A Reflection on the Readings for the First Sunday of Advent, March 5, 2025
Reading 1: Dt 26:4-10
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
Reading 2: Rom 10:8-13
Gospel: Lk 4:1-13
When we read the scriptures, we tend to assume that what we are reading is a contemporary account of the events described, that what we read was written down about the time the events occurred and, therefore, we have a pretty accurate account of the events described. Such is not the case, and the Book of Deuteronomy is a prime example of the authorship of the book coming hundreds of years after the events described. In fact, there is no credible way of dating Moses’s life or the Exodus as described in the Bible, but some believe that a good estimate is that of the 16th century B.C. Scholars believe that the Book of Deuteronomy was written not during the time of Moses but toward the end of Israel’s history as an independent nation. That would place the authorship of this book in the 7th century B.C., between the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. and the fall of Judah to the Babylonians in 586 B.C.
When the nation became divided after the death of Solomon about 930 B.C., the northern kingdom retained the name Israel, and the southern became known as Judah. Israel fell away from their covenantal relationship with God and took up the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites, with the prophets Elijah and Elisha fighting hard against those practices (see 1st and 2nd Kings). When the nation fell to the Assyrians, it was seen as God’s punishment for those sins. Scholars believe that during the fall of Israel, or shortly before, a Levitical priest in Israel began to write down what he believed to be the Law Moses proclaimed during the Exodus. When Assyria overthrew Israel, many of the Israelites escaped and took “The Book of the Law” with them into Judah to be discovered by King Josiah of Judah in 622. Josiah believed what he found was the actual Law, as Moses wrote, which prompted Josiah to institute religious reforms in Judah in accordance with that Law. Scholars believe that this “Book of the Law,” discovered by Josiah in Judah but probably written by a Levitical priest of Israel, is the basis of the Book of Deuteronomy and that the Book of Deuteronomy was subsequently written around this “Law” sometime in the 7th century B.C.
Deuteronomy, therefore, became the standard by which the nation’s history was to be judged, a history related to us in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings as Deuteronomistic History (DH). Deuteronomy essentially asks the question: Was the nation faithful to God according to the Law, or was it not? DH tells us the nation was not, and Assyria and Babylon were the instruments of God’s punishment.
Our first reading is an example of the Mosaic Law, which commanded thanksgiving for the harvest by tithing the produce of the land. This tithe was to be given for the sustenance of the Levitical priests, as the Levites had no land of their own and were to be maintained by their brother tribes. It is an example of sacrifice in thanksgiving to God for his many blessings, an example we are to carry forward in our lives, particularly in the season of Lent. Notice also how the people are commanded to remember what God had done for them by recalling how their fathers had been slaves in Egypt, but when they cried to God for deliverance, God responded to their cries and saved the people from that bondage. We should see that as an example of our own deliverance from the bondage of sin, for which we should be ever mindful and grateful, especially in the season of Lent.
In our gospel passage from Luke, we are told that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil over a period of 40 days of fasting and prayer, from which we derive our 40-day Lenten tradition of fasting and prayer. “40 days” signifies a time of purification, not necessarily a specific number of days. Jesus’ 40 days in the desert recall the 40 years in the wilderness of the Exodus.
We are told the devil tempted Jesus three times, and each time Jesus rejected the temptation. This reading is not just a story about Jesus’ superhuman strength against temptation; it is an example of how we are to face the temptations in our lives. Jesus was hungry after fasting and was tempted to use his power to satisfy that hunger; do we believe that, if we trust, God will take care of our material needs? The devil proved himself to be a liar when he claimed he had the authority to hand over the kingdoms of the earth to Jesus if Jesus would worship the devil; do we worship God because we believe that God alone has dominion over all of creation, or are we tempted by the devils promises of wealth or prestige? And are we unwilling to put God to the test as Jesus was by bargaining with God to answer our prayers?
Our gospel this week should remind us that we are totally dependent upon God, even for our next breath. Anything that leads us to reject that dependency is a temptation from the devil. After the temptations, we are told that the devil left Jesus “for a time,” indicating that temptation would continue in the future. Jesus’ final rebuke of the devil was his sacrifice on the cross, but man is in a lifelong struggle against temptation, and it is only by the grace of God that we have the strength to carry on the fight. The Book of Genesis tells us that life was easy before sin. Still, now we have to earn our way back into that Garden of Eden (Heaven), and overcoming temptation to sin is our way of showing our devotion to God and our rejection of the devil’s temptations. Lent is a time to reflect on what God has done for us to sacrifice some of our own pleasures and to make a course correction in our lives.
Artwork reference: ©LPi
