Worship the Lord your God

 First Sunday of Lent Year C - 6th March 2022

Gospel Luke 4: 1–13

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days. During that time he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry. Then the devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone.’

Then leading him to a height, the devil showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and said to him, ‘I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms, for it has been committed to me and I give it to anyone I choose. Worship me, then, and it shall all be yours’. But Jesus answered him, ‘Scripture says: You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.’

Then he led him to Jerusalem and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple. ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; for scripture says: He will put his angels in charge of you to guard you, and again: They will hold you up on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone.’ But Jesus answered him, ‘It has been said: You must not put the Lord your God to the test.’

Having exhausted all these ways of tempting him, the devil left him, to return at the appointed time.

Gospel Reflection from St Beuno's Outreach

As always, I take my time to come into prayer. I ask the help of the Spirit, to lead me through this scripture. I pray for the grace to be with Jesus in his temptation.

If helpful, I could imagine Jesus, the devil, or the wilderness. What am I noticing? How is this encounter touching me?

The devil repeats the words, ‘If you are the Son of God ...’. What is going on here? Is the evil one trying to undermine Jesus’s relationship with the Father, to make him doubt, to drive him to self-reliance?

Do I recognise that temptation, at times, in my own life?

I might feel drawn to Jesus’s replies, to his calmness and trust. Perhaps I might like to pray Psalm 90 (91) with him once again. How do I feel now?

I stay with him, in the stillness of the empty wilderness. Our Father...

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