Archive for March 5, 2022

First Sunday of Lent

Posted: March 5, 2022 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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Forty Days: Scott Hahn Reflects on the First Sunday of Lent

Readings:

Deuteronomy 26:4–10

Psalm 91:1–2, 10–15

Romans 10:8–13

Luke 4:1–13

In today’s epic Gospel scene, Jesus relives in His flesh the history of Israel.

We’ve already seen that, like Israel, Jesus has passed through water and been called God’s beloved Son (see Luke 3:22; Exodus 4:22). Now, as Israel was tested for forty years in the wilderness, Jesus is led into the desert to be tested for forty days and nights (see Exodus 15:25).

He faces the temptations put to Israel: Hungry, He’s tempted to grumble against God for food (see Exodus 16:1–13). As Israel quarreled at Massah, He’s tempted to doubt God’s care (see Exodus 17:1–6). When the Devil asks for His homage, He’s tempted to do what Israel did in creating the golden calf (see Exodus 32).

Jesus fights the Devil with the Word of God, three times quoting from Moses’ lecture about the lessons Israel was supposed to learn from its wilderness wanderings (see Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:16, 12–15).

Why do we read this story on the first Sunday of Lent? Because like the biblical sign of forty (see Genesis 7:12; Exodus 24:18; 34:28; 1 Kings 19:8; Jonah 3:4), the forty days of Lent are a time of trial and purification.

Lent is to teach us what we hear over and over in today’s readings. “Call upon me, and I will answer,” the Lord promises in today’s Psalm. Paul promises the same thing in today’s Epistle (quoting Deuteronomy 30:14; Isaiah 28:16; Joel 2:32).

This was Israel’s experience, as Moses reminds his people in today’s First Reading: “We cried to the Lord . . . and He heard.” But each of us is tempted, as Israel was, to forget the great deeds He works in our lives, to neglect our birthright as His beloved sons and daughters.

Like the litany of remembrance Moses prescribes for Israel, we should see in the Mass a memorial of our salvation, and “bow down in His presence,” offering ourselves in thanksgiving for all He has given us.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: March 5, 2022 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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What are you leaving behind to follow Jesus?

Impatience? A critical tongue? Movies and media with suggestive sexual impropriety? Gossiping? Excessive game play? A job that leaves you no time for anyone including family?

We do need to look for Jesus, He is already present, calling out and waiting for us to respond to His call to follow Him; He is the way, truth and life! For if we strive to turn aways from sin, worldly distractions and to do good then we shall our happiness in the Lord. Amen

First reading

Isaiah 58:9-14

You will be like a spring whose waters never run dry

The Lord says this:

If you do away with the yoke,

the clenched fist, the wicked word,

if you give your bread to the hungry,

and relief to the oppressed,

your light will rise in the darkness,

and your shadows become like noon.

The Lord will always guide you,

giving you relief in desert places.

He will give strength to your bones

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water

whose waters never run dry.

You will rebuild the ancient ruins,

build up on the old foundations.

You will be called ‘Breach-mender’,

‘Restorer of ruined houses.’

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,

and doing business on the holy day,

if you call the Sabbath ‘Delightful’,

and the day sacred to the Lord ‘Honourable’,

if you honour it by abstaining from travel,

from doing business and from gossip,

then shall you find your happiness in the Lord

and I will lead you triumphant over the heights of the land.

I will feed you on the heritage of Jacob your father.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Gospel

Luke 5:27-32

Jesus comes not to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance

Jesus noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house, and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything he got up and followed him.

    In his honour Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’