Many of those who use the expression "Errare humanum est" confuse human error with moral error. To err is indeed human, that is, if I thought that today was not going to rain and it rained, I was wrong in my prediction and, in this sense, Jesus of Nazareth also erred. Both He and the early Church thought that the end of the world was near and they were mistaken. But it's one thing to err, and another thing to sin. No one errs wanting to err, and no one sins without wanting to sin. To sin presupposes an exercise of freedom: we choose evil knowing that it is evil. Sin is a moral matter; error is a matter of science. It is certain that sin is always a mistake, but a mistake may not be a sin; the concept of error is more comprehensive than that of sin, which is limited only to moral matter.
We often justify our own and other people’s weaknesses, defects, and sins by saying that we are only human; as if being human means to be full of vices, bad habits, and defects. At other times, however, when we want to say something good about someone, we say he is so human. How can the same word have diametrically opposed meanings?
The measure of what is to be human is Christ; he did not sin; therefore, sin does not belong to human nature. It is possible, though difficult, to live without sinning. Man is God's creature and God does not make defective things - sin is Man's creation, not God's. There was a time when Adam and Eve lived in harmony with nature, with themselves, with God and with each other, without sinning. Sin ruined human nature, but did not change it.
We must, therefore, use the adjective human in the good sense, knowing that Christ was 100% human, like us in all things except sin (Hebrews 4:15). The antechamber of sin is temptation, and since temptation belongs to human nature, therefore Jesus was also tempted. Without temptation there is no freedom. Although not equally valid, there is an alternative to Christ, the way, the truth and the life, the model of what it means to be human - temptation reminds us of the existence of this alternative for each of our existential choices or decisions.
Christ was tempted throughout his life
When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him (Jesus) until an opportune time. Luke 4:13
The three synoptic gospels mention the temptations of Jesus at the beginning of his public life; this may induce the reader to mis think that Jesus was tempted at the beginning of his public life and then never tempted again. The truth is that, like every human being, Jesus was tempted at every hour and every moment. There is a film about Jesus called The Last Temptation of Christ; according to this film, this last temptation occurred when he was already nailed to the cross. Let's look at some examples:
Multiplication of the loaves – After the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus makes the disciples get into a boat and cross the lake (Mark 6:45). We do not know from the synoptic gospels why Jesus forced the disciples to climb into the boat and cross the lake. The answer to this unusual forceful command is found in John 6:15. After the multiplication of the loaves, the people wanted to make Jesus king.
Facing this temptation alone was one thing, having the disciples with him and facing it was another. The disciples wanted nothing else but this, they would have been the first to acclaim Jesus as king; therefore, to prevent them from falling into temptation, he sent them away, in order to deal with the crowd alone. After, he took leave of them and went up the mountain to be alone with his Father in prayer.
Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane – In the agony at the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:42), Jesus feels that although the spirit is strong, the human flesh in which he incarnated is weak. He feels fear, not so much of death, because we all have to die one day, but of suffering. In fact, we are less afraid of death than of suffering, and for those who suffer a lot, death is a deliverance; in fact, those tortured even beg for it.
There is temptation only when there is an alternative, and Jesus had a perfectly viable alternative: despite being in Jerusalem, he was not ensnared since he was on the mount opposite to the hill of the temple, that is, on the Mount of Olives - all he had to do was to climb from Gethsemane to the top of the mountain and then descend to the Judean desert. In a few kilometers, he would be in a place where they would never be able to find him and then he could go down to Jordan, the Dead Sea and move on to what is now the country Jordan, disappearing forever. But he did not.
If I had wanted to, I would have gotten rid of death – When he had already been arrested and Peter tried to resist, by cutting off the ear of the slave of the high priest, Jesus reminds Peter and those present that if he had wanted to escape death he could have asked his Father to send him at once more than twelve legions of angels to rescue him (Matthew 26:52-54).
The concept of temptation
When we hear or utter the word temptation, from our collective imagery comes the image of the serpent tempting Adam and Eve. To tempt means to instigate, to seduce, to induce, or to lead us to a specific action. Modern advertising is the serpent of our days that tries to trick us into buying this or that product that promises to bring us happiness.
