Reflecting on the Word

By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

Twice a year the Gospels take us to the desert. John the Baptist cries out on  two Sundays every Advent, and Jesus encounters Satan every Lent. What makes  the desert so ideal a setting as we prepare to celebrate the two great mysteries  of our faith? 

The desert is a place of testing, as God’s people learned when they wandered  around it for forty years. With hardened hearts, they had rejected the God who  had liberated them from slavery in Egypt, losing faith even while God was talking  to Moses and setting down the conditions for their adoption. Up went the golden  calf and out went the memory of what God had just done for them. 

Even Eden wasn’t enough to keep the human heart open. Even there it was  clear that we could be seduced by anything that looked good and promised  more than it could deliver. But Jesus showed that one of us could measure up to  the test and reveal himself as the “beloved Son” that he had been called at his  baptism (Matthew 3:17). 

The desert is also for wooing. The prophet Hosea quotes God saying, “So I will  allure her [Israel]; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hosea  2:16). And when Satan left Jesus, God sent “angels [who] came and ministered to  him” (Matthew 4:11).  

So we come to this Lent and the possibility that God wishes to draw us out into  a quiet, lonely place to have us meet the One who made us, redeemed us, and  continues to shape us into temples of the Holy Spirit.  

Consider/Discuss

  • What do you associate with the desert?  
  • Is there any particular place you consider “the desert” where God meets you?  
  • Are you being tested today in terms of living out the baptismal call to be a beloved son or daughter? 

Responding to the Word

We pray that this Lent will be a time of deeper understanding of what it means  to be God’s beloved child. We ask God to open our eyes to recognize those  things that draw us away and to be open to how God might be drawing us closer.

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