Sunday the 9th of March 2025 - First Sunday of Lent

Deuteronomy 26:4-10/ Ps 91(90)/ Romans 10:8-13/ Luke 4:1-13

Most people know about giving something up for Lent, but do we understand the purpose of this penitential period of forty days that lead us towards Easter? It is a time of preparation, a time to become closer to God in our busy lives. We do this through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It should not be a time to glorify ourselves in how good we might be in giving up this or that indulgence. It is always good to be aware of our own weaknesses and to moderate any excessive behaviour we might have but lent is not there for this purpose.

The purpose of Lent is to prepare for the greatest feast of our year at Easter, when we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. Each week we do the same thing when on Friday we fast and abstain from meat as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection each Sunday. The season of Lent lasts for forty days. We do not count the Sundays because Sunday is always a celebration of the Resurrection. Lent is forty days because this number has a tradition in scripture around judgement and spiritual testing and renewal. It has a particular parallel with the forty days Jesus spent in the dessert described in the Gospel today. During Lent we join Jesus in the dessert for a period of spiritual renewal.

We should examine our prayer life and seek to carve out time during Lent to really engage with Jesus concentrating on his time in the dessert. We should already engage in conversation with God each morning and evening but during Lent we can seek other opportunities to grow closer to him. The Church gives us several opportunities during this time to do this. We can visit the Blessed Sacrament when exposition is taking place, we can join in the Stations of The Cross where they are being held or pray them ourselves individually, we can attend talks, or other events that may be available during Lent in our Parish or find some spiritual reading to engage with over the period. Importantly we should examine our consciences to seek out those areas in our lives that fail to imitate the example given to us by Jesus and bring them to confession during Lent.

Fasting and abstaining from certain foods or activities is a tradition long held in our faith both in the times of the Old Testament and in the New Testament and throughout the Christian era. It is a method of self-discipline which is particularly important if we are fortunate enough to live generally good lives in good health with plenty to eat. It does us good to dispense for a time with the plenty that we might have not least because it can put us in mind of the many people in the world who suffer from lack of food, shelter and health care.

With a heightened appreciation of going without we should be drawn towards our duty as Christians to support the other who is in need. This is where the almsgiving of Lent is brought in. Through almsgiving we show solidarity and support for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We bring succour and God’s love to some of the many people in the world who can barely survive. This is not just a nice thing to do but is a duty we have both as Christians but as fellow humans who share a common home here on earth.

It is not uncommon today to see charitable works publicised in the press and celebrated around workplaces. This does not distract from the good that these works do but it is not in the spirit of Christian charitable works. When we fast and give alms, we should not be shouting about it drawing attention to how good we are. Lenten prayer, fasting and almsgiving is about our personal relationship with God, and the understanding we have of ourselves and how we look to God’s gaze. It is not about what others think of us but rather about what God sees in us. On Ash Wednesday we were marked on the forehead with ashes. Yes, this is an outward sign of the sorrow for our sin that led to the suffering and death of Jesus, but those ashes are now gone and we can quietly engage in the practices of Lent that will prepare us to fully engage with the great feast of Easter to come.

In the gospel today, Jesus, fully human like us but without sin, shows us how to address the many temptations the devil offers us through the world today. Jesus was in close communion with God his Father, he was familiar with God’s word in scripture, and he was aware of his mission on earth. Jesus was able to answer each of the temptations set before him by referring to what God has said through scripture. If we are to address the temptations we face we too must be close to God and aware of what he teaches us through his word in scripture. It is by following the example of Jesus that we will be able to fend off the many temptations we encounter in this life.

Let us use this holy time of Lent to join Jesus in the wilderness, to grow closer to God through prayer and fasting, to create space in our busy lives to really engage with God and our relationship with him, to examine ourselves becoming aware of those areas in our lives that fall short of what God calls us to. We can then bring our faults and failings to God in confession and be as prepared as possible to celebrate Easter.

God Bless

Brendan