First Sunday of Lent (C)

Dt 26:4-10
Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
Rm 10:8-13
Lk 4:1-13

Knowing your roots—it's become an obsession for many of us. Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for the First Sunday of Lent.

There's a wealth of resources available for researching one's family history; people enjoy knowing about their ancestors and where they came from. When we learn about our family's past we can appreciate the cultural riches our ancestors brought to us, their descendants.

In today's first reading, Moses makes knowing the family history a part of the worship of Israel—and so it is to this day. As part of every Seder service, Jewish families retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt. We Catholics also bring our "family history" into our liturgy. Our Lenten season chooses some of the most basic stories of faith to remind us where we've come from. More importantly, these stories lead us directly to Jesus, and the story of our redemption in his death and resurrection.

Today, as we hear of the Lord's temptations in the desert, let's let this very human portrait of Jesus remind us of how we're called to respond in times of temptation: To depend upon God's grace, and allow it to support and sustain us. It's the living story of our faith, our Baptismal commitment, which we reaffirm in this Lenten season.

Scripture:

•… he heard our cry and saw our affliction,…he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. (Deuteronomy 26:7,9)

•No evil shall befall you, nor shall affliction come near your tent, (Psalm 9:10)

•The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart… (Romans 10:8)

•…(Jesus) was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days…and when it was over he was hungry. (Luke 4:2)

Reflection:

•Can the secular world and popular culture be the largest desert of all?

•After Jesus’ fast was over, describe his hunger?

•What will be your fast when you journey into the desert?

•Where is a space or time where you may find your desert?

•Is the desert a space or a time?

The desert…the desert…the desert!
It is the path of Exodus, it is the march of the People of God from the slavery of idols to the freedom of the Promised Land, to the joy and brightness of the Kingdom. And this, by crossing the desert. But the word “desert” is much more than a geographic expression that suggests to our minds a derelict, parched, and arid expanse of land with no one in it. The word “desert”—for the person who lets himself or herself be taken up by the Spirit—expresses the search for God in silence. It is a “suspension bridge” thrown by the soul in love with God over the dark abyss of its own spirit, over the strange deep crevasses of temptation, over the unfathomable precipices of its own fears which form an obstacle to the progress toward God. Yes, such a desert is a prayer beyond all prayer.…