First Sunday of Lent

Fr Dominic’s Homily

This gospel of 1st Sunday of lent is St Mark’s version of the temptation of Jesus in wilderness. It’s unlike Matthew’s and Luke’s with all the details of how the devil tempted Jesus. But it’s still powerful.

We hear that the spirit drove Jesus into the desert where he was tempted by the devil. Why on earth would the Holy Spirit do this? The Holy Spirit always encourages discernment. It was a time of testing and discernment for Jesus.

We know that Jesus is fully human. Like us in all things but sin. So he was tempted. But actually temptation can have value. Crisis is the mother of change. Temptation can strengthen and clarify who we are. This confrontation with Satan only clarifies for Jesus what his mission is.

Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. Now we know that whenever we hear the number 40 in the bible it refers to a time of testing or trial. Like Noah in the arc, like the Israelites in the desert.

The desert is where God can speak to our hearts. It’s more of an experience than a place. Of conversion and transformation. In the desert we have no distractions. Many people hate this experience. They need to be constantly distracted. The danger is that constant busyness can be a good place to hide so that you never have to confront the big questions of your life.

Mark tells us that Jesus was among wild beasts and the angels ministered to him. This reminds us of the Garden of Eden where Adam resided and had that close relationship with creation and the angels. Adam eventually failed in his testing from the devil. As a result we now experience sin and death. The lovely garden was turned to desert.

Here now we see Jesus in this desert as he is the second Adam. The devil knows who Jesus is and so the battle continues. Only where Adam failed in temptation Jesus of course wins.

So what actually is sin? Sin is always a kind of division. It divides the spiritual and physical and we are all affected by it. There is a battle going on within each of us. Our emotions, mind and will can all be fighting against each other. This is inevitable when you have an eternal spirit residing in a mortal body. Lent is a good time to recognise this.

We can swing from one extreme to another - we can live for pure materialism and pleasure leaving God out as an optional extra. But when we do this we will fall into depression because it denies our sense of the spiritual.

Or we can become too spiritual in the sense that we can become over judgemental and even too scrupulous about areas of our lives that can be our very foundations and are good.

So in Lent we are led into the desert so that God can speak to our hearts. To help us discern. We are encouraged to pray, fast and give alms.

John of Damascus describes prayer as a raising of the heart and mind to God. We can offer all our worries and concerns as well as our joys to the Lord.

Thomas Merton reminds that we need to decide to take time for it though.

Frances De Sales tells us that the busier we are the more we need to pray! The Rosary is a great prayer. The Mass is the ultimate prayer.

Fasting – Thomas Merton says that our desires can be like children demanding our immediate attention. So a good parent doesn’t automatically indulge them. We need some discipline. This then allows the deeper and more hidden virtues of the heart and soul to emerge.

Maybe we can refrain from sweets chocolate or alcohol. Or even social media or gossiping, complaining and judging.

Giving alms is a great expression of love. We will the good of the other. We can give something to those less fortunate. There are so many ways in which we can do this.

We only need to ask our guardian angels and they will come up with some suggestions for us.

So this lent let us make a positive decision to do something to allow us to enter a little into the desert so that God can speak to our hearts more clearly.

With a receptive heart we can allow the spiritual transformation and change that we need and that God so earnestly desires for us.