As we enter into our first Sunday of Lent, we begin with a little history of
Israel. In our first reading, Moses is helping the people remember everything that
God has done for them in the past. In recalling God’s long history of fidelity to his people, they then find the courage, along with ourselves as well, to trust Him and
His promises for the future. Like the ancient Israelites, we too in this Lenten season are called to gather our first fruits from the flock and field, to acknowledge
Him as our God, and to offer Him a share of our gifts in thanksgiving for all He has done for us.
In the Gospel we move to an event that we find at the very heart of Lent:
Jesus lead by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days. Inspired by this event, we too are inspired by the church to begin a 40 day spiritual journey into the wilderness.
Just as Jesus was tempted during this time by the evil one, we too discover that as we attempt to grow closer to God and leave behind our sinful habits that spiritual opposition is never far behind us.
In many ways, the temptations faced by Jesus in the desert were like those faced by the Israelites as they wandered through the desert: He is tempted to grumble against God for food, He is tempted to question God’s care, and, when the devil asks for homage, he is tempted to respond by placing other gods before the Lord. Jesus even battles these temptations by using scripture and the lessons that Israel should have learned as they wandered through the wilderness.
The temptations faced by Jesus can easily be updated to modern times. At the core, they are common human temptations: food, safety, security, dignity, respect and empowerment. This means that we are at risk too! As we enter into the desert over these 40 days, the church gives us three treasured and timetested tools that we should be using frequently during our Lenten journey: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Prayer requires us to turn towards God, to recognize him and to engage in conversation with Him. When we pray, we must move away from ourselves and invite Him into our lives. Through prayer we also bring God our needs and desires, our thanks, our regrets and our praise. We reaffirm our trust in Him and recognize His goodness.

Fasting is a great exercise for remembering that there are things that are more important than the basic things of this world, and that “no thing” other than
God is going bring us true happiness and satisfaction. When we fast, we deliberately turn away from things that will not satisfy and turn to God instead.
Remember, there are two important aspects in fasting: 1) We can fast from anything that distracts us from spending time with God, or from things that we treasure to make God our treasure instead, and 2) We can look for ways to place
God back into the space that we then create.
Almsgiving: Similar to fasting, almsgiving is about giving up even the things that we already have. Almsgiving forces us to focus on the needs and value of others, and helps to rely not on ourselves and our possessions, but on God.
Almsgiving shows that we desire God even more than our own possessions.
As we enter into this Lenten season, let’s remember the words of Saint Paul in our second reading and do so joyfully. Too often Lent is seen as a gloomy time of brooding and sacrifice. But no, it is a time of growth, a time of movement towards a deeper, more loving and more meaningful relationship with God. Just as with all things, self-discipline helps us to become more spiritually mature, and ultimately happier.
And so, like the Israelites before us, let’s begin this Lenten season by
“bowing down in his presence,” and offering ourselves in thanksgiving for all that
He has given us.