First Sunday of Lent 2022

In the first reading from Deuteronomy for this Sunday, we hear the words we will again hear at the Seder meal at the end of Lent:  “My father was a wandering Aramean who went down to Egypt.”  This of course is a reference to Jacob and all his sons, including Joseph.

The power of the story is in the fact and the words, that God with a strong hand brought the people out of Egypt with power, and settled them in the Promised land, that land flowing with milk and honey.   These are familiar words to us – we hear them every year and we recognize their significance.  

The second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us that: “The word is near in our mouths and in our hearts.”  

Then we come to this Gospel from Luke about Jesus spending 40 days in the desert. After his Baptism Jesus was led into the desert it tells us – for forty long days of fasting and prayer.  Why?  “To be tempted by the devil,” so the sacred words tell us. Really?  Did the Spirit really lead him there so that he would be tempted?  Of course not.

No, he may have been tempted, but he went in order to listen more deeply to God, to learn what God’s plan was for him, what his mission would be.  Whether he learned all of that in those 40 days we don’t know.  But we do know that more than anything Jesus  learned to deepen his dependence on God.  And along with that, he learned, as we have during our lives, there are always temptations along the way: temptations to do our own thing, go our own way, be independent of others, and even of God.  That is what the devil was showing him – that he could do anything by himself, without God. 

We know the power of words:  they can hurt, and they can heal.  They bear within them a strength we sometimes don’t expect.  These readings are like that.

“My father was a wandering Aramean” was a phrase I learned many years ago.  It has kept a hold on me ever since.  What would have happened if Joseph hadn’t been sold to the Egyptians, and Jacob hadn’t gone down to get grain?

How many times we have prayed that God’s word and love be always near and in our hearts.  That is such a comforting phrase.

In this Gospel, the WORD of God, quoted by both Jesus and Satan plays a huge role: Jesus quotes Scripture 3 times when responding to the devil: “One does not live on bread alone,” he says after the 1st temptation.  “You shall worship the Lord your God, and God alone shall you serve,” after the 2nd temptation.

As if Jesus didn’t know the psalms well, the devil reminds him: “He will command his angels to support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”  But Jesus comes right back at him with: “You shall not put God to the test.”   

In each of the readings for this 1st Sunday of Lent, faith is obvious:  first by the Israelites, then by Paul and the new Christians to whom he writes, and finally, by Jesus whose faith in God his father only grows stronger with each temptation.

Faith here is absolute TRUST in God on the part of each of these people and of Jesus.

They learned to trust because they recognized they were not in control – only God was in control in each of these stories, and these circumstances. God still is.  

In each of the readings, the people and Jesus make a decision: about where they stand what they will do, whom they will follow.  And they know why they make those decisions. It is because of faith.

Moses tells them what they are to do when they arrive at the Promised Land:  offer the first fruits in thanksgiving and bow down in God’s presence.  They acknowledge the faith of their ancestors, and they want to share that faith.

The newly formed Christians want to be faithful to Jesus – to his death and resurrection which they trust has now been offered to them.

Jesus wants to depend solely on the word of God as he leaves the desert and begins his mission. 

In the Opening Prayer for this liturgy, we ask that during this Lent we may grow in understanding of the “riches hidden in Christ.”  

Let us do that by studying and praying more deeply with God’s word in the Scriptures; that our faith will deepen based on the words of God as we listen with the ear of our hearts.