First Sunday of Lent
Readings: DEUTERONOMY 26:4–10, PSALM 90(91):1–2, 10–15, ROMANS 10:8–13, LUKE 4:1–13
9 March 2025
Gospel Reflection: Into the desert with Jesus
Every Lent we accompany Jesus into the desert. Lent is not something we enjoy, but it is the best way for us to return to God. To re-convert. To practice metanoia. Jesus leads us down from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea: the lowest place on earth, 400 metres below sea level. Lent is a journey of great highs and lows. We start low, focusing on our weaknesses—our vulnerabilities.
In the spiritual life, we encounter three enemies: the devil, the world, and the flesh. The devil, a fallen angel, is no literary construct. He is a real entity who preyed on Jesus and preys on us. But temptation also comes from other people (the world), and from within (the flesh). Of the three, the flesh is our greatest enemy: “For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean” (Mk 7:21–23).
We are our biggest enemy, which is why we need Lent. We head to the desert to spend time with Jesus—alone. In the desert, there are no distractions, no newsfeeds, no place to hide. We will see the enemy coming, and we can win more easily. If we stay close to Jesus this Lent, the enemy is outnumbered: two against one!
In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to deliver us from temptation. We ask for this because Jesus taught us to, but we make the prayer our own because we don’t want trouble. Yet trouble makes us stronger. Difficulties help us grow. God will allow us to be tempted, but at the same time, he gives us the grace to draw good from temptation. A successful Lent will reveal how weak we are. A good Lent will help us really know ourselves.
Our resolution this Lent must be to stay close to Jesus. He will turn even our defeats into victories. We do not seek moral perfection. Our goal is to love more, and to be humble.
The devil tempts Jesus three times in this Sunday’s Gospel. We can imitate Jesus’ attitude amid our own difficulties and trials. While he was on earth, Jesus never sought the glory that belonged to him. “His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave” (Ph 2:6–7). As Christians, we confess that all glory is due to God alone. When we attract the praise of others, we receive it humbly, with good grace. But we do not seek glory, and more than that: when we are unjustly overlooked or wrongly blamed, we want to feel grateful! Sometimes justice compels us to fight for what is right and correct the record, but even then, we strive to be detached from personal recognition or credit.
Jesus Christ is our model. Every day brings obstacles and demands, but in Lent especially, we throw ourselves into the struggle of self giving and self-forgetfulness. If Jesus allowed himself to be tempted, we have no cause to be discouraged by our own temptations. God does not lose battles. Our resolution this Lent must be to stay close to Jesus. He will turn even our defeats into victories. We do not seek moral perfection. Our goal is to love more, and to be humble. We want to know our weaknesses. We want to embrace our weaknesses. We want be grateful for our weaknesses, which ensure we never wander far from Jesus.
Fr John Corrigan
Spiritual Direction: Keeping God company
Metanioa, in part, means a change of heart. Some people’s hearts are changed dramatically, but for most of us, it happens slowly—bit by bit. One day we suddenly realise our hearts have been changed and we can’t quite pinpoint when that might have occurred.
Let me tell you a true story. We have our meals in silence, and for the main meal we listen to either some profitable reading or a podcast. It helps us to stay focused in prayer for the sufferings of the world. One of those podcasts came from a retried Presbyterian minister, Miriam Dixon. She spoke about a visit she made to her parents who were both in nursing care. One day she went to see them, and her father said, “Darling your mother and I have something to tell you.” Rather apprehensively, Miriam sat down. “Your mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.” The shock value was huge, and it reduced her to silence. Her parents wondered why she wasn’t saying anything and finally her father said, “Mimi, as you know, we have always been friends of Jesus. Everything we have ever done we have done with him. He has been the centre of our lives together. So now he is giving us a very lovely invitation. He is walking into Alzheimer’s, and he is asking for our company. How could we say ‘no’ to him or complain?”
Their decision spoke volumes, not just to Miriam, but to the entire community who witnessed the benefits daily. Miriam’s parents were able to make that choice because, each day, in countless small ways, they walked with Jesus—and their hearts were transformed. He did the changing, and they let him. I would go further and say to you, that “metanoia” is what happens when we accept the invitation to keep God company.
That is really what we are doing this Lent. Imagine seeing life’s hurts, sorrows, difficulties, challenges, injustices, and rejections as a means of keeping Jesus company. It’s truly a “win-win”—Jesus is never alone in his suffering because we share it with him, and we aren’t alone either. In this shared journey, we are being transformed.
