Sunday Readings

First Sunday in Lent; Cycle C March 9, 2025 Readings: Deuteronomy 26.4-10; Romans 10.8-13; Luke 4.1-13 Let us gaze in faith and love upon the events recounted in the Gospel. First and foremost there is the person of Jesus, the focus of our whole life. Contemplative life is nothing more than living in the presence and power of Jesus, abiding with Jesus by the Spirit as the gift of the Father. In the Gospel there is the person of the Holy Spirit: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit was led by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate gift of the Father. The Holy Spirit creates us day by day into the image of Jesus; the Holy Spirit makes us to be one with the full mystery of Jesus. Jesus is only present in us by the Holy Spirit, given from the Father. Then in Jesus we see the Father. The circle of the Trinity is thus completed. In this Gospel we enter the context of desert and fasting. Divine love is a consuming fire. The fire of love burns us and purifies us. Desert and fasting are means of mortification, of dying to the false patterns of our soul. By the silence of the desert and by fasting we begin to cooperate in the healing of the damage caused by years of living outside of Jesus. We embrace the desert and fasting within the Church because these practices cooperate with the redemption given by Jesus. What is next? What else does God show in the picture? There appears the devil with temptation. The fire of love means trial by fire. Our love commitment is not a sentimental one, a Platonic love affair. The divine plan works by love proven in the trial by fire. The mystery of Christ is real only if it is tried in the context of temptation. If a strong, loving, consuming YES wells up from my heart to Christ, then, at the same time, a concomitant, a simple, firm NO must defend the YES from all the pulls of our fallen nature, the alluring lies of the world-system and from the seductions of the Evil One. “The world, the flesh and the devil” are enemies of our life with God in Christ. Our inordinate self-love is a component of our human condition. We live in this human condition until we lose it in death and then are re-clothed in the fullness of Jesus’ resurrection. The source of all temptation is this inordinate, out-of-control self-love. The quintessence of each temptation is the ability to choose myself over the will and purpose of God who is the true ground of my soul. Whatever the context outlined in the Gospel—whether to turn stone into bread, to choose the power of celebrity and control, to embrace the thrill and rush of being my own master—the temptation is to choose self over God at the very moment that God is being manifested in His Word and Will in the circumstances before me at this moment of choosing. Often in silent prayer there will come the vivid memory of how I so easily over long periods of time chose my own self over God. I sinned in my thoughts and words, in what I did and in what I failed to do., through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Temptation means that the same suggestion will be there in any variety of ways. But still the underlying quality of temptation is: I prefer “me” to God. It is reduced to the primal scene in Paradise where Satan lies to Adam and Eve and the choice is against the Truth and the Good. But by the actual grace of Christ’s victory over Satan, the temptation can become moments of healing in the silence of God’s forgiving mercy as we adhere to the love that is God’s will. What is even more sobering is that the choices are so subtle. What is evil seems so good. My mind is beguiled; my will nods its head in agreement; I am motivated to seize the opportunity to enhance myself at this moment. Something is there to be grasped and experienced. I have a right to it. Let me re-fashion God and God’s Word so that I can be accommodated according to my felt needs. I cling to my viewpoint. I close my eyes to God’s vision of what the choice should be. The fasting and desert of Lent certainly clarify the picture. They simplify the spirit. We feel the sense of purity and singleness of mind in our heart. Lest that state of spiritual practice be also compromised by our vanity God permits the temptation so that we can go deeper into our abandonment to God. Again I can feel my weakness; again I can experience the Holy Spirit supplying the YES and the NO. The Second Reading gives us words that light the fire in our hearts. For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. May these words become fire for our hearts; they are the energy for our Lenten journey; they are the end for which we search; they become the silence in which we surrender beyond words into the fullness of Jesus’ Paschal Mystery. We are with Jesus in the desert, fasting. In temptation our victory comes from our center where we are one with the eternal life of the Trinity. Let our participation in the Holy Eucharist in Church community enkindle the fire even more. + --William Fredrickson, OblS, OSB; D.Min.

