HOMILY First Sunday of Lent Cycle A Feb 26, 2023

 HOMILY    First Sunday of Lent   Cycle A     Feb 26, 2023

 In our Gospel today we hear: “At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.   He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.”

          Well, of course Jesus was hungry.  But for WHAT was Jesus hungry?

For what did Jesus hunger?   For food?  Yes, of course.  But that was not all. 

The devil, the tempter, thought Jesus was primarily hungry for food.  And so the tempter urges Jesus to turn stones into bread in order to satisfy His hunger.  But the tempter has misread the situation. 

Jesus is indeed hungry for bread, but after 40 days of prayer and communion with this Father in Heaven, Jesus is much more hungry for union with God, for God’s Will to be done, than Jesus is for physical food.  Having been in intimate communion with God Jesus longs even more for communion with God.  For the closer we come to God, we do not become satisfied and satiated with God, and say, “oh no more; that is enough union with God;” but rather we yearn and long even more ardently for ever closer union with God. 

You can never have too much of union with God.  Our destiny is for all eternity to go deeper and deeper into the unfathomable mystery of the love of God.  You just can’t have too much!    There is always room for more.  We have an infinite capacity to receive love, to receive God Who is Love. 

 And so, it is entirely understandable that Jesus responds “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”  Jesus hungers foremost for union with God.       //

          In two weeks we will hear the Gospel of John about Jesus’ meeting and interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus is thirsty and says to the woman, “Give me a drink.”  But it is clear that it is not physical water that Jesus seeks, but rather the faith of the woman.  Jesus thirsts for her response in faith.  That is what really motivates Jesus. 

           Lent is about hunger and thirst.  But not only, or even primarily, about physical hunger and thirst.  Lent is really about hungering and thirsting for God, for God’s Will to be done, for holiness, for union with God. 

          As the 42^nd Psalm beautifully puts it: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”

          Lent is a time of hunger and of thirst.   The important question is, “what are you hungering for?   For what do you thirst?”   Do you thirst for the living God?

          In Lent we try to let go of our thirsts and hungers for food, for fame, for importance, for power, for domination, for greed, for pleasure, for me, me, me.   Instead we try to open ourselves to thirsting and hungering for righteousness, for justice, for compassion, for humility, for chastity, for honesty, for holiness, for forgiveness, and for GOD.  Fasting is about re-orienting our wants and our desires, our longings and hunger and thirst.  We are called to hunger for God’s Will in our life.

          Lent is about getting our thirsts and hungers right.   As the Most Interesting Man in the World used to say on beer commercials, “Stay thirsty my friends.”

          This Lent, stay thirsty and hungry for God’s Will in your life.  May you sing with the Psalmist:  “As the deer longs for streams of water,

so my soul longs for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”

Blessed Lent!