Lenten Bible Study
using the readings from Sunday Mass
For RCIA/OCIA and Liturgical Cycle Year A (2005, 2008)
First Sunday of Lent
Read:
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Psalm 51:3-6, 12-13, 17
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
How do you deal with temptation? That's the personal challenge given to us by the Word of God on the first Sunday of Lent. And so we begin our journey with Jesus to the holiest place we can reach at this point in our lives. This Lent is like no other Lent. Last year, you had different needs, different areas of growth, different levels of insight and understanding. Much has happened since then, all of it a preparation for what the Lord is going to do in your life now.
What victory do you need this year? What needs to be resurrected? To get there, the path will lead through the cross, into the tomb, and out where God's light and love provide healing and new life.
During Lent - or whenever we make sacrifices and connect our sufferings to the Passion of Christ - we journey with Jesus, intimately, all they way to the cross and resurrection. Being intimate with Jesus requires embracing our own crosses. And it always leads to new life.
If we want Easter this year to be more than just a holiday of pretty eggs, chocolate bunnies and big dinners, we have to make Lent more than just 40 days of enduring an annoying sacrifice, eating meatless pizza on Fridays, and going to an occasional extra event at church. If we want to experience the power of resurrection, we have to experience the power of mourning and repenting from our sinfulness. In other words, we have to experience the powerlessness of death - the death of our selfishness, the death of our worldliness, the death of our behaviors that are not Christ-like.
Questions for Reflection and Faith Sharing
1. In the story from Genesis, what did Adam and Eve need to die to (let go of, put aside, reject) in order to resist the Original Sin? Why didn't they?
2. In the reading from Romans, we read about the abundant grace and the gift of justification that Jesus provided to each of us by dying on the cross. How does this grace and justification give us life? In other words, how does God help us resist sin?
3. Looking at the Gospel passage, what did Jesus have to die to in the desert so that He could say no to temptation?
Question for Moving Forward on the Journey:
Name one thing you can do this week to die to self. How does that make it easier to resist sin? For example, think of good deed you can do that's the opposite of what your selfishness wants you to do.
© 2005 by Terry A. Modica
You may print this for your own personal use.
For group use, please order it from Catholic Digital Resources™.
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