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Reflection for First Sunday of Lent |
By Scott Wright and Jean Stokan
Deuteronomy 26:4-10 ~ Psalm 91 ~ Romans 10:8-13 ~ Luke 4:1-13
JESUS, FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, WAS LED INTO THE DESERT
The first week of Lent begins with the story of Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, being led into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil. We know these forty days of Lent mirror those of the people of Israel in the wilderness and the forty days of Jesus in the desert. But does the analogy stop there? Like Jesus, we too will be tempted, our faith tested, during these forty days of Lent.
What precisely is the meaning of these temptations, of this trial? Archbishop Romero speaks of two plans in history: God’s plan of salvation and an opposing, idolatrous plan. We are not accustomed to thinking in these ways, though in fact such a dichotomy is quite biblical.
God says to the people of Israel: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). And the four gospels are filled with opposition: darkness versus light, slavery versus freedom, cross versus resurrection.
Romero alluded to these oppositions in his homily for the first Sunday of Lent when he said that one of the services that the church offers people today is “to unmask the idolatry of money and power, and the tendency of these false idols to require people’s submission.”
Is it a stretch to say that since 9/11 our nation, and each of us, has undergone a temptation and trial in the desert? Subsequently, government choices led to a “war of choice” in Iraq and the practice of torture. Both were justified in the name of “national security” and as part of an ongoing “war on terror.” Yet God still calls us to repentance.
Theologian Bryan Massingale, S.T. D., examined these temptations as a false notion of national security based on fear and military might. He described the U.S. ethos of “security” as “the maintenance of the American consumer lifestyle and the military superiority needed to defend it.” The resulting costs include huge military budgets and the neglect of domestic social programs, in addition to the death and destruction caused by the wars abroad.
Rather than making of “national security” or “Wall Street” a false idol, we are called to unmask them and to place our faith in God’s justice and our trust in God’s security, transforming sinful political and economic structures so that they serve the global common good.
"Israel’s creed is pure history... A people that has increased under slavery is told by God that they will be given a land where milk and honey flow... God works out the history of salvation in each people’s history... The risen Christ belongs now to present history, and he is the source of human liberty and dignity... That is why we prepare for Easter by observing Lent, so that from our Salvadoran condition, living our Salvadoran Lent, we Salvadorans may enjoy the new life of the risen Christ, striving for a more just and fraternal country." – Archbishop Oscar Romero
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