Today I am over on the Central and Southern Jesuit Province website reflecting on today’s Gospel, Henri Nouwen, and freedom.
For each Sunday during Lent, I’ll be providing a reflection, a prayer suggestion, and a video for that prayer reflection. Here’s an excerpt from the reflection:
“Within this particular sermon, [Nouwen] highlights today’s Gospel in which Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days. He describes how the devil tried to show Jesus that if only Jesus could demonstrate his power or if only Jesus would accept the devil’s offering of many possessions would others finally see the truth and speak well of him. Nouwen describes how the devil tried valiantly to convince him that this was the only way that he would be loved. Yet Jesus knew that these were lies and remained steadfast in the belief that it was not any of those things that defined his belovedness.
Jesus knew who he was. In fact, when Jesus was baptized, all heard the truth of who he was when “a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Mt 3: 17). This is the truth that kept Jesus going through all the contradictory experiences of praise and rejection, of celebration and agony.”
Gretchen Crowder, JesuitsCentralSouthern.org
This is what Henri Nouwen said about Jesus in today’s Gospel, but what does this mean about us?
Read the rest of the reflection here.
Then consider engaging with the video – An Examen Based on the First Principle and Foundation – that follows.
[Side note of gratitude: The wonderful watercolor artwork was created for these posts by the communications team at the Central and Southern Jesuit Province]
