The devil tempts in threes

Homily

1st Sunday of Lent A

22 February 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church

AMDG

Why does the devil tempt us in threes?

It's because to divorce us from God and to kill us, he has to attack the unity that God is, as a communion of three persons.  God is a unity of three.  We are meant to grow in his likeness.  We relate and are joined to God most directly by the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love.  So Satan devises a threefold attack against us, as clearly seen on the first Sunday of Lent, when he tempts the new Adam the Son of God in the desert.

Watch out.  Be on your guard. For the evil one, the most cunning of all creatures, will attack you as he attacked our first parents, and tempt you as he tempted our Lord, in threes.

You know how it works.  Satan appeals to your individual ego, your identity apart from God, through the deadly sins of pride, greed and lust.  He will tempt you with ways to escape, avoid and hide.  He will throw things that are quick, cheap and easy in the form of shortcuts, hacks and cheat codes.  He will tell you that if you can only get away, get along and get by, through your privacy, choice and control, that you will be happy.  He will appeal to your desire for power, pleasure and honor through by asking you to steal from what your heavenly Father is already waiting to give you.  

Beware of the threes!

In letting himself be tempted in the desert, Jesus shows us that these temptations can be overcome by patience, perseverance and prayer.  Only after forty days of fasting, only when His power has been made perfect through weakness, does He readily engage the personal attacks of the evil one.  Because of his patience, because He knows sin is found in the quick, cheap and easy, He is able to recognize the lie of the evil one immediately and to reject it easily.  

How are the three fold attacks of the evil one overcome?  Through the weapons of self-restraint  Through sincere prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and through the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience.  This is the way to conquer sin that Jesus accomplishes not merely for us, but through us, with us and in us.

Sincerely deny yourself what is quick, cheap and easy.  Go for the more.  Don't trust me, look at the example of Jesus.  It's worth it.

+mj