That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
He is truly risen! Alleluia!
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.
As many of you know, and others will discover, each Lent I select a central theme for this graced time of reflection and teaching. On Ash Wednesday I spoke of this theme: living sacrificially. That will be our concentration this Lent.
We also touched on the fact that sacrifice is covenantal, and we will explore that too. In our sacrifices we enhance the pre-existing relationship we have with God. We acknowledge our agreement with God’s plan and rule, find joy in that, reinforce our acceptance of it, and tear away at the things that stand in the way of a deeper union with God.
After Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, He is led by the Spirit into the desert. He spends forty days and nights there emptying Himself of everything in preparation for His sacrificial mission. He sets an example for us so that we might use this Lenten desert time to tear away the transgressions, habits, sins, and over-indulgences that block our path and the pull us down.
After being emptied in that desert what happens? Jesus is confronted by the devil. Now we would think, here is this exhausted and hungry man being set upon in His weakness. Certainly, the devil thought it was that way. It is why he used food, power, and testing in his temptations.
What the devil and many of us do not realize is that our sacrifice – fasting, charity, greater prayer and devotional practices, and the giving up of things not really good for us anyway does not make us weaker – it strengthens us as Jesus was strengthened. We come out of Lent powerful to face evil and fully rejoicing in what Jesus bought for us on that Holy Cross.
We unfortunately are caught up in transgression just as the first humans were. Yet now we have a graced choice because of Jesus. So we are called to engage in sacrificial practices to strengthen us so we can joyfully receive as St. Paul says: the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
