Into the Desert

Reflection for February 22, 2026 – First Sunday of Lent

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert, where he goes to fast for 40 days and nights. Find today’s reading here.  

When we first got married, I wanted to know everything my husband was thinking, exactly when he was thinking it.

Thirteen years later, I still want to know it all. But I want to know it after he’s had a snack.

I think he still wants to know what I’m thinking, too. But he wants to know it after I’ve had 10 minutes without hearing the word, “Mommy!”

Life has taught us, you see, that it’s hard to be a good person, a nice person, a gentle person, when your body doesn’t feel good or nice or gentle. When you’re hungry. When you’re exhausted. When you’re anxious.

It’s not impossible, of course. It’s just … hard.

We’re entering a penitential season, a time in which we purposefully deprive ourselves in certain ways. During Lent, we intentionally enter into the desert of physical hunger and weakness. Why, in preparation for Easter and in an effort to spiritually purify ourselves, do we go to this place where it’s so hard to be good? Why do we go to the desert?

Because Christ has shown us that the desert is where decisions are made.

There are many reasons why the Word became flesh to accomplish God’s plan for our salvation. But I think one of the most important reasons must have been that God wanted to show us that He knows, intimately, how easily the devil exploits our physical experience of this world. We see it in today’s Gospel: Jesus, hungry and weary. Jesus, taunted and tempted.

We see him. We recognize him. We are him.

And we hear his voice, even though it trembles with fatigue: “Get away, Satan!”

Today, we enter the desert. Because the desert is where decisions are made.

©LPi