Sometimes, for the younger ones, the one who tempts can also be a friend or it may be the social pressure exerted by a group of friends on an unwary young person who needs to be very strong to resist it, because the counterpart is to be rejected by the group. Temptation has a negative meaning, especially because we see it as the entrance of sin, that is, irresistible and deterministic, in the sense that it is inevitable to sin when we are tempted.
In the Bible, however, in both Greek and Hebrew, the concept of temptation used has little to do with the synonyms described above. Instead, temptation is a test, an examination, a quiz. I came to know this not by my knowledge of Hebrew, but by my knowledge of another Semitic language, the Amharic. When I was in Ethiopia, I found that the word "temptation" in the Lord's Prayer (Do not let us fall into temptation) (Fataná) was the same word the children used when they said they had an exam (Fataná) at school.
Therefore, in contrast, the word temptation in this sense would not be negative but positive: it is about examining to determine the value of something (Job 7:18, Psalm 139:23). The same term is used to test the purity of a metal (Job 23:10, Zechariah 13:9, 1 Peter 1:7). It is also used in the context of testing someone's character (Romans 5:4, James 1:2-3).
The connection between our natural inclination towards evil, associated with the concept of temptation, is not prominent in the New Testament, but it is also not completely absent (1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:20; James 1:14-15).
To my understanding, temptation in the sense of testing is neither positive nor negative. It is neutral, in the sense that it can serve as an occasion for us to grow and become stronger if we overcome it, or an occasion to make us weaker and go from bad to worse if we are overpowered by it. For both good and evil, every temptation is a battle. Having won a battle does not mean winning the war, just as having lost a battle does not mean losing the war.
"No one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven without being tempted, without temptation no one is saved," said St. Anthony, the abbot of the desert fathers. Without temptation in the sense of test, it would be impossible to distinguish good students from bad students, true friends from false friends, or people of character from those without, the honorable from those without honor.
"The occasion makes the thief," says the proverb. No one is born a thief; it is succumbing to the possibility of stealing that makes the thief. The first time is the most difficult, after that it no longer constitute a temptation. They say it costs to kill for the first time, but that subsequently, it becomes easier and easier, turning into an increasingly stronger vice, to the point that it is almost impossible to regain the freedom that virtue grants us.
Origin of temptation
Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it… James 1:12-14
There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. Mark 7:15
From these two texts, one from James and the other from Mark quoting Jesus himself, we deduce that temptation comes from within. The evil is inside of us and comes out in deeds. Life situations only trigger, or provoke, it but do not cause evil. They tempt us, test us, but it is up to us whether to fall or not to fall. Evil is not outside of us, personified in the devil who tempts us.
In the same line of this text of James, Jesus also tells us that what makes man unclean is not what comes from the outside, but from what is inside of him. To say or think that it is the devil that induces and seduces us, is not to assume our own responsibility like Adam and Eve. It's a tattered excuse that clears us and leads us not to take responsibility of our deeds.
When we see an apple with a small hole, we assume that the hole was made by a small worm that entered the apple and infected it, but this is not true: the hole was made by the worm while leaving the apple, not while entering; it was done from the inside out, not from the outside in.
When the apple was just a flower, it was visited by an insect that laid an egg in it. When the apple formed, this egg gave birth to a larva, and this larva came out of the apple to transform into the insect in the image of its parent. We are like an apple with an insect, we were conceived with the original sin, and therefore we don't need to learn anything about evil. How many parents teach their children diligently to be good but from one moment to the next, they catch their children stealing, lying, and disobeying; so where did they learn these attitudes?
Different versions of the Lord's Prayer
et ne nos inducas in tentationem - Latin
e non ci indurre in tentazione - Italian
Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation - French
And lead us not into temptation - English
no nos dejes caer en la tentación - Spanish
não nos deixes cair em tentação - Portuguese
The Portuguese and Spanish version of the Lord’s Prayer differs from the original text we see reflected in the other languages. For centuries in the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) the Lord's Prayer began to be prayed with this difference which, theologically, seems more correct than the original of which all other languages are literal translation.
