Sunday 26th February 2023 - First Sunday of Lent

Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7/ Psalm 50(51)/ Romans 5:12-19/ Matthew 4:1-11

In the supermarkets leading up to Shrove Tuesday we saw the ingredients for Pancake Day being promoted. Many people, whether they are Christians or not or of no faith at all, still seem to understand the season of Lent as a time when we give up something. There is a vestige of the Christian meaning of Lent embedded in society. For Christians, Lent is not simply about giving something up. It is more about joining Jesus in the wilderness in order to prepare for the events to come. For Jesus it was to prepare for the suffering and death he was to undergo before he could defeat sin and death through his resurrection. For us it is so we can appreciate our weaknesses, our propensity for sinning, our need of forgiveness so we can prepare to celebrate the redemption Jesus won for us at Easter.

To understand our need for redemption we first need to understand our fallen nature. The world around us is good at picking fault in others but not so good at encouraging us to see our own faults. The first reading takes us back to the origins of humanity but it is not simply a story about the first man and woman. It stands as an account of how humanity behaves down the centuries and how we continue to behave today. The temptation we come under is the same as that depicted in the Genesis account of the Garden of Eden. Society flatters itself that it can do better than following the commandments set down by God, whether they are seen as God given or simply a reasonable set of natural laws that lead to a life of peace and justice for all. Having abandoned these natural or God given laws we end up in a mess with a society struggling to find its way and injustices all around us especially for the most vulnerable.

The serpent in the Garden of Eden account is referred to as the most subtle of all wild beasts. This is the personification of the devil, the same devil we see tempting Jesus in the Gospel passage today. Indeed, the devil remains the most subtle of creatures, so subtle in fact, that it is easy to deny his existence at all. This might be the greatest achievement of the devil. If people do not believe in his existence it is harder to also believe in his tempting ways. Yes, the devil is quite content if people do not acknowledge him as real and present around them leaving him free to operate on us with impunity. It is through his works that we can see that the devil does exist and is only too free and active amongst us. Many bad things being done in our world today are initiated on the grounds that they are in fact beneficial in some way. This is exactly how the devil is depicted tempting the first humans in the Garden of Eden and how we hear him tempting Jesus in the wilderness.

In the Gospel we are told that Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness. This might seem strange because we view a wilderness as a barren godforsaken Place where Jesus, who was starting a forty day fast, could be vulnerable to the wiles of the devil. In fact the wilderness and the places Jesus was taken to by the devil were infused with the presence of God. The wilderness was where the Jewish nation were led by God for forty years as they were prepared for their entry into the promised land. The devil took Jesus onto the parapet of the temple, the highest point of the most sacred building, the house of God, and finally onto a very high mountain. A mountain was were Moses went to meet with God and where he received the Ten Commandments. We can understand that Jesus was far from lost in a barren wilderness he was in fact as close to God as it was possible to be. The devil tempted Jesus in those places that God was closest, and Jesus could be best placed to resist the temptations.

During Lent we are invited to join Jesus in the wilderness. Not a wilderness of a barren and empty kind but a wilderness filled with the presence of God. It is only by stepping away from all the temptations the devil offers us through the world today that we can be close to God and gain the strength to stand up to the very real threat posed by the devil in our lives. Lent is a time when we can disengage from our familiar activities and surroundings to better understand and develop our relationship with God. This will help us understand our fallen nature which is why we need the redemption offered to us by Jesus through his Easter sacrifice. By fasting, praying and alms giving we will be better placed to celebrate Easter to the full.

God Bless Brendan.