Gospel Reflection of 1st Sunday of Lent – Sunday 18th February 2018

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness where he would remain for forty days with the “wild beasts”. While Matthew and Luke give the details of the temptations Jesus was subjected to, Mark simply states that Satan was present. It was the will of God that the three-year mission which was to end in our Redemption should begin with this conflict between the Redeemer and the Enemy. The first Adam had fallen to Satan’s attack; the second Adam challenged Satan to a renewal of the conflict.

Most people will agree that, even on a purely natural level, it is necessary for us to exercise some degree of control over our appetites. It is important to remember however that the Christian fasts, not for the sake of the body, but for the sake of the soul. Nothing so much dulls the capacity for the spiritual as excessive dedication to the material. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. As C. S. Lewis explains: “a man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means – the only complete realist”.

The Catholic Church’s job is to call people to sanctity and to equip them for living saintly lives. Its mission is not just to produce “nice people” or people with good intentions; its mission is to produce Saints. Fasting and acts of self-denial are a powerful means to holiness, and it’s important for all Christians to practice them (to an appropriate degree). At the same time, however, we need to be careful that our attitude doesn’t lead us into the sin of pride. Even if we do manage to accomplish the tasks that we set ourselves for the forty days of Lent, it can be dangerous to think of spiritual progress in terms of “success” or “failure”. Lent is not about proving how strong we are. Rather, it’s about preparing ourselves to celebrate Christ’s victory on the Cross. Our eyes, therefore, should always remain fixed on Jesus. It is not so much about our weaknesses, but the mystery of God’s great love.