According to the original and all the other languages, we ask God not to submit us to the test, to temptation. According to the aforementioned texts of James and Mark, God does not tempt us in the sense of misleading us or inviting us to deceive or seducing us into error. In the sense of testing, quizzing, or examining, it is true that God tests us or allows us to be tested, never beyond our ability to resist however. In this sense, it is not worth asking him not to test us because testing us is part of spiritual growth towards holiness.
Abraham did not become our Father in Faith without having passed the test that God presented him. When Abraham had already let himself be seduced by his son, the beginning of his descendants that would be more numerous than the sand of the sea and the stars in the sky, God asked him, and Abraham was willing, to sacrifice his son as a proof to God that he loved him over all things and that his son had not become an object of idolatry.
Likewise, Jesus strongly tested the Syrian-Phoenician woman, her faith and patience, her endurance and self-love, before healing her daughter. If she had reacted to Jesus' veiled racist attacks, she would have proved that her self-love was greater than her love for her daughter. But on the contrary, she was so desperate and badly wanted her daughter cured that she did not mind being insulted. On the other hand, she was also neither passive nor passive aggressive, she was assertive, and she did not let herself be humiliated when she responded that even the dogs are entitled to the crumbs that fall from the table of the children of Israel. (Matthew 15:21-28).
Sin offends: God - neighbor - myself
Sin is an exclusively religious word, it is one of those words that the civil society never uses because according to it the only thing that counts is the law – he who does not observe the law does not sin, does not transgress. Hebrew has several words to designate "sin":
Sin in Hebrew
Chata – to miss the target, not to reach the goal or objective. Not to do what is expected, such as to obey and do God's will (Genesis 4:6; Ezekiel 18:4).
Shagag – to wander, stray off the path. It's like getting lost in a forest, getting off the path we set out to take (Leviticus 4:13; Numbers 15:28), not to follow the rules, the instructions.
Avon – iniquity, an act of rebellion, to defy the authority of God or the Law (Exodus 34:7; 1 Samuel 15:23).
Ra – evil, Avon is already bad enough, but Ra is even worse, it is to be depraved (Genesis 6:5; 8:21; 13:13; 19:7).
Pesha – transgression, rebelling, cutting off relations, a deliberate act of rebellion against God or his Law. It is no longer a question of missing the mark, it is not an innocent mistake, more than Avon and Ra, it is a declared war (Exodus 34:7; Isaiah 43:7; Jeremiah 2:8; Psalm 51:2).
We are free to do good; however, from the moment we do evil, the more we ingrain ourselves in it, the less free we are, and the more dependent we become of this evil, to the point of being difficult to return to the state of freedom. Sin is always to fall into the temptation that there is an equally valid alternative to the human nature with which Christ lived.
Fundamentally, the terms described above as sin affirm the idea of deviating from the path, the rule, the human nature. We take as an example our liver and its ability to safely breakdown a certain amount of alcohol.
Wine consumed in moderation, one glass a day, does not damage the liver and has positive effects on our health. However, if we abuse alcohol, especially white beverages with high alcohol content, we would exceed the liver's ability to metabolize it safely, and cause the liver to deteriorate. We are free to drink as much as we want, but afterwards we suffer the consequences of liver cirrhosis. To sin, in this sense, is to consume more alcohol than our nature permits.
The tridimensionality of sin
To sin is to not respect our human nature, the Nature that surrounds us, and the will of God and his laws. We never sin for our own interest or for the interest of others: sin is always an act against everything and against everyone, against God, others and ourselves.
Sin is above all against God, our creator, because we rebel against his will, thinking that we know more than Him, that we can live without Him, be happy without Him and even be against Him. Sin, in its dimension against God, is always an act of pride, of thinking that we are someone who can oppose God, and feel fulfilled and happy in our own way. It is contradicting Jesus' saying, "Without me, you can do nothing."
