Hearing the story of Jesus’ temptation on the First Sunday of Lent, it’s, well, tempting to focus on Christ’s fasting as an example of fasting for the season to come. But Jesus’ fast in this story is not penitential. Rather it serves to make him hungry and thus puts him in a very human situation of vulnerability. His choice—like ours—is between turning to God in faith, as Moses, the psalmist, and Saint Paul did, or relying on something else, like political power or some other God. Where do you need God? Do you substitute another source of support for the real thing?

You can’t step into the same river twice. That’s because the water never stops moving. The seasons of the church year are like that. You’re tempted to say: Oh, Lent again. But it’s not the same Lent as last year. And you’ll never have this Lent back again in the future.

The desert fathers and mothers did not seek the desert to run away from temptation. It’s impossible. As the saying goes: Wherever you go, there you are.

As this Lenten season of repentance and joy begins, we ask God to sustain us and show us mercy.

The devil really was a clever old guy, wasn’t he? Jesus used scripture to fend off the devil’s first attempts to distract him, so then the devil, who apparently had read scripture, too, used the same tactic.

Fasting for a day can seem an eternity. Imagine doing so for 40! To say Jesus was “famished” at the end of that time is an understatement.

Let works of piety . . . be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which feed us for eternity. —Pope Leo the Great (d. 461)