Today Jesus goes into the desert, but just before this St. Luke has given us an account of His baptism. Jesus goes into the desert to confront the temptations that Israel had faced. At the beginning of His public life He must defeat the forces that will test Him at the end of His life when He faces death. He tells the devil that satisfying an empty stomach is not enough to give the true freedom that God’s word can point to. We do not live by bread alone. Secondly He faces the temptation of power. But the worship of power does nothing to free human beings from slavery: only God can do that. And finally Jesus is tempted to test God, to fling Himself from the pinnacle of the Temple and to force His Father’s hand. But He chooses to trust His Father, just as He will trust Him again in the garden of Gethsemane when Satan will return for the final conflict.
At the beginning of Lent we may groan at the thought of following Jesus into the desert – and for 40 days! It seems so barren and we find it hard to give up some of the consumer goods on which we are so dependent. The Church sees Lent as a time of grace when we learn to recognize anew the ways in which we have become enslaved to the various idols in our society. It may be material goods; it may be seeking status and power or anything that blocks God’s call to a deeper freedom. This is an opportunity to listen to God speaking to us in prayer. In the desert of Lent we can make a greater effort to read the scriptures and to be fed by God’s life-giving word. We can worship God not only by going to Mass more often but by sharing our material possessions with those who are in need. But most of all Lent is the time to recognize our great dignity as human beings: that we have been created by God not for slavery but for freedom.