Vol.5 No.23 DoM Gospel Reflection—Luke 4:1—13
1st Sunday of Lent—February 14, 2016
Daughters of Mary Shared Reflection
Almost 50 women attended our Mardi Gras meeting on Tuesday and many shared insight into Sunday’s Gospel from Luke about the temptation of Christ in the desert. The following excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church give insight into the meaning of this dramatic event in the life of Christ.
Jesus’ temptations
538 The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the desert, Jesus remains there for forty days without eating; he lives among wild beasts, and angels minister to him.241 At the end of this time Satan tempts him three times, seeking to compromise his filial attitude toward God. Jesus rebuffs these attacks, which recapitulate the temptations of Adam in Paradise and of Israel in the desert, and the devil leaves him “until an opportune time”.242
539 The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this mysterious event: Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the first Adam had given in to temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel’s vocation perfectly: in contrast to those who had once provoked God during forty years in the desert, Christ reveals himself as God’s Servant, totally obedient to the divine will. In this, Jesus is the devil’s conqueror: he “binds the strong man” to take back his plunder.243 Jesus’ victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the Father.
540 Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him.244 This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.”245 By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.
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Lenten Links
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html
http://dynamiccatholic.com/bestlentever/
https://brandon.clickfunnels.com/lent-reflections
http://www.thedivinemercy.org/mmwj.php
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