First Sunday in Lent; Cycle C

March 9, 2025

Readings: Deuteronomy 26.4-10; Romans 10.8-13; Luke 4.1-13

Let us gaze in faith and love upon the events recounted in the Gospel.

First and foremost there is the person of Jesus, the focus of our whole life. Contemplative life is nothing more than living in the presence and power of Jesus, abiding with Jesus by the Spirit as the gift of the Father.

In the Gospel there is the person of the Holy Spirit: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit was led by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate gift of the Father. The Holy Spirit creates us day by day into the image of Jesus; the Holy Spirit makes us to be one with the full mystery of Jesus. Jesus is only present in us by the Holy Spirit, given from the Father. Then in Jesus we see the Father. The circle of the Trinity is thus completed.

In this Gospel we enter the context of desert and fasting. Divine love is a consuming fire. The fire of love burns us and purifies us. Desert and fasting are means of mortification, of dying to the false patterns of our soul. By the silence of the desert and by fasting we begin to cooperate in the healing of the damage caused by years of living outside of Jesus. We embrace the desert and fasting within the Church because these practices cooperate with the redemption given by Jesus.

What is next? What else does God show in the picture? There appears the devil with temptation.

The fire of love means trial by fire. Our love commitment is not a sentimental one, a Platonic love affair. The divine plan works by love proven in the trial by fire. The mystery of Christ is real only if it is tried in the context of temptation. If a strong, loving, consuming YES wells up from my heart to Christ, then, at the same time, a concomitant, a simple, firm NO must defend the YES from all the pulls of our fallen nature, the alluring lies of the world-system and from the seductions of the Evil One. “The world, the flesh and the devil” are enemies of our life with God in Christ.

Our inordinate self-love is a component of our human condition. We live in this human condition until we lose it in death and then are re-clothed in the fullness of Jesus’ resurrection. The source of all temptation is this inordinate, out-of-control self-love.

The quintessence of each temptation is the ability to choose myself over the will and purpose of God who is the true ground of my soul. Whatever the context outlined in the Gospel—whether to turn stone into bread, to choose the power of celebrity and control, to embrace the thrill and rush of being my own master—the temptation is to choose self over God at the very moment that God is being manifested in His Word and Will in the circumstances before me at this moment of choosing.

Often in silent prayer there will come the vivid memory of how I so easily over long periods of time chose my own self over God. I sinned in my thoughts and words, in what I did and in what I failed to do., through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.

Temptation means that the same suggestion will be there in any variety of ways. But still the underlying quality of temptation is: I prefer “me” to God. It is reduced to the primal scene in Paradise where Satan lies to Adam and Eve and the choice is against the Truth and the Good. But by the actual grace of Christ’s victory over Satan, the temptation can become moments of healing in the silence of God’s forgiving mercy as we adhere to the love that is God’s will.

What is even more sobering is that the choices are so subtle. What is evil seems so good. My mind is beguiled; my will nods its head in agreement; I am motivated to seize the opportunity to enhance myself at this moment. Something is there to be grasped and experienced. I have a right to it. Let me re-fashion God and God’s Word so that I can be accommodated according to my felt needs. I cling to my viewpoint. I close my eyes to God’s vision of what the choice should be.

The fasting and desert of Lent certainly clarify the picture. They simplify the spirit. We feel the sense of purity and singleness of mind in our heart. Lest that state of spiritual practice be also compromised by our vanity God permits the temptation so that we can go deeper into our abandonment to God. Again I can feel my weakness; again I can experience the Holy Spirit supplying the YES and the NO.

The Second Reading gives us words that light the fire in our hearts. For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

May these words become fire for our hearts; they are the energy for our Lenten journey; they are the end for which we search; they become the silence in which we surrender beyond words into the fullness of Jesus’ Paschal Mystery. We are with Jesus in the desert, fasting. In temptation our victory comes from our center where we are one with the eternal life of the Trinity. Let our participation in the Holy Eucharist in Church community enkindle the fire even more.

+

--William Fredrickson, OblS, OSB; D.Min.