The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for 40 days and was tempted by Satan.

Jesus has just been baptised. He has seen the heavens torn apart and the Spirit like a dove coming down on him. He has heard the voice from heaven: “ You are My Son the Beloved. My favour rests on you .” A powerful experience! Awesome!

Immediately after this, in the text for today, the Spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness, a lonely place.

Can we remember a time when we too had a powerful and unexpected experience of God's affirming presence? Perhaps it was a special moment at a retreat or just going about our daily life. Something happened. We felt the heavens opened and the Spirit coming down on us and we knew ourselves as the beloved sons and daughters of God.

How could we explain this to anyone? Who would understand?

What we were experiencing was so new and unexpected and totally different that we felt the need to be alone, to savour it, to reflect, to try to get to the depths of what it really meant, what it would imply for us. The Spirit was driving us out into the wilderness.

And then the temptations began.

In working with RCIA over the years I have been struck by how often neophytes find themselves grappling with serious temptations soon after Easter. They are confronted by challenges to the resolutions they have made to overcome sinful habits of the past.

Persons who have been faithfully and enthusiastically following the programme and who expressed with joyful emotion their experience of Sacramental Initiation begin to find excuses for missing sessions during the Easter season.

Yet I should not have been so surprised. The Spirit within us drives us into the wilderness; there we are tested. It is a normal thing. It happened to Jesus. It happens to us. Each of us is tempted in our weakest spots.

We are not alone however. God's angels look after us.

Those who, in spite of the temptations and “wild beasts” that surround them, remain in the wilderness trusting in God, will know when the time has come for them to begin their ministry. Then in the power of the same Spirit they will go without delay into their “ Galilee ” and proclaim the Good News.

Today, the first Sunday of Lent, we deliberately take a step forward as a people into a forty-day experience of wilderness. We set aside space and time to reflect again on our Baptismal relationship with God.

We put aside things that clutter our lives so we can listen to the word God is speaking to us and allow it to challenge us to grow into the fullness to which God is calling us. We make ourselves available to God. Can we dare to do it?

Let us pray

Beloved God! Thank you for times when we have been able to remain in the wilderness trusting in You even when temptations came to us from all sides and we felt alone, surrounded by wild beasts. Thank you for the angels you have sent to look after us, people who, recognizing our vulnerability, have been there for us at the time of weakness.

Thank you for people who, filled with zeal to improve society, have been able to remain steadfast in spite of difficulties. They have not given up.

Thank you for married couples who continue to journey together throughout the wilderness times of their marriage. Even when they feel alone and afraid, they continue to trust in the love they professed long ago. Sometimes their marriage seems threatened by temptation and “wild beasts”.

They think back to the days when their love was vibrant and strong. They recall what it felt like to be “beloved” and “favoured”. They dare to trust that their marriage can still proclaim Good News.

Thank you for priests who, having begun their priestly life filled with zeal, find themselves in a wilderness. They become afraid. They wonder if they have made a right choice.

Help them in the wilderness to sharpen their vision of who they are and who God is. Let them be able to journey forth through the wilderness into a new place in their ministerial life with a new power to proclaim Good News.

Forgive us the times we gave in to our fears and discouragement and turned our backs on the demands of our commitments.

Beloved Abba! Give us the courage to enter wholeheartedly into this time of Lent – those of us already baptised as well as those preparing for Baptism. Make us open to whatever You might want to ask of us so that our Church might truly become a proclamation of the Good News. Amen.

Christina Araujo, formerly of the Touch of Christ Deaf Community, is a Sinsinawan Dominican novice.