There is nothing more wrong than being proud and self-reliant before the Almighty God. Therefore, pride is the root and father of all evils, just as humility is the root and mother of all virtues. When we sin against God, we sin ipso facto against ourselves. As incredible as it may seem, God loves us much more than we love ourselves. He always forgives us, even though we often do not forgive ourselves. God knows, much better than us, what suits us. His plans for us are those that befit us, according to the nature and the talents that He gave us. Therefore, to say like Frank Sinatra "I'll do it my way" is to sin against God and against ourselves. My true path is not what I set out for myself without God, but what He sets out for me.
Evil stays with the one who practices it, says the Portuguese proverb; sin always has a boomerang effect, as they say in English "what goes around comes around". Beyond this, all sins, however intimate, personal or hidden, always have a side effect on others. In addition to the boomerang effect on one's own person, sin has a domino effect on others, similar to the effect of a grain of sand on a snow-covered mountain that triggers an avalanche.
As a recent example of this, we have the COVID-19 pandemic. It began, most likely, from the action of one person, of placing cages with different animals on top of each other, so that the blood, urine, feces and other animal secretions ended up mixing, giving the possibility of a virus to jump from one species to another, strengthening itself in this process, until it reached the human species and infecting people in all countries.
The temptations of Christ
Jesus, like us in all things except sin, is the model of humanity in the way he overcame temptations throughout his life, demonstrating that it is possible to overcome all kinds of temptations and live without sin. As we have already said, each temptation is a test of our strength, with every temptation we exercise our freedom of choosing between the good and the evil, between the convenient and the inconvenient, between the path that leads to life and the path that leads to death.
Jesus was tested in three subjects: that of turning stones into bread, of showing himself off before men, and of possessing many kingdoms. If by bread we mean material goods, wealth, if by showing off we mean the desire for fame, pleasure of popularity, vainglory, and if by the possession of kingdoms we mean the love for power, we can summarize the temptations of Christ, as well as those of every human being, as the temptation to have great wealth, to be famous and to be all powerful.
WEALTH
The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’ Matthew 4:3-4
There is much hypocrisy in speaking out against wealth; I am more receptive to the opinions of the rich against wealth than to the opinions of the poor on the subject. First, because the latter speak about something they do not know. Second, because what makes them speak out against it is often motivated by an envy of the rich which hides their desire to have what the rich have.
The fable of the fox and the grapes illustrates this behavior very well. The fox declares that the grapes are green and worthless because, after jumping several times, he could not reach them; therefore, contempt for what he cannot have and why, he takes revenge on the fact that he cannot eat the appetizing grapes, and desensitizes himself from the pain caused by this fact through a well-known psychological defense mechanism called rationalization. And to prove that all his reaction was false, upon hearing a noise of something falling behind him, he immediately turned around, thinking that he would find a bunch of grapes on the ground, but was exasperated when he saw it was only a vine leaf.
"He who disdains wants to buy," says the Portuguese proverb very wisely. In the markets, those who devalue a product or a tool do so in order to lower the price because they want to buy it. If they were not interested in buying, they would not have wasted their time talking about it. Many of those who disdain wealth only do so because they don't have it. Therefore, the temptation of wealth does not rest on who is poor, but on who is rich and chooses to be poor.
I admire the medieval saints of the Catholic Church, who were all or almost all sons and daughters of rich and wealthy families, with lands, castles, large businesses or enterprises, and who were nobles of blue-blood with influence in the royal court. These men and women were young and beautiful, had fame and prestige, wealth and nobility, culture, everything good that could be desired at that time and yet they set aside everything because they found in Christ a greater wealth. Saint Francis of Xavier, Saint Anthony of Lisbon, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira, Saint Beatriz da Silva, to name the Portuguese ones.
They abandoned everything for Christ; they had the same experience that St. Paul once had: "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Whatever they say about wealth we can listen to with confidence, because they have gone through the experience of having all that this world can give and have rejected it because they have found in Christ the one who could satisfy them completely.
The poor rich and the rich poor
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ Matthew 5:3
It is said that a young man dreamt that at the entrance of the city there was a venerable lord who had in his pocket a large diamond and who would give it to anyone who asked him, so the young man did. Upon waking, he believed in his own dream and went to the entrance of the city, where he effectively met the venerable lord who without hesitation, gave him the diamond. He returned home very happy, but during the night he could not fall asleep. The next day, he returned to the venerable lord and gave him back the diamond saying, "Give me instead what makes you detach yourself so easily from something so valuable." "You already have it,” replied the venerable lord, "by returning the diamond to me, proves that you also have the gift of detachment."
