Don’t eat the fruit of a beautiful tree? Go out into the desert without provisions? Are you kidding me? Lent is here! These readings remind you of the boundaries between God and human beings. The words may conjure up feelings of sin, temptation, and failure, but, you learn of mercy as well and enter into the mystery of redemption.

Sometimes I think the reason people still go to church after all these centuries is because they're that desperate. Now granted, some church services are wonderful and worth the effort for aesthetic reasons or even for entertainment value. Then, too, some faith communities are genuine communities, and the gathering is warm and desirable in its own right. Most people, however, can go elsewhere for music and art, entertainment and social gatherings. There are better places to get coffee and doughnuts on Sunday morning as well. There's one thing, however, you get in church that you don't get anywhere else: And that's the story.

Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test.’ The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.” Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”

THE NOVEL The Last Temptation of Christ has been criticized because the author saw Jesus tempted not only at the beginning of his ministry but all through his life, even when dying on the cross: to escape and lead a normal life as a husband and father. Those who object seem to forget that the Letter to the Hebrews explicitly says Jesus was “tested in every way, yet without sin” (4:15). Temptation itself is not a sin. It does, however, come in some subtle forms.

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

On this first Sunday of the season of Lent the readings naturally focus on temptation and sin, but perhaps they might also be talking about gifts.

Deserts can be places of beauty but also of danger. Anyone journeying into them needs to take measures to safeguard themselves. Jesus spent some time in the desert. Right after his baptism the Spirit of God drove him into the desert, where he spent 40 days—like the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness—facing down Satan and wild animals and beginning the journey of his ministry.

Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden.   —Mark Twain