Sunday Gospel Reflection (March 9, 2025)

Origin Stories

The First and Second Readings this Sunday both provide the founding stories of both the Israelites as given to them by Moses (Deuteronomy 26:4-10) and Christians as given by St. Paul (Romans 10:8-13). Both of these are meant to be proclaimed in the context of worship. This is the oft forgotten element to the Scriptures and to Faith, which is that it is all for the purpose of worship. Moses tells the Israelites to repeat this when they are in front of the altar. St. Paul says that these words enrich all who call upon them. It is in remembering where God’s people came from that they are able to confidently go where they are meant to go. This is not just the physical Promised Land as Moses lead them in Deuteronomy, but also the heavenly home that St. Paul and the Church hopes to lead us. 

A great example of going somewhere while remembering who one is comes from today’s Gospel. It provides a twist on the origin story in that Jesus is being questioned about his true nature by the Devil, but it is being done through a series of temptations. Question of who God is and who one’s self is come in the form of stones turning to bread (Does God really love me and will He take care of me?) and in the form of worship (What do I get out of throwing my lot in with this God I can’t see?). But notice it, like Moses and St. Paul, is all done in the context of worship as shown in the temptation on the Temple. 

We fall to temptation because we “forget” who God is and who we are. Not forget in that it slips our mind like a piece of trivia, but forget in the covenantal sense. God is no longer present to us. The clearer we can keep God present, or return to his presence as the season of Lent is meant to remind us, the greater resistance we can give to temptation and fulfill what God has planned for us.