SCRIPTURE
If you are the Son of God...
Mt. 4:1-11
OBSERVATION
Today's Gospel records the Titanic battle between Jesus and Satan. Interestingly, this doesn't happen until after Jesus received the Spirit of God in his baptism. It is the Holy Spirit that leads Him out into the wilderness and into this battle. The thrust of the devil's attack is in his questioning taunt, "If you are the Son of God...".
In winning this battle Jesus was then able to move on and complete God's plan of redemption, ending in His Passion, Death and Resurrection. None of this would have happened had Jesus not beaten Satan in this crucial duel. Thank God He did.
APPLICATION
This question over Jesus' divinity is the great divide of Christianity. Other faiths recognise Jesus as a good man, a great prophet even, but the Son of God? And it's the great divide between sin and holiness in my life. Each time I sin I deny Christ. It sounds terrible as I say this but that is the cold hard truth of the matter. I hold on fast to the promise of Saint Paul in the Second Reading; "now after many falls comes grace with its verdict of acquittal".
PRAYER
Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.
Little Flower, please pray for me.
Today's Gospel records the Titanic battle between Jesus and Satan. Interestingly, this doesn't happen until after Jesus received the Spirit of God in his baptism. It is the Holy Spirit that leads Him out into the wilderness and into this battle. The thrust of the devil's attack is in his questioning taunt, "If you are the Son of God...".
In winning this battle Jesus was then able to move on and complete God's plan of redemption, ending in His Passion, Death and Resurrection. None of this would have happened had Jesus not beaten Satan in this crucial duel. Thank God He did.
APPLICATION
This question over Jesus' divinity is the great divide of Christianity. Other faiths recognise Jesus as a good man, a great prophet even, but the Son of God? And it's the great divide between sin and holiness in my life. Each time I sin I deny Christ. It sounds terrible as I say this but that is the cold hard truth of the matter. I hold on fast to the promise of Saint Paul in the Second Reading; "now after many falls comes grace with its verdict of acquittal".
PRAYER
Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.
Little Flower, please pray for me.
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