1st Week of Lent 2018 - Tuesday - Interiorizing the Word

When tempted by the devil to forego his desert fasting, Our Lord responded, “It is written, 'man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God'".
And really, the temptation wasn’t simply to break his fast. The devil was tempting Jesus to turn away from the difficult road that the Father willed for His Son.

Here Jesus reminds us of one of the Christian life’s most important lessons: that God’s priorities are more important than our own, that our physical needs are not our greatest needs. The Word of God is more essential than bread.

Our Lenten fasting, fasting from chocolate, or video games, or social media, or snacking certainly helps us to build up self-discipline towards these earthly pleasures. Yet, more essential our fasting reminds us that we don’t need these things to survive, and we certainly don’t need them to thrive spiritually.

Jesus responded to the devil’s temptation by quoting a passage from Deuteronomy. Throughout the Gospels Jesus quotes directly from the Old Testament about 80 times, and the logic of the former scriptures permeates his teachings. Jesus overcame temptation by drawing upon the truth, the words of the Scriptures.

And as we prayed on the first Sunday of Lent, his “forty long days” in the desert set “the pattern of our own Lenten observance.” The word of God is meant to permeate our Lent, and our life. Pope Benedict wrote, “In the trials of life and in every temptation, the secret of victory lies in listening to the word of truth and rejecting with determination falsehood and evil.”

Our reading from Isaiah, speaks of how God’s word is meant to permeate us like the rain permeates the soil and makes the soil fertile.

So, if we are to be able to draw on the word of God in times of temptation, if the word of God is meant to fertilize our souls to bear new life, we must expose ourselves to it, we must meditate on it, we must take it into our hearts and let it live there. Many people can quote baseball statistics, movie lines, or a catchy new song, but barely a line from scripture.

Daily throughout Lent, we do well to sit down with the scriptures open upon our laps, to speak the words allowed, to allow them to echo in our minds and hearts.

Again to quote Pope Benedict, “It is therefore urgently necessary in these forty days to listen anew to the gospel, the word of the Lord, the word of truth, so that in every Christian, in every one of us, the understanding of the truth given to him…may be strengthened, so that we may live it and witness to it. Lent encourages us to let the word of God penetrate our life and thus to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, which road to take in life.”

May our Lenten fasting clear out and make room for the prayerful encounter and interiorization of the word of God in us, that we might live it out in lives of Christian purity and charity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring purification from sin and selfishness to all people.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.