* First Sunday of Lent (C), February 21, 2010
* Theme: Cling to the Lord

* Lent is a Time of Retreat and a Time of Renewal
* During Lent we hear some of the most powerful Scripture Readings of the Liturgical Year.
* Today’s Readings tell us of the central Professions of Faith of Both the Old and New Testaments.

* First: (Deuteronomy 26), recounts the saving act of God of the Exodus:
* The escape from Egypt and the settling in the Promised Land after 40 years of wandering in the desert
* Note, “My Father was a wandering Aramean …” their beginnings were humble.
* God chose these people, not because of their greatness, but because of their need.
* They were slaves in Egypt, and they, “cried out to the Lord…”, and He brought them out of their misery into a land of milk and honey.
* The setting for this reading is worship
* As the Jews bring their gifts to the Altar,
* They profess this central saving act of God.

* Second: (Paul’s Letter to the Romans)
* Paul says that in Jesus there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; “The same Lord is Lord of all.”
* God has raised Jesus from the dead and has made him Lord of all
* “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
* Paul professes this central act of our Christian Faith:

* Gospel: (Luke 4) the Temptations in the desert
* In Luke’s Gospel, after the Baptism by John in the Jordan,
* Jesus is led by the Spirit to wander 40 days in the desert
* (Note 40 days – 40 years, a time of preparation)
* In the desert Jesus is tempted by the devil,
* Two things stand out for me in these temptations:
* First: The devil misquotes Scripture: “If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He will command his angels …to guard you…lest you dash your foot against a stone”
* The temptation was to do something spectacular so that all would believe instantly.
* The devil misquoted today’s Responsorial Psalm in which the psalmist says that the Just One should fear no evil — “Because he clings to me, I will deliver him.”
* Note, the temptation is to despair – to give up on God;
* To not believe that God cares about us
* Jesus overcomes these temptations and
* The devil departed from Jesus, “FOR A TIME”
* “FOR A TIME” is the second thing that stands out in this story.
* For Luke, the temptations to despair are like bookends in the Gospel:
* First there are the temptations in the desert
* Then the devil comes again at the time of Jesus’ suffering,
* In his Passion, Jesus beats off the devil once and for all by again clinging to God:
* Jesus prays, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
* Out of these events comes our great Profession of Faith:
* In the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, God has shown how much he loves us.
* Even though we are fragile and needy and tempted at times to despair,
* In clinging to the Lord, we will be saved.

* On Friday, Tiger Woods apologized for his mistakes in front of the media and his friends.
* Whatever you think of the man, he is obviously on a type of Lenten Retreat to turn away from his transgressions and find again his core values – to refocus his life.
* He hopes that his return to his Buddhist Faith will guide him
* We wish him and his family well.

* Lent is a time for us as well to refocus our lives
* On Ash Wednesday lots of people came from all over – thousands
* We marked ourselves with the Ashes that remind us that Jesus died and rose for us and sent the Spirit to continue to guide us.
* As Christian we cling to the Lord and know that he will deliver us

* As we continue with our Mass and our Lenten retreat
* Let us cling to the Lord and ask the Lord to help us focus our lives
* Let us profess our Faith in God’s love for us
* Let us strive to live our lives in response to this love.

* Amen

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