Breaking Open the Word
By James Cavanagh
Feb. 21: First Sunday of Lent
Scripture readings:
- Deuteronomy 26:4-10
- Psalm 91:1-2, 10-15
- Romans 10:8-13
- Luke 4:1-13
Overview: The events of Jesus’ life recapitulate the history of Israel. At crucial junctures in her history Israel failed to trust God and lost his friendship. Jesus symbolically relives those events in order to do what Israel failed to do. Jesus’ temptation in the desert, the subject of this week’s Gospel, replicates the temptation of Adam in the garden as well as the testing of Israel in wilderness. In this week’s first reading Moses recounts the Exodus as the people prepare to enter the Promised Land. His brief account functioned as a kind of creedal statement which was recited at the time of “firstfruits,” or Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) in commemoration of and thanksgiving for the Lord’s gift of land and blessings. “A wandering Aramean” refers to Jacob and his semi-nomadic existence, which became a paradigm for the “pilgrim people of God.” The second reading corresponds to the first reading by focusing on the “confession of faith.” This brief summary of the Christian faith represented the essential beliefs candidates for baptism were expected to make. An interior conviction must be accompanied by an exterior expression of faith, and vice versa. From this simple beginning grew the creeds as we know them. The Gospel reading recalls the Lord’s temptation, which recapitulates the temptation of Adam as well as the Exodus. It also serves as a model for all who profess and call themselves Christians. Christ’s rebukes to the devil: “One does not live on bread alone,” “You shall worship the Lord your God and him alone you shall serve” and “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” function as a confession of faith for catechumens preparing to follow Christ in his Church.
Key verse: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9).
“Catechism of the Catholic Church”: “Those who belong to Christ through faith and baptism must confess their baptismal faith before men. The profession of faith summarizes the gifts that God gives man: as the Author of all that is good; as Redeemer; and as Sanctifier” (No. 14).
Pope Benedict XVI: “The Apostles’ Creed speaks of Jesus’ descent ‘into hell.’ This descent not only took place in and after his death, but accompanies him along his entire journey. He must recapitulate the whole of history from its beginnings—from Adam on; he must go through, suffer through, the whole of it, in order to transform it” (“Jesus of Nazareth”).
