SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT
Dt 26: 4-10 Ps 91: 1-2, 10-15 Rom 10: 8-13 Lk 4: 1-13
LENT IS A TIME OF TRUTH!
The season of Lent is an invitation to repentance, the forty days given to us to cleanse ourselves, our hearts and minds and be renewed by the Spirit. During this season, we cry out to Him to nourish us with the Word of Life and the grace to rise above our human weakness. And the psalmist assures us that God is with us: “When they call to me, I will answer them, I will be with them in their trouble…”
“The choicest of the first fruits of your soil you will bring to the house of the Lord, your God” (Ex 23:19). When the fruits would begin to sprout on the trees, the farmer would mark the first ones with a ribbon and, as soon as they matured, he would place them in a basket. Accompanied by his entire family, he would take them to the Temple, and acknowledge that these fruits were a gift of the Lord; they had grown on the land that God gave them (cf. Deut 26:1-3). The first reading, starts at this point. The priest would take the basket and put it in front of the altar of the Lord. Then he would invite the farmer to make his profession of faith, reciting each verse, and have it repeated by the family. In summary, this exercise captures the history of salvation. In one way, it shows the wandering Israelite now settled, celebrating with his family, the fruits of his fields. In another way, it shows the state of freedom. From the condition of slavery, Israel once oppressed, abused, humiliated, now lives free and happy. The passage is relevant at the beginning of Lent to all who are called to conversion. God shows the miraculous transformation that he actuates in those who trust in him.
The Psalm reminds us that we are living under the protection of God’s care. We are given an assurance that he is near and ever-willing to listen to our cry. In the second reading, taken from the letter to the Romans, Paul reassures us that our faith in God saves us. Like the farmer confessed his faith in God, the believer is to confess his/her faith both in the heart and on the lips. This confession breaks all barriers and make us one people, “as the first fruits of his creatures” (Jas 1:18).
The Gospel of Luke speaks of the Holy Spirit playing a vital role in the life of Jesus. Filled with the Holy Spirit at Baptism, He is empowered to overcome every temptation thrown at him for the forty days in the wilderness. The desert, barren and death-dealing, was uninviting to life. After the desert, the devil left him only to return when a fresh occasion arrived and at an appointed time. This clearly indicates that neither Jesus nor we have freedom from temptation in this life. The devil tempts Jesus to bend to His will, instead of God’s will.
We notice that in all three temptations, Jesus uses Scripture to refute the devil and his plans. As humans, we too should do the same and bend, not to our will but to the plan of God. Our capacity to repent and resist temptation comes from our relationship with God and his grace of deliverance rather than our own strength. Christ’s forty-day fast reminds us of the necessity to master the impulses of our flesh and live by God’s commandments. You will be tempted exactly as Jesus was, because Jesus was being tempted exactly as we are.
The first temptation questions our ‘hunger’. We are all hungry for many things: physical, emotional and spiritual. Many of us hunger especially for love, recognition, identity. Yet Lent reminds us that our true hunger must be for ‘communion with God.’ The third temptation questions our trust in God’s protection. The central and second temptation questions the ‘center of our worship’. Do we direct our worship to ourselves, or to things, relationships, pleasures, etc.? Jesus teaches us through the Gospel, to place God first in our lives; everything else will follow. We do this by spending time with the one whom we love – ‘God.’ Thus, prayer is the key element of Lent, along with fasting and almsgiving.
Focusing on Christ is a sure way to overcome evil. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The Cross before, the world behind. Pope Francis quotes: “Lent is a time of truth, a time to drop the masks we put on each day to appear perfect in the eyes of the world and to reject lies and hypocrisy.”
Response: Be with me, O Lord, when I am in distress.
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