This week is the First week of Lent.
Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter. It is a time when Christians remember the events leading up to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
Christians use this time to reflect on their relationship with God and others.
This weeks Gospel is from Matthew 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,”he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Gospel Reflection
Often, we begin Lent with the best intentions. Many of us will have promised to give up things that we enjoy, and some of us might even manage to get to the end of Lent without ‘giving in’ to those things that we promised to avoid.
But the truth is, God isn’t too interested in how successful we are in giving up something. He isn’t looking for achievement. If anything, it’s when we struggle that we really come to understand our relationship with God more fully.
God is God. He is perfect, and he can do anything. And that means that we don’t have to be.
When we struggle or even fail, we are reminded that we are not perfect, but that leaves God the space to do great things in our lives.