Gospel Reflection for Sunday, March 9, 2025 – 1st Sunday of Lent

Sunday Readings: Deuteronomy 26.4-10; Romans 10.8-13; Luke 4.1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days, where he was tempted by the devil.  During that time Jesus ate nothing, and by the end, he was hungry.  The devil said to him, “ If you are the Son of God, command this stone to turn into bread.” Jesus replied, “Scripture has it, ‘Not by bread alone shall a person live.’”

Solitude in a beautiful place restores one’s connectedness with God as Creator and with the Spirit in whom we live and move and have our being. The wilderness is about integrating the self, restoring the heart to awe and praise, sighting again on the horizon one’s own deepest purpose in life.

In the desert the people of Israel drank from springs in the rock, ate migrating quail, and found daily sustenance on the bushes. The desert deepened Israel’s experience of God’s sustaining love. In the desert Jesus deepened his response to the Spirit.

• What experiences of solitude have restored you to awe, praise, and purpose?
• By what besides bread do you live?