Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
Year A
Jesus was let into the desert ….
Lord, Your ancestors knew the Sinai desert for 40 years. Like them, You want to experience it. The desert, land without water, without life, is the place of need… and therefore of temptation. How often the Hebrew people have complained and have wanted to go back to where they had come from. They were hungry, they were thirsty…. But the desert is also the place to hear the Word of God: I will lead her into the desert (my unfaithful spouse, My people) and I will speak to her heart. (Hosea 2:16). You have lived these two aspects, Lord: the temptation and the listening to the Word of God. Thank You for sharing Your challenges in this way, and thank You for the example that You give us.
Jesus was led into the desert ….
After that brief stay in the Judean desert, it is Your coming into our world that is expressed in these words. Our world in fact resembles a desert. Filled with many things, it often lacks the essential …. it lacks divine life; it lacks the living water of the Spirit. In coming to share our life, You come to make our desert blossom, Lord!
With You we will go into the desert.
Lent is a call to rejoin You in solitude and in prayer. Let us respond to Your invitation with love. May we know how to let ourselves be led by the Spirit, like You. The Lenten season reminds us of what our life is: a journey through the desert towards the Father’s house…. You are with us in this long journey.
Help us to free ourselves from everything that encumbers us, so that we can follow You better. Open our ears to Your Word. Make us hunger for that Word, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. May this Word enlighten us to fend off the urgings of the tempter, and to turn with confidence towards our Father, to adore Him alone!