Metanioa, in part, means a change of heart.
In our Gospel account today, Jesus is seemingly on his own facing excruciating mental and physical agony, but he isn’t really—even if it felt like that. You may have read the book The Shack. The main character, Mac, tells God the Father that God had abandoned him in his pain over his daughter’s horrific death, and that he had also abandoned his Son, Jesus, on the Cross, too. God replied in the novel: “I didn’t abandon Jesus, and I didn’t abandon you. Just because it felt like that, didn’t mean I had.”
Jesus didn’t face the devil or the pain alone—his Father was with him. Likewise, in all that happens to us, we are never truly alone—God is with us. But we won’t fully understand this until we intentionally choose to walk with Jesus through whatever life brings. Until we can say, “He’s already been there; I will follow, too. Perhaps he will feel less alone,” and in doing so, we discover that we are the ones who feel less alone.
It really makes all the difference. We can actually face whatever temptations in the desert befall us. Try it, I promise it works. Somehow the load is bearable all because we kept company with God as he walked our road.
Mother Hilda Scott OSB
Artist Spotlight
Landscape with the Temptation of Christ (c. 1715) Antonio Francesco Peruzzini (1643–1724) and Alessandro Magnasco (c. 1667–1749). Oil Canvas, 116.84cm × 95.89cm.
Los Angeles County Museum USA. Public Domain. Landscape with the Temptation of Christ (c. 1715) is rather unique. It is the combination of two artists—Antonio Francesco Peruzzini, renowned for his landscapes, and Alessandro Magnasco, celebrated for his dramatic figure work.
Peruzzini has set the scene. He pictures a terrain wild and untamed with jagged rocks, twisted trees, and stormy skies. We can sense desolation and chaos, reflecting the inner turmoil faced by Christ. How subtle is the Evil One. We can rise from moments of prayer, even prolonged as in a retreat, feeling close to God, and then face reality. We do not yet live in paradise. Satan knows our weaknesses. It reminds me of a quote from Thomas à Kempis’ classic, The Imitation of Christ: “I am accustomed to visit my elect in a double fashion, that is, with temptation and with consolation.”
We never achieve true sanctity without a struggle. We have to believe that Christ really faced temptation, otherwise he can hardly be our model. “For the suffering he himself passed through while being put to the test enabled him to help others when they are being put to the test” (Heb 2:18).
And this is where Magnasco shows his brilliance. He depicts the devil, grotesque and menacing, as part of the landscape. This is the sinister nature of temptation. We often do not realise that we are being tempted to evil, for evil often presents itself in the guise of good. How does St John present evil in the Book of Revelation? As a dragon with seven heads—the seven deadly sins—but each crowned with a coronet (Rv 12:3). Christ survives this ordeal because of his perseverance in prayer. He becomes our imitation as we seriously enter Lent.
Msgr Graham Schmitzer
Fr John Corrigan is an assistant priest in the Diocese of Ballarat. He currently ministers in the parish of Sunraysia, centred on Mildura in the far north of Victoria, although he is also known in other parts for his “Blog of a Country Priest,” and for regular appearances on Network Ten and Foxtel’s Mass For You At Home.
Mother Hilda Scott OSB is the former abbess of the Benedictine Sisters at Jamberoo Abbey, NSW. Before becoming abbess, she served as prioress, novice mistress, and vocation director, and engaged in spiritual direction, retreat giving, and talks at the Abbey Retreat Cottages. She gained wider recognition through the ABC TV documentary, The Abbey. Before 1990, she was in a different religious order, teaching, working with youth and children, and doing pastoral work in parishes. Just before joining Jamberoo, she lived in a caravan park among the most disadvantaged in society.
Monsignor Graham Schmitzer is the retired parish priest of Immaculate Conception Parish in Unanderra, NSW. He was ordained in 1969 and has served in many parishes in the Diocese of Wollongong. He was also chancellor and secretary to Bishop William Murray for 13 years. He grew up in Port Macquarie and was educated by the Sisters of St Joseph of Lochinvar. For two years he worked for the Department of Attorney General and Justice before entering St Columba’s College, Springwood, in 1962. Mgr Graham loves travelling and has visited many of the major art galleries in Europe.
With thanks to the Diocese of Wollongong, who have supplied this reflection from their publication, METANOIA – Lenten Program 2025. Reproduced with permission.
