1st Sunday of Lent - Year C

Many of us surely often yearn for a moment of quiet. But if we stop to think a little, we realize that silence is not comfortable. You might say why has modern man invented so many things to avoid quiet?

This holy time of Lent, is a time of special grace, and in this first Sunday the Lord is inviting us to recognize the importance of silence. In the Gospel we find that Jesus, after being baptized in the Jordan, went into the desert, a place very much associated with silence. The silence that the Lord is inviting us to today is like a mirror, not to show us how we are from the outside, but to show us who we are from the inside. For this reason silence can be very uncomfortable. In fact, in the silence of the desert Jesus confronts the temptations that were surely not just a voice coming from outside, but a voice from within, because he was like us in everything except sin, and therefore also accepted to be tempted.

What were the greatest temptations that Jesus had to face as a man? First, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread’. The devil is telling Jesus ‘serve yourself, please yourself, abandon sacrifice and fasting’. The second temptation was; while showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world he says to him, ‘I will give you authority over all these... If you bow down before me and worship me...’. This is the temptation for power, to dominate over others. And the last one; from the top of the temple in Jerusalem, he says to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here...’. The devil is tempting Jesus to be popular. If one thinks a little, it doesn't take much to realize that what the devil wanted was to distance Jesus from the cross; the devil knew that Jesus was going to save the world by accepting the will of the Father to suffer and die crucified for us, and therefore knew that he was going to suffer the greatest defeat with this.

The devil does not stop tempting us either, and if we reflect a little, the same temptations of Jesus are the greatest temptations in which he wants to make us fall; 1. pleasures and pleasing ourselves, 2. power that is not for service and 3. fame/success that makes us gods of ourselves. These are the greatest temptations in life that distance us from the sole ideal of life, that is true love which is the giving of ourselves to others. There is only one way to overcome these temptations, this is the CROSS OF JESUS. It is no wonder that Saint George Preca used to call it the Great Book, because it alone can teach us what no other book can.

Lord Jesus, from our hearts we ask you at the beginning of this holy Lent, to give us the grace that we may never take the eyes of our hearts off your cross, because only from it can we find that fountain of life and love that can save us. Amen