We’ve begun our Lenten journey through the desert. Today’s reflection explores the wisdom that scripture offers to sustain us as we walk together towards Christ and the Resurrection.

March 16, 2025: First Sunday of Lent, Year C
Deuteronomy 26:4–10
Psalm 91:1–2, 10–15
Romans 10:8–13
Luke 4:1–13

Journeying Together: A Desert Survival Guide

A reflection by Carter Fahey

Lent is a season of penitence. For many, the word “penitent” conjures images of guilt-ridden congregants beating their breasts and kneeling for hours before an unforgiving God. It’s a word that seems to imply an inability to move forward.

As Catholics, we recognize that this is not what penitence should look like. Penitence is, instead, a recognition of God’s love and mercy, and a way to grow closer to the Divine. It is an opportunity to alter our path and find our way when we have gotten turned around, to recenter our sights on our ultimate end. It is a journey.

This is the penitent attitude we adopt as we enter the season of Lent together. For the next few weeks, we journey together through the wilderness, moving from the desert of purification to the promised hope and glory of the resurrected Christ. Perhaps this journey sounds a bit daunting–after all, the wilderness is an unpredictable place!

Luckily, today’s readings provide us with some advice to sustain us during our pilgrimage and indeed offer us some wisdom that can help us through any difficult period. I consider them to be a sort of desert survival guide, selected to help us make the most of our journey together.

As we enter the wilderness, we must first recognize our dependence on God, putting aside our pride and self-importance–it is God who sustains us in the desert, who hears our cries, and who protects us from the dangers and difficulties of the journey. We can rely on God’s loving protection, and put down the burden of pride. This is not a journey accomplished through our own power.

This is what the supplicant in the first reading is instructed to recall as their offering is set before God’s altar: that it was God that brought Israel out of their suffering in Egypt, God that “heard [their] cry and saw [their] affliction, [their] toil, and [their] oppression” (Deut. 26:7). It was not human handiwork, but God that “brought [them] out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying power, with signs and wonders” (26:8). Although Israel faltered and stumbled, as we are prone to do in our humanity, still God brought them through the desert to “a land flowing with milk and honey” (26:9).

We, too, will miss the mark, stumble, and wander from the path, but to simply languish in despair would be to forget the great miracle of existence: God sustains us in love, drawing us ever closer. So while we are called to recognize when we have turned away from God, we can do so confident that we will receive love and mercy, and offer our “first fruits” in thanksgiving. Perhaps this means dedicating the first moments of your day to prayer, or simply thanking God whenever you begin a task. Whatever your first fruits are, as we journey through the desert towards the hope of the Resurrection–or indeed, as we traverse any difficult path–offering these fruits reminds us that we do not have to rely only on our own efforts. We have a loving companion and guide on the way.

When the going gets tough–this is, after all, a desert–Paul provides us with further advice. First: we must continue to “confess with [our] lips that Jesus is Sovereign and believe in [our] heart that God raised Jesus from the dead” (Rom. 10:9). If we do not, our journey may seem for naught, and veer dangerously close to hopelessness. It is this profession that justifies us, and this belief which saves us; if we continue to proclaim the truths we believe, they will strengthen us on the way.

But these proclamations won’t only give us the strength and courage to journey onward as individuals; as Paul reminds us, we do not walk alone. “All have the same Creator, rich in mercy toward those who call” (Rom. 10:12). We undertake this journey together, and as we live out our faith, proclaiming the Good News, we bring hope to others who walk alongside us, and our own faith will be enriched by those around us. There is strength in numbers–building community can also build our faith!

Finally, when we inevitably encounter obstacles and temptations on the way, we must recall that Christ provides us with hope, sharing with us God’s strength. After all, even Jesus was tempted, as we read in today’s Gospel. Like Christ, we will be given the opportunity to choose our own pleasure, worldly power, or need for certainty over God’s will. These are not choices we must face alone, “for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet never sinned” (Heb. 4:15). Yes, it will be difficult, but Christ meets us in the struggle and helps us bear our burdens along the way. We can persevere to the end together, to that glorious promise which we all hope to share: life eternal.

Carter Fahey (he/him) is the Associate Editor of Breath of the Spirit and studied at Oxford. He is a convert and has an interest in doing outreach work to Catholic communities to combat misinformation and create opportunities for community among LGBTQIA+ people.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

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