Homily for the First Sunday of Lent 22 February 2026

A 1992 survey by a Christian publication called Discipleship Journal asked Christian readers to rank their greatest areas of spiritual struggle, and the results were painfully honest: materialism topped the list, followed by pride, self-centeredness, laziness, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, and lying. What made the findings even more revealing was when people felt most vulnerable — 81% said temptation hit hardest after they had neglected time with God, and 57% said it came when they were simply tired. Does that sound familiar?

Fast forward twenty-five years, and the landscape of temptation has shifted in some ways but not in others. Today, 60% of Christians identify worry and anxiety as their most frequent daily struggle, and 44% now name overuse of social media — something that didn't even exist as a category in 1992 — as a primary temptation. Doomscrolling has become the new gluttony. Digital envy, fueled by endless social comparison, has replaced the old neighbourhood kind. For many, pornography is the number one reported struggle; for others, it is more varied — gossip, overeating, and overspending. The faces of temptation change with every generation, but the experience of temptation is as old as humanity itself.

And that is precisely why today's Gospel is so powerful. At the very beginning of his public ministry, before he had healed a single person or preached a single sermon, Jesus was led into the wilderness — hungry, alone, and tested. He faced temptation not as God floating above it all, but as one of us, in a time of exhaustion and vulnerability. And he overcame it. This Lent, as we take an honest look at our own wilderness moments, we are invited not simply to try harder, but to follow the one who has already walked this path and shown us the way through.

Today we are taught three things: that temptations are inevitable; that they are a testing through which we can grow spiritually by making the right choices; and that the great spiritual danger is to be unaware of temptation in our lives. If you and I were surveyed, what would we say is our greatest area of struggle?

Someone once said that when we see someone in sin, there are two things we do not know. We do not know how hard that person tried not to sin. And we do not know the power of the forces that assailed them. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.

Is it possible that we have lost a sense of what temptation actually is? Not because we are so holy, but because, so often, we simply give in without a fight. Most people these days just do what they want. It is so much easier to tell ourselves there is nothing wrong with what we want. And this, at its root, is the sin of Adam and Eve — the sin of eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is deciding for ourselves what is right and wrong, rather than listening to what God says. We make ourselves like God.

The result is that so many people are spiritually unwell, and so accustomed to it that they think this is simply the way things are. But this is not what God wants for us. God wants us to flourish, to be fulfilled. Key to our Lenten journey is recognising where our true happiness lies and allowing God to work his healing grace in our lives as we turn back to him with all our hearts.

Remember: temptation is only temptation because it offers something that appears good. It gets its power by persuading us that we will be happier if we give in. But it is always a lie — and afterwards, we realise we have been cheated. Sometimes we can be deceived for long periods, only realising, by the grace of God, how miserable we have become.

In Matthew's account of Jesus' forty days in the desert, the devil offers comfort, wealth, and power. All three are temptations to sin against the great commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Jesus overcame temptation and chose instead the path of humble, prayerful servanthood that the Father has marked out for him.

We can fall into the trap of thinking Jesus had it easier — that he could resist temptation because he was also God. But to think this way makes a mockery of the very real struggle Jesus faced and misunderstands a central truth of our faith: Jesus was fully human. His divinity took nothing away from what it truly means to be human. He was hungry. He was tired. He was tested. Just like us.

The three temptations are, in essence, a summary of every temptation we face. They all boil down to the same thing: the desire to make ourselves the centre, to put ourselves first, to say no to the call of God, and to choose whatever pleases us. How often is it true that we think — if only I had this, or that, or enough money, or this pleasure, or that relationship — then I would be happy, then I would be satisfied?

Jesus answered the devil: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Material things and physical desires are not bad in themselves — but they need to be rightly ordered. We are spiritual beings, and our spiritual nature cannot be satisfied by what is material. We are made for a love relationship with God, and only in that will we find our true and lasting happiness.

There is also, within each of us, an insatiable need for the approval of others, for power and influence, for recognition. We can be tempted to use even the noblest actions as a way to earn honour from others. Jesus shows us a different way — humble service, and the worship of God alone.

During this Lent, it is vital to admit honestly that we have our own temptations. There are weaknesses within us that we need to be conscious of and, with God's help, to resist. Every time we pray the Our Father, we ask God for exactly that help. Perhaps the most dangerous thing is to be unaware of our own weaknesses — because then we are caught off guard. As St Peter warns: “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith.”

The people in that 1992 survey were asked how they resisted temptation. 84% named prayer; 76%, avoiding compromising situations; 66%, reading Scripture; and 52%, accountability to another person. More recent research adds something striking: it is not enough to engage in these spiritual practices occasionally. Those who engage in spiritual exercises four or more times a week show dramatically greater resilience against temptation.

The Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness calls us there too — into these forty days of Lent — not to punish us, but to refocus us. To help us name our temptations honestly. To rediscover that God, and God alone, is the centre of our lives. And to walk with Jesus — who was tested as we are tested, who knows exactly what this struggle feels like, and who, with grace and with love, shows us the way through.