First Sunday of Lent

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent, the 40 days of preparation leading to Easter. The readings for the first Sunday of Lent offer profound challenges for our lives today.
The Gospel reading from Luke is the passage when Jesus is led into the desert and is tempted by the devil. If you’re like me, you probably haven’t spent much time in the desert or the wilderness. But spending time alone and without normal comforts tends to reveal two things: what we miss and what we fear. Recently two of my colleagues had an experience with a health care leadership institute where they had to camp out entirely by themselves – a sort of “Outward Bound for the soul.” Both of them dealt with extreme weather conditions and one of them slid down a hill in her tent due to torrential rain. The other colleague also dealt with wind and rain and then just as she completed setting up her shelter (a small tarp), she heard loud screaming outside. She writes, “I was scared-trying to wrap my brain around who was screaming and why. I climbed out of my shelter to investigate and heard the screaming again. I looked towards the direction the screaming was coming from to see an owl screaming while swooping down to get its prey a few hundred feet away. I kind of felt silly how scared I was when I saw it was an owl. The rest of the night was easy after that…”
Intentionally putting ourselves in a situation to confront what we miss and what we fear can lead to some uncomfortable situations and interesting questions. But ultimately, like my colleague, once we face those fears and sit with some of those questions (“Why do I dread being alone?” “Why do I need chocolate to make it through this?”), we may find “the rest of the night was easy.” The temptations Jesus faced (whether or not to opt for power, prestige and possessions) helped prepare him for his public ministry and ultimately, helped him decide to whom he belonged.
During these 40 days, we are also invited to reflect on our lives and to whom we belong. Sr. Joan Chittister writes this about the season of Lent:
“Lent is a call to weep for what we could have been and are not. Lent is the grace to grieve for what we should have done and did not. Lent is the opportunity to change what we ought to change but have not… Lent is about becoming, doing and changing whatever it is that is blocking the fullness of life in us right now. Lent is a summons to live anew.”
This Lent, whatever your practice may be (the church suggests fasting, praying and giving to the poor), find some time and ways to open your heart to what God has in store for you-fullness of life. We honor this each day as we pay attention to patients’ physical, emotional, spiritual and social needs. Do you honor these areas of your own life as well?
Elizabeth Keene
Mission Integration