FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT - C - 2022
INTRODUCTION
In his Gospel Luke tells us that Jesus
resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, the holy city.
Have we begun our Lenten journey with
the same enthusiasm, ready to give our life to our Master for the good of our
brothers and sisters?
Let us see what the Lord has to say to
us in the readings for this Sunday
Since Lent is one of the special
seasons of the Church’s liturgy, the three readings have a common theme.
I have read the commentary, made by
Gianfranco Ravassi, and I like the way he looks at them. For him the three
readings speak of the profession of faith, made in different ways.
I have decided to use this point of
view to make my own commentary.
FIRST READING Dt 26: 4-10.
Ø
In
the Hebrew Bible the Book of Deuteronomy is called “These are the words…” because the
book begins with this phrase.
Ø
In the Greek translation it has been
given the name Deuteronomy = second law.
Ø
The book is completely orientated to
the words that Moses addresses to his people on the threshold of the promise land.
Ø
These words of Moses are written in
different literary genres: narrations, laws, counsels, and poetry having the
LAW as a backdrop.
Ø
Chapter 26 is about the first fruits
offered to God.
Ø
Moses tells his people that whenever
they go before the Lord to offer the first fruits of their crops, they will say:
My father was a wandering Aramean…
Ø
These are the first words of Israel’s
profession of faith.
o
It is the confession of their own origin
wandering Aramean…They went down to
Egypt and established themselves there, they increased in numbers.
o
Therefore, to be so numerous they were
oppressed by the Egyptians who made them suffer
o
They cried out to their God, and he
listened to them, taking them from the land of slavery.
o
He gave them freedom, led them with
strong hand, and outstretch arm to the land where they were.
Ø
With these words, the faithful
Israelite confesses that God is great, that God listens to the cry of the
suffering and of the poor, and that God led them to the Land.
Ø
He confesses that God is a God who is
near, who journeys with us, who guides us.
Ø
Together with the profession of faith,
he will offer the first fruits of his crop. He is no more a wandering Aramean,
now he is an Israelite who inhabits the land; he is not a nomad anymore. He
does not go wandering with his animals, but he has now settled in the Land, and
thus offers the first fruits.
Ø
What a beautiful profession of faith,
short and at the same time so respectful, so full of love and trust in the Lord
his God.
Ø What good and beautiful works has God done for you, for us, for the whole human race?
SECOND READING Rm 10:8-13
«
Paul invites the members of his
community to believe in Jesus Christ, to profess with the mouth, and to believe
with the heart that Jesus is the Lord.
«
The Israelite was invited to profess
his faith in the Almighty God, YHWH, who had freed them from slavery.
«
Paul invites his community to profess
their faith in Jesus, as Lord and God, who, giving up his life on the cross has
liberated us from the greatest slavery, sin.
«
To profess this faith, we do not need
to be descendants of the wandering Aramean, but all of us without distinction
of race, color, nationality, genre we are invited to make this profession of
faith in Jesus dead and risen for the liberation of all.
GOSPEL Lk 4:1-13
Luke introduces Jesus to us, the Jesus
whom Paul invites us to believe in, the Jesus who is tempted before beginning
his mission. Mission that will lead him to the cross and resurrection, and that
will be our salvation.
After his baptism, Jesus goes to the
desert guided by the Spirit. The desert,
which is the place of temptation, solitude, struggle, and encounter
face to face with God and with himself.
Jesus, after his baptism in the Jordan River,
hears the voice of the Father saying: You
are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.
Now he is alone reflecting and
meditating on the mission that the Father has for him, he is afraid like all of
us when we think that the mission, God has for us, will be difficult, and therefore
we will suffer rejection and scorn.
Surely that the temptations that the
evangelists narrate are a composition of the temptations he suffered during his
lifetime.
The temptations as Luke describes them
will always begin with the words or the thought: If you are the son of God. As if the temptation was oriented toward
the nature, of whom Jesus is.
o
I do not believe that the temptation of
the bread is only about bread, or food, but it is the temptation to use his
power for his own benefit not for the service of others. Is it not one of our
strongest temptations, to put ourselves before everybody else?
o
Luke changes the order of the temptations
and puts as the second temptation the one about the kingdoms of the world. It is the temptation to do what we are called
to do but in our own way, in an easy way. Why should Jesus have to suffer
humiliation, scorn, rejection, and death to follow the will of the Father, if
he can do it in another way more reasonable?
o
For Luke the last temptation is the most
dangerous, it happens in the Temple of Jerusalem. The greatest temptation
happens in the city of Jerusalem. This is the temptation to provoke God, to manipulate
God so that he will do what we want, we will not do his will, but he will do
our will. It is the temptation of making
an idol of the true God.
o
Through all these temptations, Jesus
uses the words from Scripture to defeat the evil spirit.
o The answer of Jesus to the temptations is his profession of faith, trust, surrendering in the hands of God, his Abba, whom he loves unconditionally.
One night while praying
and in bitter tears, pleading to our Lord that by the merits of His Passion and
death to have mercy on the necessities of His church which at that time were
many, our Lord told me and pointing at Mgr. Claret as if I saw him between our
Lord and me.” This, my daughter, is the apostolic person whom you have asked me
for so many years and with so many tears”.
His Divine Majesty showed me the grace He poured on that holy soul for the preaching of the gospel, and our Lord told me that there was no other remedy for the peace of the church. I did not know that person. Only a few days before I heard that a certain chaplain by the name of Monsen Claret began preaching with much zeal about the honor due to God and the salvation of souls. It seems to me that have been at least eleven or twelve years ago.[1]
FATHER FOUNDER
When I was still a small
boy in elementary school, a distinguished visitor to the school asked me what I
wanted to be when I grew up. I answered that I wanted to be a priest Accordingly, when I had successfully completed
my elementary school, I was enrolled in the Latin class taught by a very holy
and learned priest, Dr. John Riera. From him I learned and memorized nouns,
verbs, genders, and a bit more, but as the class was discontinued I could no
longer study and had to give it up
Since my father manufactured thread and cloth, he set me to work in his factory . I obeyed without a word, a long face, or any sign of displeasure. I set to work as hard as I could and never spent an idle, half-hearted day. I did everything to the best of my ability so as not to displease my dear parents in the slightest, because I loved them very much and they loved me.[2]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.
PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography.
RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según
las Escrituras – Ciclo C. San Pablo 2006.
SCHÖKEL , Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.
CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPANOLA. Sagrada Biblia, Versión Oficial, 2012.
