First Sunday of Lent

As  we begin yet another Lenten journey how do we avoid a ‘ho-hum’ feeling that suggests … I’ve done all this before, so what has changed?

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the traditional Christian practices to which the Church calls us.  At the start of this journey, through a spiritual desert, I need to be aware of the danger of focusing too much on my own efforts and not enough on the Almighty who is “my refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust”.

In today’s first reading we’re directed to look beyond ourselves, to receive God’s holy word and remember his gracious goodness.  Moses reminded  the people of Israel to keep alive the memory of God’s care for them as they’d journeyed from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses urged the Israelites to bring their offerings before the altar and to worship in thanksgiving, ever mindful of God’s covenant with Abraham.  To quote  John Donahue  they are “memorializing the acts of God”,  recalling the story of their liberation.

Can I use these weeks of Lent to recall the ways God has acted in my own life?

Each year on this first Sunday of Lent the Gospel reading relates how Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he fasted for forty days and was tempted by the devil.

Like our Saviour, we will face our desert times and be tempted to trust in a great variety of modern false gods.  Our temptations will not come as a one-off event, a  trial  that, once faced, is all over because our lives are full of ongoing choices.  “Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble”. When trials come, and they surely will, we pray ‘ keep our eyes on you, Lord, and not on ourselves’.

With great cunning the tempter tries to ensnare Jesus by distorting Scripture and using it for his own purposes, but Jesus remains faithful to his commitment to serving God wholeheartedly.  In his responses to the devil, Jesus also quotes the Hebrew  Scriptures, drawing life and wisdom from the precious words of God:

• “One does  not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”
• “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone”
• “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test”

Led by  the Holy Spirit this Lent,  may I receive the word of God and daily let it nourish my spirit and guide my actions.