An Easy Way Out

Gospel
01 March 2009
First Sunday of Lent
Mk 1:12-15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

***

An Easy Way Out
by Roxanne Gillea Tan

Family feuds, peer pressure, boy-girl troubles, failing marks, and financial problems – these are some of the problems faced by people from different walks of life. People struggle to be free from these but there are times when people lose hope, they just give in, let go and give up. Why give up? Why let go? Why give in? Sometimes, when we are faced with challenges, our spirits are easily dampened. Instead of doing the best that we can to rise up from our problems, we choose the easy way out. We are easily tempted to give up. But NOT JESUS.

As a student in UST, I have learned a lot and I have seen many things. Temptation is everywhere. In streets, you can see advertisements of motels and alcoholic beverages. In different places, you see vendors selling cigarettes. In some stores, magazines with indecent pictures are sold. I won’t give more examples because we all experience this in our everyday lives. Temptation, being readily available, is so difficult to resist. Have we ever thought why we give in to them? Maybe, just like giving in to our problems, giving in to temptation is the easy way out.

For forty days and nights, Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert but He remained faithful to God. At the end of forty days, the angels came for Jesus. Like Adam, Jesus was tempted by Satan. But unlike Adam, He did not give in to temptation. In the story of creation, Adam was tempted by the devil and the devil was successful. Because of this, original sin was born. We can say that the consequences of the sin were undone by Jesus Himself because he contradicts the defiance of Adam. By doing this, Jesus leads us to a new life – a life where we can go back to God, a life where we can repent and believe in the Gospel.

Temptation IS NOT sin in itself. Giving in to temptation to do evil deeds IS the sin. It is the easy way out. We have a choice, give up and give in to temptation or resist temptation, have faith and believe in God.

Roxanne Gillea Tan graduated from St. Peter the Apostle School and is currently studying in the University of Sto. Tomas. She serves in our Parish as a lector during the Sunday 10AM mass.