In the Bible, being rich or poor does not depend on the amount of money one has, but on how we relate to wealth. According to the Bible, the rich who live detached from their wealth are poor, while the poor who live attached to what little they have are rich.
The poor in spirit of St. Matthew are those who, being rich, have let go or live detached from their wealth, therefore are poor by choice. The poor of St. Luke are the poor who have always been poor because they never had another option, many of them may even live obsessed with the wealth that they do not have. So according to the Bible, they have already fallen into temptation, because not yet rich, they are already possessed heart and soul by the wealth they would like to have clinging like ticks to the little that they have.
Let us overcome, therefore, the Manichaeism of thinking that wealth, the material goods are intrinsically bad. Everything is God’s creation, God did not create anything evil, and therefore everything is intrinsically good. Money does not bring happiness, but it helps: there is no happiness without money. The rich is not inherently happy for being rich, nor is the poor inherently unhappy for being poor.
If riches increase, do not set your heart on them. Psalm 62:10 – Things were made to be used, people were made to be loved. Those who love wealth tend to use people to acquire more wealth, instead of loving them. Whoever gives his heart to wealth, sells his soul to the devil, and no longer possesses himself for he is possessed, in the same way that the possessed of whom the Gospel speaks to us. A clear example is the rich young man in the Gospel of Matthew (19:16-23), who decided to keep the riches when Jesus confronted him and gave him the choice between material wealth and spiritual wealth. The Gospel says that he was sad about his own choice; wealth can give pleasure but not joy and pleasure is almost always followed by sadness.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34 – Whoever loves wealth, gave his heart to it, and it is now wealth itself who possess him; it was wealth that prevented the rich young man from following the Master. It's not that he didn't want to follow the Master. He wanted to, but the riches wouldn't let him go because he didn't possess them, he was possessed by them. When we love riches, we only possess them from an accounting point of view, because from a spiritual and psychological point of view, we are possessed by them, they are the ones who possess us.
"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you," St. Augustine said — Only God's love fills our heart completely, to the point that it no longer beats restlessly. Only God is enough, St. Teresa of Avila said. Human love fills our hearts a little, but never totally. Only God, our Creator and Father by the grace of Christ, fills us entirely.
The heart of the one who instead of loving God and neighbor, loves wealth becomes a bottomless pit: the more he has the more he wants to have. It's like the teenager who suffers from anorexia nervosa and who is already barely skeletal but still sees herself as too fat when she looks at herself in the mirror. She does not have the mind focused on the thinness she already possesses, but on the one she can still possess. Similarly, the rich man does not have the mind focused on the wealth he already has, but on the one he can still have: so he never says enough is enough.
Love your neighbor as yourself
‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build large ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Luke 12:16-20
The story of Elvis Presley illustrates clearly this truth. Elvis became very rich. At one point in his life, he had eight cars, six motorcycles, two planes, sixteen television sets, a huge mansion and several well-stocked bank accounts. Furthermore, he was idolized by legions of fans. But he wasn't happy. In the midst of all his wealth and success, he felt a spiritual malaise and complained of loneliness and boredom. "Money brings a lot of headaches," he confided to an interviewer.
His mother was worried about him. She had never wanted all that for him. She simply wanted him to come home, buy a furniture store, get married and have kids. He became paranoid and depressed. At the age of twenty-two, he discovered that he had nothing left in the world to conquer. This unease could have been an opportunity. It was a stark demonstration that "man does not live by bread alone", that is, on material things alone.
We all know how Elvis ended up - a drug addict. After all, he did not live as long as material possessions could have allowed him to live. Material goods can make life easier for us in many ways, but they are not life in themselves. They can buy us the most refined pleasures, but they cannot buy us joy. Those who understand life as bread and circus will soon lose their freedom, getting trapped in some sort of addiction.
