Scripture Reflections for the First Sunday of Lent

“when we acknowledge that goodness and value lie outside of ourselves in God and in the objective order that reflects God's mind, in that case we look outward. We tend to forget the self. However, when we're convinced that our own freedom is the source of value, our own wills, then we tend to turn inward, protectively and fearfully.”

“the corrective to wrong desires is prayer. When we pray we communicate with God and through that we are changed.”

“Jesus gave up so much power. Not just in this story but just in becoming human. He embraced being human and all that that entailed. And so what might we be called to give up not just for Lent but to take a better path?”

“Because unless the problem of sin is dealt with no amount of physical well-being will bring us salvation. Moreover, unless the problem of sin is dealt with the very condition that make possible the exploitation of the poor will remain in place.”

“Lord, let me follow you. Help me overcome the mud and choose the Breath of God.”

“Yes the devil does not come dressed in red cape and pointy horns. He disguises himself in everything we desire.”

“We don’t have to worry about being the best warrior, only a faithful one. For victory is promised and eternal redemption assured to anyone who would fight sin, carry their cross, and follow Jesus.”

“our biggest temptation, the one we must never give in to, is the temptation to stay down and give up. The temptation to stop fighting.”

“although in sinning, we reject God’s love and friendship, God never rejects us...The Incarnation shows once and for all that mankind is capable of being friends with God, and Jesus Christ, through His life, death and resurrection, makes this divine friendship possible for the whole of humanity.”

“we can understand Christ as offering us an example of how to deal with the Devil and all his snares: act under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and then you’ll avoid the Devil and all his snares”

“One of the greatest temptations for those of us who live in comfort, have steady employment, and fulfill our civil, religious and family responsibilities is to do things our way. We often attribute success to our individual way of doing things. Depending on God can be something we say in prayer, but find hard to practice.”

“On the cross Jesus unites himself to each one of us as we are faced with the choice between life and death: do I grasp hold of the world beneath me, asserting my power and control over it, or do I return it in love to the one who has given it in love?”

“His time in the wilderness was not an exploration, but a triumphant march through the territory of the enemy, sweeping away the bonds of our slavery to sin”

“On Calvary sin and death seemed to come to the brink of defeating Christ. Yet, in reality, Christ’s obedience in love to the Father cancelled out the disobedience of sin, and by his death Christ exhausted death, pouring forth new life in the Resurrection.”

“Genesis Chapter 2, the great permission and then that one prohibition. Do not make yourself the criterion of good and evil. And then watch perhaps all during these 40 days of Lent: What's my relationship to pleasure, to honor, to power? Always submit yourself to God and then put the rest in relation to God.”

“God places his human creatures in a garden. Not a desert, not a lifeless ground, not a prison, not a place of isolation and exile. But precisely in a verdant and lively place...the original blessing comes before the original sin.”

“You see what this story is saying? If God and his criterion, grounded in his own mind, remain at the center of your life then it becomes a garden, a place of delight”

“God breathes into us his life. We have a living God who wants us to be alive with his life. The trouble is when we start resisting it...That's when sadness sets in. The living God who wants us fully alive, that's the message here.”

“To what degree is my life under the control of my sensual desires?...If I am dominated by these desires I can't fulfill my mission because my mission from God might entail anything but physical pleasure.”