Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent

In the early centuries of the Church, the forty days before Easter were known as the “Purification and Enlightenment”. It was the time when the catechumens (those preparing for baptism) underwent a period of intense spiritual discipline and moral self-examination in preparation for their baptism at Easter. Centuries later, the whole Church would adopt the practice of the catechumens as a season of personal repentance and ongoing conversion of life. It would come to be called Lent, an old-English word meaning “springtime”.

The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent is always the same; the temptations of Christ in the wilderness. Matthew’s account, which we hear this weekend, gives us greater insight into the nature temptations than the other evangelists. Matthew describes them as a full-frontal assault against Christ’s identity as the beloved Son of the Father and the nature of His messianic mission. Each of the temptations is an enticement to choose power over love and pride over humility and obedience. The tempter suggests that Christ can deviate from the Father’s will; that He can choose another and far easier road other than the road that leads to the cross.

These temptations of Christ to compromise Himself and His mission are also the temptations of the Church and of every Christian in every age. If the temptations are enticements to distort the true nature of His Sonship and to dissuade Him from His mission, then they are also an attack against the very nature of Christian discipleship.

Our late Pope, Benedict XVI, once wrote that “…at the heart of all temptations, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary; if not actually superfluous and irrelevant in comparison with all the apparently more urgent matters that fill our lives… (Temptation) does not invite us directly to do evil –no, that would be far too blatant. Rather, it pretends to show us an easier and better way…”. This is the very nature of temptation. Rarely does the evil one entice us to do truly evil things. As Benedict noted, that would be far too blatant. Rather, he entices us to fulfill true human needs in false ways by looking for our happiness in things that can never satisfy our deepest longings. In the end, however, the temptation is the same: to diminish who we are as the sons and daughters of God by choosing another road, an easier and more appealing road, but one that inevitably leads us away from Christ.

Christ, however, emerges victorious from the desert and immediately begins the proclamation of the Gospel, including the conditions for following Him. “Repent and believe in the Gospel!”

Repentance is turning away from the falsehoods we believe, the counterfeit ways in which we look for happiness apart from the purpose for which we were created. Repentance involves making those “real-life” changes that conform us more completely to Christ and His teaching and is itself the essential first proclamation of the Gospel. “Repent and believe!” I repent because I believe. I repent because God has something far better in mind for me than the counterfeits I settle for. The way of discipleship will always involve the unmasking of the evils one’s enticement for what they are; falsehoods that lead only to spiritual bankruptcy and ruin. Discipleship will always mean patterning our lives on Christ’s self-giving, taking on the humble role of the servant, and forgetting about ourselves and what’s in it for us. If we think we can have it any other way, then we’re back at the tree in Eden. We have succumbed to the evil one’s suggestion that we can have it on our terms, not God’s.

Lent is about conversion of heart. Lent is about returning to those things our hearts seek in the first place - truth, beauty, goodness, love - and their true source. There is one essential question each of us must answer this Lent; what must I do to seek deeper friendship with Christ?

The Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and the works of mercy are meant to unmask the falsehoods we settle for, create solidarity with the poor and hungry, and form in us a compassionate heart for the human need around us. If our prayer is not leading us to seek greater friendship with Christ, especially in the Eucharist, and form in us a more compassionate and generous spirit, then, frankly, we’re doing Lent wrong. And these, too, can be temptations…