Len always begins with the temptation
story so the devil tempting Jesus and
the three great temptations of
sensuality glory and power are the three
great things that lead you away from
making God the son of your life you can
see these three characteristic
dysfunctions very clearly in the
characters of Rome for example is a
great character in Rome called titus
pullo and titus pullo is a legionary in
Caesars of 13th Legion and he's a basic
level tough-guy soldier and his life is
all about sensual pleasure that's all he
wants he has no further desires at one
point he manages despite by luck to
capture this this wagon fill with gold
they were trying to smuggle out of the
city so Pullo suddenly has access to
like limitless amounts of money the next
scene you see him he's being born on a
litter and he's throwing gold coins
around at people he's just come from the
brothel he's just going to have a great
meal his whole life is just sensual
pleasure
that's this low-level thing if you get
stuck there that's all you're ever going
to have and you will be necessarily
addicted to it now move higher
temptation toward glory and here Caesar
himself comes to play you what struck me
watching the show Caesar does very
little actual ruling so his ultimate
goal is to be the Emperor to be the you
know the ruler of Rome he does very
little ruling but what he wants what
Caesar wants is glory honor you know one
of the culminating scenes is when he
finally comes to Rome as the great
Victor and his faces is colored red that
was the tradition of he's meant to
symbolize Jupiter himself and he comes
into Rome you know for his triumphant
entrance that's what he wants he wants
glory then at the upper level two of my
favorite characters the first is Atiya
idea is the niece of Julius Caesar
is the mother of Augustus who eventually
become Emperor idea is someone who's
very interested in sensual pleasure
that's true in her own way she's
interested in glory but what she really
wants and she's very good at it it's
power now a woman in Cesar's time
couldn't assume you know political power
kind of official power but boy was she
powerful behind the scenes and her whole
life becomes an act of manipulating
people through her parties and through
her social functions and through this
and that and and assassinations
clandestinely ordered and this sort of
thing but her whole life is to
manipulate it to dominate and they call
her it's lovely because in Latins what
they would have called her da minha da
minha mistress you might say but it
means Lord so she's a very lordly figure
then her son Augustus who eventually
becomes Emperor but in this in the first
season he's a little kid maybe 12 years
old 13 boy is he good though at power
games this little kid will kind of sit
on the sidelines and he'll size
everything up and within seconds he has
a complete read of the political
situation and knows just how to
manipulate and to move and so on what he
wants is not so much glory he's not very
glorious he's kind of a
behind-the-scenes guy not sensual
pleasure he's he's almost ascetical in
regard to them what he wants his power
you know now what you see displayed in
Rome you could see in The Sopranos in
some ways you know Tony Soprano Julius
Caesar same character you know and you
can see the same kind of temptations in
that show because they're up and down
the centuries it's the basic human
problem Lent is all about seeing that in
us what in you is titus pullo this side
of you that just wants sensual pleasure
and as your life become focused there
what in you is like Julius Caesar who
sort of attracted to glory honor esteem
what in you is like idea kind of
plotting and manipulating behind the
scenes but these are the basic problems
that all human beings face the three
basic temptation
and lends the time where you've got to
identify them and very honestly wrestle
with them that's why the desert is the
symbol for Lent in the desert there's no
place to run no place to hide there's no
distraction you're there alone with your
own demons you know and Jesus goes into
this kind of mano-a-mano combat with the
devil well that's what we all have to do
we have to we have to come to terms with
our temptation and then find some kind
of victory over them