid of temptations”

Sunday 22 February 2026
First Sunday of Lent – ​​Year A

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1^st Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7a
Psalm: 50 (51), 3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14.17
2^rd reading: Romans 5, 12-19
Gospel: Matthew 4, 1-11

This account of Jesus' temptations in the desert is undoubtedly a constructed narrative, a theological rather than a historical one, which helps us understand something of the stakes of the life of the Word made flesh, the eternal Son of the eternal Father who became man. In this humanity, Jesus, through this fast of 40 days and 40 nights, consents to be in a state of extreme weakness. When one fasts for a long time, after a few days, the body stops demanding food; it switches to another mode: it draws on its reserves. And when there are no more reserves, it is a matter of eating or dying. And the Gospel is very clear when it tells us: "After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." But this is not the hunger we experience when a meal is delayed; it is a tragic end: you eat or you die. As if Jesus wanted to find himself in a state of extreme weakness that was as close as possible to the state of weakness of sinful man, he who is without sin.

And as always, the devil attacks points of weakness; he doesn't attack points of strength. And since it's a matter of eating or dying, he offers him something to eat: "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." And Jesus responds with the Word of God, as if he didn't draw his strength from himself: he receives it from the Father through the Holy Scriptures; and in doing so, he is nourished by the Word of God: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Then the devil offers something else and tempts him with the Word of God: "Throw yourself down, for it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" If the devil is cunning, he is not intelligent, for in the same psalm he quotes, the Lord God also says: "You shall crush the viper and the scorpion." And Jesus again, with an understanding of Revelation, with an understanding of the Word of God, responds: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Holy Scripture is not there for me to use, but for me to receive the Revelation of God.

And finally, the devil reveals himself, and as he reveals himself, Jesus is then able to reject him. He changes his name, calling him “Satan.” Diabolos in Greek means “divider”; “shatan” in Hebrew means both “adversary” and “accuser.” Having confronted the divider who wants to separate him from the Father, Jesus, seeking to maintain this communion with the Father, makes the divider an adversary.

This account of temptations is meant to encourage us on our own journey. In French, we have several words: the word "tentation" (temptation) and the word "épreuve" (trial/trial). But in the Greek language, in which we received the writings of the New Testament, there is only one word, sometimes translated as "épreuve" (trial/trial), sometimes as "tentation" (temptation). And the apostles are unanimous: whether you read Saint James at the beginning of his letter, Saint Paul at the beginning of Romans chapter 5, or Saint Peter in his first letter, they all tell us that trials are an opportunity for the strengthening of faith, to the point that Saint James exclaims: "Consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because they test the integrity of your faith" (James 1:2). Let us not be afraid of temptations, let us not be afraid of the trials in our lives. Saint Teresa, at the end of her life — this can be found in the yellow notebook — said at one point:

I understand very well why St. Peter fell. Poor St. Peter, he relied on himself instead of relying solely on the strength of God. […] I am quite sure that if St. Peter had humbly said to Jesus, “Please grant me the strength to follow you unto death,” he would have received it immediately. (Yellow Notebook, August 7, 4) How do we face trials and temptations in our lives? Oh, I know, in certain temptations, we no longer have any desire to turn to the Lord, because the mirage that temptation makes us crave outweighs the desire to be with the Lord, the desire to be with Jesus. It is precisely there that we must draw upon the depths of faith that the Holy Spirit awakens in us, to cling to the Lord. We will never be stronger than the devil. We will never be stronger than temptation. The one who conquered the devil is Jesus. The one who can enable us to face temptation while remaining united to God, resisting evil, and choosing good, is the Savior: Jesus. We are all descendants of Adam, we are all wounded by sin, and as Paul told us: “For just as by the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” It is about being with this One, with Jesus, who makes us righteous with his justice.

During the Lenten season, the different spiritual attitudes to which we are invited — I am thinking again of almsgiving, prayer and fasting which we heard about on Wednesday — these different attitudes are there to nourish our union with the Lord, so that we may be more and more united with Jesus.

In the opening prayer of Mass earlier, we asked for the grace to "grow in understanding the mystery of Christ and to seek its fulfillment—this mystery—through a life that corresponds to it." The challenge of Lent is to know Jesus more and more intimately, to be more and more intimately united to him, and for our lives to be transformed by this union with Jesus. Let us not forget: in all the "Lenten efforts" we wish to make, the goal is for us to be more intimate with Jesus, for this to lead us to grow in our inner knowledge of Jesus, for us to be more united to Jesus. Ultimately, nothing else matters. And how can we verify that this more intimate union with Jesus is real in our lives? There is only one criterion: does our charity for our brothers and sisters grow? If I become more patient, if I become gentler—not magically, but through effort—if I become more helpful, if I become more generous, these are positive signs that I'm not deluding myself when I say I'm seeking to be closer to God. But if I remain irritable, impatient, contemptuous of others, and so on, I am certain that all the efforts I make are in vain. The only criterion is charity: that charity which is in the heart of Christ and which is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5).

Let us truly ask for the grace, in celebrating this Eucharist of the first Sunday of Lent, to know how to let ourselves be united more and more to Jesus our Savior.

Amen.