Year A
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I am writing these notes in a pub on my day off. I have come here for a pie and a pint while I contemplate the readings for the First Sunday of Lent and discover, to my shame, that I am living them. Having read the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve, a plate of spring rolls has just been delivered to me and I am struck by a sorry irony: I only ever intended to have steak and ale pie, but looking at the menu I was tempted by the spring rolls as a starter and a beguiling voice in my head whispered “Go on, it’s your day off, you can cut yourself some slack. After all, yesterday was really full on, you’ve earned it”. I am supposed to be on a medically imposed diet for my health, but I waved it aside without a second thought. Then I realised that the story of Adam and Eve and the cataclysmic decision that poisoned the whole of creation and put enmity between humanity and God, necessitating the death of God’s only Son, is lived out in miniature in my many decisions each and every day, even down to the flattering voice that beguiled me to take the spring rolls and Eve to take the fruit and eat.
Contrast this to the reaction to temptation of Jesus in the desert: attacked on so many fronts by the evil one and through so many human appetites – hunger, power, hubris – He resists them all backed up by God’s word, and I see how wide the gulf between me and my Lord really is. But now I have forty days to bridge that gap by adopting those means which so pointedly address the lacunae in my pretence to follow my Saviour: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Once again, as every year at this time, I resolve to adopt some aspect of all these means to become a more perfect disciple of Christ, yet knowing that I will continue to fail on one or more of them before the forty days is up.
If nothing else, my persistent failure not only makes me aware of my own complete impotence in following Christ as I would wish, but also that, thank God, He has overcome all my failings in His one great act of love and redemption on the cross. “So the good act of one man brings everyone life and makes them justified”. After years of imperfect Lenten observance, I like the modest but realistic sentiment of today’s collect: ‘Grant, Almighty God, through the yearly observances of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects’.
Lent is a period of preparation for Easter. (See Blessing over Ashes)
The preparation has two principle components:
The first readings of Sundays in Lent, especially in Year A, nourish the faithful by providing a sequential account of salvation history: from creation and fall, through Abram, Moses, David, to the promise of an end to exile. The second readings meditate on the reality of sin and death, and of Jesus as the anointed one who dies and rises as a remedy for them. The psalms alternate themes of penitence and hope.
In all three cycles, the first two Sundays are always the Temptation of Jesus in the desert and the Transfiguration. However, in Year A, the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays are given over to the long accounts of the Woman at the Well, the Cure of a Man Born Blind, and the Raising of Lazarus. From ancient times, these gospels have been chosen specifically for the preparation of the Elect. They are gospels of coming to faith in the incarnate and risen Lord Jesus, the Son of God. The Scrutinies, Prayers of Exorcisms, and General Intercessions may, and the Prefaces of these Sundays do, directly reference these gospel readings.
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