Man does not live by bread alone: wealth serves only to keep us alive. Living has nothing to do with wealth. It is loving your neighbor as yourself, that is, it is love for people that delivers you from the love of wealth. When you love someone, it's natural to give them things and to start giving until you give yourself.
When you love, you share what you have with those who don't have. Love obeys the principle of communicating vessels; when two vessels, one filled with water and the almost empty, communicate with each other, much of the water passes from the one that has to the one that has not, leaving both with the same level of water. There's no better communication between people than love. Love leads to equality between unequal people.
"There is more happiness in giving than in receiving." Acts 20:35 – It is certain that children find more joy in receiving than in giving, because they are still children, they have not yet learned to love. They're still living through Christmas waiting for Santa Claus. Adults, when they are psychologically sound, find more joy in giving than in receiving, they live through Christmas not as expectant children, but as the Santa Claus who gives. The adult who still finds more joy in receiving than in giving, is not psychologically mature yet.
For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
FAME
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written “He will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ Matthew 4:5-7
Jesus never performed a miracle for his own profit, as would have been the case of the temptation to turn stones into bread because he was hungry. He also never performed any miracles to show off; on the contrary, he always earnestly asked the recipients of his miracles not to say anything to anyone. He criticized the Pharisees for being actors, which in Greek means hypocrites - they did things not out of conviction, but to be seen by men.
They fasted, gave alms, and prayed in public to be flattered by people. As the Gospel says, "they have already received their just reward" which is precisely this, that of acquiring prestige before people (Matthew 6:1-18). A very meaningless prestige, because people soon realize that it is not genuine. Therefore, those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12).
It is better to do things because we like to do them, and to do them for God; praying in our hearts, in the privacy of our room or alone, in a reclusive place, like Jesus; giving in such a way that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. Whoever gives to the poor lends to God, says the Portuguese proverb, that is, nothing goes unrewarded, and we are definitely accumulating treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-34).
Ephemeral nature of fame
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ Matthew 21:8-9
Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, ‘Here is your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but the emperor.’ John 19:14-15
Palm Sunday is not far from Good Friday. The same crowd that shouted ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, who hailed Jesus as king for being David's descendant, a few days later shouted that this same king of the Jews should be crucified. It is true that Jesus never sought to be king, even though he was one. That is why Jesus did not delight on Palm Sunday, nor did he become depressed on Good Friday.
"Dogs bark and the caravan passes" – Dogs always bark, it is what is expected of them. The genuine and authentic person is not regulated by what others say of good or evil, nor does he adapt his behavior to what makes him more or less popular. Jesus was authentic, his authority, as the people of his time very well noted, came from within, it did not depend on public opinion.
Jesus did not do or say anything or behaved fancifully to attract people to himself. He never called anyone except his disciples; it is certain that people were attracted to him, but he did not call attention to himself but to his Father, and he did not preach to promote himself but to promote the Kingdom of God.
Maintaining fame makes you an actor
Whoever after doing something well selflessly, delights in the flattery of people, is exposed to the temptation to become addicted to this flattery and, instead of being authentic, begins to do things not out of pleasure but because they give him fame and prestige. He stops being himself in order to be a stage actor.
He stops doing what he likes to do only what other people like, he stops being himself to be who he is not. He puts himself in a dialectic of increasing anxiety, because to maintain the reputation he has to do greater and greater works, since fame lasts only for a short time.
It is true that we all like to have a good reputation and to hear praises; however, we must not be attached to them and make them the meaning of our lives, of everything that we do, so that we stop being authentic. We stop being ourselves to be who we are not and we stop living our lives to live a life that is not ours.
Many famous people, like the Narcissus of myth, fall in love with the image of themselves that they project out in public. This image functions like the mask that the ancient Greek actors put on to represent a character. In fact, mask in Greek means character.
Maintaining fame turns you into a clown
Whoever in life seeks other people’s praises is afraid of criticism. That is why criticisms shape their behavior, in the sense of doing what the people want and command, and avoid what the people do not want. This is shown clearly by the well-known the story of the old man, the boy and the donkey who went to the fair.
