First Sunday of Lent 2026
With the ashes of Ash Wednesday and the call to repent and believe the gospel ringing in our ears we now come to the 1st Sunday of Lent. In the same way that Jesus went out into the dessert God asks us to go out into the dessert during the 40 days of Lent to undertake a time of renewal. So why Lent? Lent is the time for seeing and correcting our faults and raising our minds and hearts to God. Lent is a time for personal and community conversion of heart and renewal! A time for coming face-to-face with God – our origin, our purpose and our destiny it is also the time to be changed for the better by that encounter! The main thing for all of us to do during Lent is that we should try to get to know God better by works of faith and charity so that those lines separating good and evil will become more apparent to all of us.
In the First Reading we hear that God formed man and placed him in the Garden of Eden. The serpent deceived the woman into eating the forbidden fruit. She and her husband ate it and realized they were naked. in the Second Reading: St Paul in this extract from his letter to the Romans tells us that one man’s sin brought death to all, but God’s grace through Jesus brings life and righteousness to many. Christ’s obedience will make many righteous the gospel for this weekend was first addressed to the Church as it coped with divisions, weakening of faith and scandals. The image of the wilderness evoked many memories for them. In the time of Moses God had led his people out if Egypt to begin a long and trying wilderness experience. Our own experience of Church today is, in ways, very similar. God is leading us. We continue to be humbled and tested. What is crucial is the hope that we have from dealing with events through eyes of faith. The Church teaches that prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are significant ways to become closer to God. The decision for each of us is to determine what form of those three things to make our own Lent. The temptations, to which our Lord submitted himself, are a source of encouragement and consolation for all of us. If our Lord and master underwent temptation, we cannot and must not expect to live a Christian life without experiencing temptations and trials.
The three temptations Satan put to our Lord were suggestions that he should forget his messianic mission of redemption. He was urged to get all the comforts of life, all the self-glory and all the possessions and power this world has to offer but that was not what it was about. In the same way all the comforts of life are put before us including the self-indulgence and glory which is the exact opposite of our calling as followers of Christ. During Lent we are called not to give in to the temptations of this life instead we are called to renewal of heart mind and Spirit so that we can live in God and God can live in us through faith so that others may see and believe. Jesus trusted the Spirit to take him into the desert to be tempted. Jesus knew the Father completely. As we begin Lent It is Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life that we seek. As we begin our six-week journey on the road to Holy Week and then the joy of the resurrection at Easter we pray that God may give us his grace to make a good Lent for 2026.
Fullerton T 