First Sunday in Lent - temptations in the desert. Deut 26; Rom 10; Luke 4
We begin the forty days of Lent by journeying with Moses and Jesus into our shared history, so that we have time away from all the distractions that we so often fill our lives with, to reflect on those questions that are actually at the heart of everything that there is. Questions like 'who am I?' and 'who is God?' Questions that resonate with the majestic reading from St Paul to the Romans (chapter 10) that the word is very near to us, and if we confess with our lips and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord we will be saved.
It is this spirit of laying aside our distractions that we can join with Jesus in the desert, to confront the accuser, the Satan and address these three temptations. The first, in changing stone into bread, addresses our desires to use sensual pleasures to answer our deepest needs; the second is the desire for power and control; the third is making the ego the centre of the whole world. Jesus addresses each temptation directly through the power of God's word - reminding us that when we take time to be alone with God, we will have the same power to address the most central and pressing questions of our own hearts and respond to the Lord in the same way.
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Recorded at Sacred Heart (11'26')
