Homily recipe for the 1st Sunday of Lent, Yr A 2017 : IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD... (The dynamics of Temptation, Fall and the Rise of man).
* Gen 2 : 7 - 3 : 7, Rom 5 : 12 - 19, Matt 4 : 1 - 11.
PREAMBLE
1. The devil is not happy that you are a child of God. If you know what you are and the privileges you have been given, 1 Jn 3 : 1 - 3, then you will understand why the devil cannot be happy.
2. The only option left to him is to come through temptations to pull you down from this position of blessedness through temptations.

B. TEMPTATION I : AT EDEN
3. At Eden the devil messed up our 1st parents (Adam and Eve) and brought them down from their position of blessedness.
We just want to concentrate on 3 points ; the motif, the target and the effect of every temptation ;
(i) Motif : Faced by the reality of human freedom and the fact that he only remains spiritual when he chooses to obey the Word of God, the motif of every temptation of the devil is to challenge the Word of God. At Eden he told Eve : 'Did God say you shall not eat of any fruit of the garden?'. As soon as Eve yielded to this temptation and deceit, the rest was story. St Paul says : 'It is ideas that we battle with.. Presumptuous notions set up against the Word of God', 2 Cor 10 : 4.
(ii) Target ; The devil knows the sensuous nature of man and also knows his spiritual nature. He knows that man was created in the image and likeness of God, Gen 1 : 26. He therefore went to the woman who was closer to sensuality and began a most dangerous dialogue. The conclusion was that : 'The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye'. She was not only deceived at the sensual level but at the intellectual and spiritual level : 'The tree was to be desired to make one wise.. to be like God knowing good and evil'. With the introduction of spiritual pride the target was complete. Sensitization and serpentization happened and Eve was the chief actor : She was not only deceived but undertook to play the role of serpent to her husband. Gerard Von Rad, the great biblical scholar, calls it the role of 'serpentization of others'.
(iii) Effect ; The result was corruption, shame and guilt (emptiness). Then their eyes were opened as the propensity for sin opened. They realized that they were naked and they got themselves indecently dressed and so, hid at the voice of God. Yes, without the grace of God we are naked, guilty and vulnerable.

C. TEMPTATION II : AT THE WILDERNESS.
4. In today's gospel Jesus comes as the perfect Son of God to correct the mistakes of our first parents at Eden.
(i) Motif ; The motif of the devil remains the same : to challenge the Word of God. He said : 'If you are the Son of God....'
(ii) Target ; The target of the devil remains the same : to attack the sensuous nature of man with the temptation towards materialism, the arrogant nature of man with the temptation of spiritual pride and the cultic nature of man with the temptation of idolatry and cultism. But Jesus did not fall for it because he prepared himself well for the spiritual journey in the desert.

D. TEMPTATION III : OUR PRESENT WORLD.
5. The world is our present venue of temptation as children of God. The devil has 3 effective methods ;
(i) He distracts you from doing the right thing according to the Word of God.
(ii) He attracts you to his own ways through worldly temptations and allurements .
(iii) He contracts you to do his bidding (through serpentization of others) by becoming his agent in seducing others to sin, eg through immoral dressing, joining the occult or becoming an occult grandmaster (dibia afa, aja or nsi). John warns us : 'Do not love the world or what is in the world...Disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession ', 1Jn 2 : 15.

E. CONCLUSION
6. The defeat of Satan came with the statement : 'Away from me! For it is written...' So do the children of God defeat Satan still today when they have the will power to resist him immediately and the knowledge of the Word of God to back up their decisions. Spirituality is tested and proven by temptations, Sir 2 :1, Matt 6 : 3, Lk 22 : 40, 1 Cor 10 : 13. According to St Augustine : 'Our pilgrim life here on earth cannot be without temptation for it is through temptation that we make progress, through it we affirm and come to know ourselves better (as children of God). We cannot win our crown unless we have overcome, unless we enter the contest. And there is no contest unless we have an enemy and the temptations he brings'.
The tempter always challenges our rights of Sonship and the remedy is through radical prayer, penance and study of the Word of God.
7. We commit only the oldest of sin (disobedience of the Word of God) in the newest kind of ways. These days it can be through the Internet or the latest of technological advancements ; video chats and exchange of pornography.
8. We must learn from Jesus how to stop the devil at the suggestion level. Remember, there are 3 stages of temptation ; (i) Suggestion (mkpanye), (ii) Delight (ntule) and (iii) Consent (nkwenye). According to Vima Dasan, 'You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming animal yourself'.
9. We must go to the desert now, discipline the flesh and constantly feed our souls with the Word of God. The 2nd reading made it clear that as sin came to the world through one man and death through sin as effect of breaking the law... God's grace came through one man Jesus Christ to overflow and surpass the law. We now have justification by faith and authentic faith is accomplished by obedience to the Word of God. This is our desert challenge throughout this lenten season. Happy Lent

Gratias tibi Domine