|
|
Working with the
Word
First Sunday of Lent A
March 9, 2014
|
|
|
Focusing
the Gospel
|
Key
words and phrases: tempted by the devil; he was hungry; Get away, Satan; The Lord, your God |
To
the point: Jesus spent forty days alone in the desert and was vulnerable, so the devil tried to allure him with tantalizing temptations. Temptation is essentially an enticement to put our own desires and needs first. Resisting temptation, then, is really resisting self-centeredness. Like Jesus, we must choose instead to surrender ourselves to God who alone should be the center of our lives. To make any other choice is to choose a false god. This First Sunday of Lent poses this question: Do we serve god or God?
|
Connecting
the Gospel...
|
...to
the second reading: The second reading contrasts Adam, who did not resist temptation with its consequences for humanity, and Christ, who did resist temptation and so gave humanity the promise of new Life. How frequently we are like Adam; how continuously grace calls us to be like Christ! |
...to experience: We use the word “temptation” rather lightly in all kinds of contexts; for example, we say we are “tempted” to abandon our diet for a sumptuous dessert. But the nature of temptation described in this Sunday’s readings is much more serious, for its consequences involve our very Life and salvation.
|
Copyright © 2014 by The Order
of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota.
All rights
reserved.
Used
by permission from Liturgical Press,
St. John’s Abbey, P.O. Box 7500 Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500 |
Living Liturgy: Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis
for Sundays and Solemnities Year A - 2014, pp. 77.
Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS;
Kathleen Harmon, SND de N;
and Christopher W. Conlon, SM
|
|
Thank
you to Liturgical Press who makes this page possible
|
|
For more information about Living Liturgy 2014 click picture above. |
Art by Martin Erspamer, O.S.B.
from Religious
Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
Used by permission of Liturgy Training Publications. This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection
in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go to:
http://www.ltp.org/ |
|
|
|
|
