Sunday Gospel Reflection
Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights and was tempted by the devil

Introduction

For Self? Or, For Others?

When is pride acceptable in others? When is it unacceptable?

Pride. The source of healthy self-image? Or, one of the deadly sins? Unlike the sense of morality many post-moderns espouse, pride is never "relative." It does not depend simply upon one's viewpoint. Pride depends upon its direction. Pride is healthy when it includes others. It is sinful when it excludes others. The measure of pride remains the Great Commandment: to love others as self (not more, not less).

Jesus faced a choice of pride. Was he to choose for self? Or for others?

First Reading
Deut. 26:4-10

4 The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God.
5 Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous.
6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor.
7 Then we cried out to the LORD , the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. 8 So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders.
9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;
10 and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD , have given me." Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him.

Second Reading
Romans 10:8-13

8 But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:
9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Gospel Reading
Luke 4:1-13

1.And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit
2 for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."
4 And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'"
5 And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
6 and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
7 If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours."
8 And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"
9 And he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here;
10 for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,'
11 and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"
12 And Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"
13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time

Bible Study/Meditation

What image comes to your mind when you think of Lent? - Penance? Fasting? Sacrifice? A time to do something difficult and severe or perhaps a time to give up or abstain from something dear to us? Though all of these may have their place during the Lenten season, Lent is primarily a time of preparation and growth through anticipation of and celebration of Christ's saving sacrifice. Marilyn Gustin points this out so aptly in her book Living the Liturgy, "It is a time for our own conscious, deliberate effort to cooperate in our own transform-ation. If our life in God is to become vital in our experience, we must be involved in ongoing and repeated transformation. It does not have to be forced, but it does have to be real. God's grace will do most of it, but our cooperation is required. During Lent we make our cooperation as conscious and disciplined as we can."

This cooperation can take many forms, from extended time reading the Scriptures and praying, to various forms of fasting to make us conscious of our focus on Christ. During this time of cooperation, though we may not have a face to face encounter with Satan as Jesus did in this week's Gospel Reading, we will undoubtedly be tempted to abandon our spiritual resolve and make light of our Lenten commitments. During Jesus' forty-day fast he too was tempted. We need to take courage and find strength in  Jesus' steadfastness, and learn from his resistance. Jesus did not allow the illusionary promise of immediate gratification to dissuade him from his deep-rooted commitment to entrust himself to the Father's will. Jesus confronted each temptation with confidence rooted in Sacred Scripture and in knowledge of God. This intimate acquaintance with God's Word strengthened his resolve and provided the answers to combat each alluring temptation.

We have the Sacred Scriptures readily available to us in numerous translations. Jesus' sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us so that we could discern the truth and grow
in Christlikeness. He will readily and eagerly respond to our efforts to cooperate with his work of transformation. So whatever else we do during this Lenten season, we need to make sure that our hearts and minds are available to his transforming presence through the Sacraments, prayer, and reading and reflecting on the Holy Scriptures. As Catholics we can readily take pride in the fact that we have preserved, defended, and venerated Sacred Scriptures for centuries. On the other hand we must acknowledge that many of us as Catholics are undeniably ignorant of both the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church. Sadly for some Catholics' commitment to know and study God's written word is often less than that of many non-Catholic Christians. We would do well to reflect on St Chrysotom's perspective; "Here is why the exhortation of the Scripture is given: that the man of God may be rendered complete by it. Without this he cannot grow to maturity. You have the Scriptures, he says, in place of me. If you would learn anything, you may learn it from them."-Chrysotom. One other aspect of Lent to consider is that transformation is not intended to be temporary, something that is present for only six weeks. Our disciplines and Lenten practices can be temporary but the changes they endeavor to bring about should be eternal. So perhaps