First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
Reflection Questions
1. Why did Satan go through all the trouble of tempting Jesus? Don’t you think Satan knew that Jesus (who is God) wasn’t going to sin?
2. What has Christ done in your personal life to show you that He wants to go the ‘extra mile’ for you? Describe.
3. What are you planning on doing or giving up this Lent? How will it draw you deeper and deeper in love with Jesus?
Gospel Reflection
I hope you are done putting away all your Christmas decorations, because with the blink of an eye we now find ourselves in the season of Lent. This is a special opportunity for all of us to turn more fully towards Christ and away from sin. Knowing our need to turn away from sin, the Church begins our Lenten reflection by coming face to face with the one who first rebelled against God, Satan. Our Gospel passage for the First Sunday of Lent has an important interaction between Jesus and Satan. Obviously, this isn’t the first time that they have met – we can be sure that they had some ‘disagreements’ in the past. Satan knows full-well that Jesus is God, but he also knows that Jesus has taken on human flesh, and Satan hopes to be able to get Jesus to crack under temptation. Did Satan really think that Jesus would fall and sin? On one hand, it seems completely foolish on Satan’s part to want to temp Jesus. Why not just focus his devilish plans on human beings, when there is a much better chance that they will sin? If Satan is anything, however, he is persistent. He knows that if he can get Jesus to buckle and lose hope, then he might have a chance at mocking God and His plan to save humanity. There is no way that Jesus was going to sin, but there was a chance that Jesus would say, “it’s not worth the trouble” and stop His plan of salvation. Were Jesus to fall under the pressure and not go the extra mile for us, the devil would be able to use it on all of us, letting us know that Jesus really didn’t love us to the point of shedding His blood. The devil then would have told us that God is weak, that He isn’t as in love with us as we hoped He was. Jesus, however, proves the devil wrong. Jesus was tempted (and we can safely assume that He was tempted far more than you and I will ever be tempted) and at each occasion said ‘no’ to temptation. He showed us the resolve we need to have against the works of the devil. He showed us that there is nothing more important than standing up to temptation and overcoming sin. This brings us back to our individual commitments for Lent. It is a good point, at this time, to stop and make sure that we are really 100% committed to our Lenten commitments of fasting, abstaining from meat on Fridays (and Ash Wednesday), giving alms to the poor and deepening our prayer life. All of this is meaningless if we have not first made the commitment to stop sinning. We can give up all the candy in the world this Lent, but if we have not stopped sinning, then we have failed in our Lenten observance. Let us not let this season go by without taking advantage of the grace that God gives us to fall deeper and deeper in love with Him.
These reflections come from YM Central.
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