The people made fun of them because neither the old man nor the boy sat on the donkey. To make the people happy, the old man rode the donkey and was criticized for leaving the boy on foot; so the boy mounted the donkey and was criticized for not pitying his elderly father; so both of them sat on the donkey and were criticized for not having pity on the donkey. They ended up going to the fair carrying the donkey on their backs and the people mocked them.
Whoever is sensitive to criticisms and praises receives his motivation from the outside and not from within - as such, he is not free, but dependent on others and the vicissitudes of public opinion. He has no character or personality, no spine and like a chameleon, goes around adapting to everything and everyone. He does this in order to have everyone as friends, and ending up not having any.
POWER
The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ Matthew 4:8-10
We repeat here something we have already said about wealth: it is "the situation that makes the thief", that is, we only know if a person is honest or not when he is confronted with a situation in which he can steal. Those who have never stolen because they never had the opportunity to do so, we do not know whether or not they are truly honest - their honesty has to be put to the test.
Those who never had wealth, never experienced the danger of falling in love with it; for those who have nothing, it is easy to love God above all things. But, as we said, these are not the true poor; the true poor are the rich who deprive themselves of their wealth, not the poor who by the vicissitudes of life often have no desire other than to be rich.
"If you want to meet the villain, put the rod of power in his hand" – The same idea can be applied to some people who seem humble because they have no power. However, when they are given power, they reveal their true nature. To this another proverb warns: "Do not serve those who served, nor ask those who have asked.”
It is widely known that whoever was abused when he was a vulnerable and helpless child, can become an abuser himself when he is an adult, spending the rest of his days avenging the abuse he received in childhood.
Jesus of Nazareth, the anarchist
‘You know that the ruler of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’ Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus was an anarchist, not in the sense of championing that society should not be organized and disciplined, but in the sense of affirming that no one has the right to exercise power over someone else. Power is either service or is malevolent. It is for this reason that Jesus tells his disciples not to call anyone Master, Father, Doctor (Matthew 23:8-12), saying that these titles should only be attributed to the one who is almighty - God. In Jesus' philosophy, we should not consider anyone superior to us, nor anyone inferior to us, and since there is only one person above us who is God the Father, we are all equal, we are all brothers and sisters.
For Jesus, all autocratic form of government is naturally violent and oppressive. Jesus understands power as service and not as dominion over people. Jesus replaces love for power, with the power of love and service to others. This is the path to greatness and popularity that so many powerful people seek.
Those who exercise power autocratically are feared, not loved; the leaders loved by the people are those who exercise power by serving; these are truly the great ones in the history of mankind. The great ones in our personal story are also those who have served us and not those who dominated us: our parents, teachers, catechists, etc...
The kings before and after the time of Jesus, after a great battle, entered the city mounted on their magnificent horse, an animal used in war, followed by their army, to be acclaimed by the people. Jesus, as the king of the Jews, entered Jerusalem and was also acclaimed by the people, but he came riding on a donkey, an animal of peace, not a horse (Luke 19:28-40). It was an act bordering on the ridiculous to ridicule the power and to tell the people what he told Pilates later: My kingdom is not from this world… ‘You say that I am a king’... (John 18:36-37)
Three types of authority: moral - elected - appointed
They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (…) They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. Mark 1:22, 27
Authority in our world comes to an individual by democratic election, or by appointment, since in a democracy, power belongs to the people who delegate it temporally and periodically to those it considers worthy to hold public office.
In our times, the authority, both elected and appointed, does not automatically get our respect and admiration: these must be earned. Like the contemporaries of Jesus who recognized him as one with authority even though He was not an elect or appointee, scribe or priest. True authority comes from within, it is charismatic, it is the authority of the prophet that arises from among the people without having been elected or appointed.
This type of authority gets our respect automatically because we see a complete coherence and correspondence between what the person says, what he does and how he behaves, both in public and in private. This moral authority is what truly gives authority to the one elected and nominated. Elected and appointed without moral authority
are not accepted, followed or obeyed.
Conclusion
Like Jesus, the winners of the three temptations are the rich who are not in love with their wealth, the famous who are not in love with their image and the powerful who are not in love with power.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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