First Sunday of Lent
Intention: That God may bless and protect all those who carry healing and peace to the poor, the abused, and the forgotten people of the world.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 4:1-11
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”
Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
A Lenten Reflection
In the narrative of the temptation in the desert, Jesus rejects Satan’s efforts to cajole him away from his ministry and mission. Its theme of the constant battle between good and evil paints a picture of a dark seductiveness that lurks in our world and seeks to lure us into abandoning virtue. Whether or not one accepts this dualistic notion of life, the question of how to know and do the right thing remains among the most common and difficult in human experience. Is there really a moral distinction between one behavior and another, and what is the basis for determining this?
Consider this from poet Johann von Goethe: “If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.” In other words, all of us have an authentic identity, one that connects us to the reality of absolute truth and meaning. What then makes a decision or action right as opposed to wrong comes down to its effect on that identity. What is right affirms and expresses our best, fullest selves, while what is wrong compromises our integrity and our negates our potential. Taken in total, doing what is wrong results in a culture of self-contradiction, where people strive to fulfill who they are by abandoning who they are. Sin.
The season of Lent calls us to turn away from the illusions of corrupted vision and values, and to re-embrace our identities as children of God. This means living faithfully to the source of our being, as channels of life, of creativity, of possibility. Like Jesus, we put behind us whatever would cause us to lose ourselves, and fix our lives on the holy.
Prayer
Eternal Father, you are always with us, calling us to faithfulness. Forgive us for those times when we have made ourselves blind to your presence and deaf to your voice. In this time of Lent, help us to recognize you in the people we know and in the lives that we are living. Strengthen us to do the work of building your Kingdom. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.