First Sunday of Lent / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The Book of Deuteronomy provides the first reading for Mass on this First Sunday of Lent. Deuteronomy recalls the flight of the Hebrews from Egypt, where they had been slaves. This journey, called the Exodus, was filled with risks and hardships. The Egyptians pursued them. The Sinai Peninsula, through which they passed,
was unforgiving, harsh and sterile.
Even so, Deuteronomy is not a story of doom and gloom. It is hopeful. Always ahead is the promised land. God always intervenes with mercy, provisions and guidance.
The people were often unfaithful to and rebelled against God despite his constant mercy toward them. They doubted God. Nevertheless, God came to their aid again and again.
For its second reading this weekend, the Church provides us with a reading from St. Paul’s powerful Epistle to the Romans. The Apostle wrote this letter to the Christians living in Rome, the imperial capital and the center of the Mediterranean world in the first century.
These Christians in Rome, a group of converts from Judaism and former pagans, lived in a culture that was utterly at odds with the Gospel. The conflict was decidedly more pronounced since Rome literally was the center of everything. It had become a dangerous city for Christians when the politics and the law turned against them.
Paul urged the Romans to be strong by uniting themselves to God through faith in Jesus. Strong with his own faith, Paul told the Romans that if they trusted in the Lord, no one would be put to shame. Paul expressly mentioned the resurrection, the miracle by which Jesus, crucified and dead, rose again to life.
Paul finally insisted that God’s mercy and life given in Christ are available to all—Greeks or foreigners, as well as to Jews, who were the chosen people.
St. Luke’s Gospel gives us a scene also seen in Mark and Matthew, namely a story of the temptation of Christ by the devil.
Two figures, Jesus and the devil, stand in bold, dramatic contrast. The devil, so often depicted as very powerful, as indeed the devil is, comes across as indecisive and struggling in this passage. For instance, the devil realizes the identity of Jesus, but he cannot fully grasp what it all means. So, Satan seeks to tempt Jesus not to be faithful to God but to succumb to the lure of material things.
Jesus, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” is serenely in control (Lk 4:1). He is the Son of God. He also is human, however. The devil uses food to tempt Jesus, who had been fasting as a spiritual discipline.
Defeated for the moment, the devil did not relent but only waited for another opportunity to frustrate the Lord’s mission of redemption.
Reflection
Several days ago, on Ash Wednesday, the Church invited us to use the season of Lent to strive toward holiness through the help of God’s grace.
In so doing, it was not asking us to begin a walk along an imagined primrose path. Always frank, honest and direct, the Church tells us what holiness requires. Being holy means turning to God, entirely. We must avoid sin. We must recognize our human vulnerability in the face of temptation.
Evil happens because people sin. The devil is real. Sin is alluring. Falling for its seeming appeal is part of being human. We need the Lord’s perception and strength when temptation comes.
The Gospel reading from Luke reveals to us the fact that the devil is no match for Jesus.
In Lent, the Church calls us to turn to Jesus. If we have strayed from God, as did the Hebrews in the Sinai, God welcomes our return and embraces us.
We must return to God, without qualification, and with the help of his grace, repel sin as the Lord put Satan in his place. †