The Scripture readings for the First Sunday of Lent always speak of the Covenant that God forms with us through the people of Israel and the temptations Jesus faces as he enters into the desert.

In this Covenant, we are called and empowered to be one with our God and one with all of the human family.

However, in our human journeys we move from that Covenant and begin to think and live dualistically: separating the secular from the sacred and forming in our human relationships the concept of THEM and US.

In the Gospel story of Jesus in the desert tempted by the Evil One (Mark’s much abbreviated version, which we hear this year in Cycle B) we know Jesus is tempted as we are by the false gods of power, prestige and possessions. He is tempted to leave behind His authentic self and take on a false identity, to be other than how God His Father created Him.

In the Old testament story from the first Book of Kings, chapter 18 we hear the story of the prophet Elijah challenging the priests of the false god Baal to a test to see who is the authentic and true God: the God of the Israelites, or the god Baal, by setting on fire an offering of bulls. The very humorous story in turn challenges us today to see if we are about authentic or false worship.

Do we worship the true God or the false gods of power, prestige, popularity or possessions as St. Thomas Aquinas calls them? Do we truly live as one with God and the human family? Or have we set ourselves apart?

In the Gospel of Mark for this first Sunday of Lent, we are called to repent – which literally means “turn oneself inside out”. We heard on Ash Wednesday from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, “Behold, now is a very acceptable time, the time of salvation.” Lent is that opportune time, that KAIROS, the Greek word used in Scripture for a powerful encounter with God in our human journey, to take an honest look at ourselves to see whom/what we worship and to trust that these weeks of Lent (the Old English for “springtime”) offer us a opportune time to be renewed by the grace of God.

In order to enter into this process of renewal we must first make (not take) the time to have that honest encounter with ourselves. A fruitful Lent demands we set time aside for quiet reflection and honesty to enter into this journey to see who we really are and how we are called to be our authentic selves, in right relationship with our God and the human family.

In his latest book entitled “Prayerfulness”, spiritual writer/psychologist Robert Wicks states, “Being wrapped in silence, solitude and gratitude with powerful words of Scripture can center and guide us through the day in a way that offers us an anchor, a still point or a nest to both return to and from which to reach out. Simple rituals of daily prayerfulness balance the secular obsession with success, fame, power, physical attractiveness, money or simply getting our way. These moments of prayer and silence help prevent such normal human desires from becoming idols.”

I pray that each of us at St. Matthew’s takes time to embrace this Lent fully and to trust God’s transformative power in this “most acceptable time.”