It is the first Sunday of Lent, and the Hebrew Scripture reading is the end of the flood story where God makes a covenant with Noah and his descendants. The rainbow is the reminder that God will be faithful to that covenant. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is led into the desert to be tempted. That he can be tempted is Mark the evangelist’s way of showing his readers that Jesus is a man. Jesus is a human person, one like us, tempted with the same things we are — material things, power, prestige. Will Jesus stay faithful to God as God is faithful to us? At the time Mark was writing his Gospel, persecutions by the Romans were going on. Staying faithful was a life-or-death decision. It still is! We may not be faced with lions, but we are faced with spiritual danger every day. “The Angels ministered to him,” we read. We also have “angels,” our baptisms, and the graces God gives us every day. As Lent begins, we make known to God our own temptations, areas where we “fudge” on staying faithful, and invite God to touch us with the covenant grace.
– Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia