Jesus Is Tempted

 

  Mk 1:12-15

In The Wilderness

¹² At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Jesus Announces the Good News

¹⁴ After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

On this First Sunday of Lent we might imagine ourselves in the wilderness facing 40 days or prayer, sacrifice, penance, temptations and almsgiving. No doubt the Evil One will work on us to bend, reduce or ignore our Lenten program as he did with Jesus. That's his job and he is good at it.  Fatigue and discouragement are his tools so let us be aware of them and make sure we get enough rest to have the energy and concentration to stick with our plan. Our mission these 40 days is to repent...clean up our behaviors, strengthen our prayer life and deepen our union with Jesus in order to proclaim with him good news that his kingdom is near.  Looking at our world we see that there is much to be done to make that kingdom a reality.  As missionary  soldiers for Christ, we need to be in the best shape possible.  Lent is our training camp, let's bite into it with all our energy and strength.

Bro. Rene

Dear Jesus, strengthen me these days of Lent to be a willing and capable proclaimer of your kingdom, despite the efforts of the Evil One to tempt me to be a drop out. Amen