First Sunday of Lent/B
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mk 1:12-15) Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the desert for forty days where he is tempted by Satan.
The desert is a situation where we are placed in the blessed position of having no means left to satisfy our needs. We are thus somehow obliged to be with our needs, to feel their pain and also their strength, to touch the weakness behind our unmet need, a weakness that is often hidden.
And it is precisely in our weaknesses that temptation lurks, the subtle temptation that orders things that are absolutely true but in a false way, just as Eve was tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-8). Going after the deception of a false order of true things leads us, imperceptibly, to find ourselves alone and naked with the risk of losing and ruining the most precious things in our lives.
But through temptation we learn to know ourselves, and in Jesus, tempted like each of us in the desert, we can overcome temptation and transform our weaknesses into the best of our resources.
The Communion antiphon for today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 90 (Ps 90:4-5) with the following text:
“Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi Dominus et sub pennis ejus sperabis,
scuto circumdabit te veritas ejus.”
(The Lord will overshadow you with his pinions, and you will find refuge under his wings.
His faithfulness will encompass you with a shield).
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The performance is by the ‘Mönchsschola der Erzabtei St. Ottilien’ conducted by Johannes Berchmans Göschl. The music track can be found on the CD ‘Gregorian Chantes’ published by Profil in 2014.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
