We have arrived at the first Sunday in Lent. By now we have chosen our penance and realized just how hard it might be to keep it up for thirty days. The scripture reminds us today exactly why we are doing this. Our Gospel reading shows Jesus after Baptism being driven by the Holy Spirit into the desert to spend forty days without eating. It is during this time that the devil comes to Him to tempt Him to give up, to take a short cut. Always quoting half-truths, the devil tries to convince the Son of God that there is an easier way than the one the Father has chosen for the Son. No cross, just adoration. No flogging, just food, and comfort.
We sometimes are tempted by the same thing. By cherry-picking one scripture or another it’s easy to convince someone the Bible says “this” when it really says something much different. It’s important to remember that Lent is part of the journey. It’s a time when we put ourselves in the desert to emulate Jesus. The goal is to arrive at our own Easter Sunday at the end of our lives here on Earth. That also means that we should look to Easter as the reward when we will renew our Baptismal promises and recommit our lives to Jesus on a yearly basis.
The first reading reminds us that our duty is to offer our first fruits this Lent, not the leftovers. It’s tempting to start out strong and then to slowly make concessions because life is hard. To take the part where St. Paul says “those who confess with their mouths” to mean we don’t have any work to do, and that God will understand a small deviation here or there… because you know God is love. All of that is true, but it’s also half the story. There is no Lent without sacrifice, and no Christianity without the cross. I must remind myself in those moments of weakness that old cliche “no pain, no gain.”
I was whining earlier about the things I had given up, and my wife said: “yeah, but Easter is worth it.” Wow. Talk about a moment where Jesus shines through her (which happens so often it sometimes scares me) that it was like He had just smacked me in the back of the head. As if to say “look how light and sweet your cross is, and you think of giving it up?” The goal of Lent is to live out in our bodies the Baptismal calling we will all join in at the Easter Vigil. So ask yourself, is my penance doing that? Am I doing it a way that shows I truly mean the following:
I reject Satan, all of his works, and his empty promises.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?
I can honestly say with all of my heart the response: “I do.” Now to live like it.
A reflection on the readings for the first Sunday of Lent, Year C: March 10, 2019