THEOLOGICAL CLUE

The structure of the church year determines, in all three years of the lectionary, that this Sunday is, in part, a "pattern" Sunday; it shows that Lent is a forty-day retreat by the faithful, "patterned" after Jesus' solitary sojourn in the wilderness immediately after he had been baptized in the Jordan. As a spiritual journey, Lent is observed in public and in private, in corporate worship and in individual devotions and actions. But, in the use of the Gospel for the Day, again in all three years, Satan is defeated by Jesus once and for all and the fate of Jesus is sealed; the Evil One has to do everything he can to get rid of him and, as the end of Lent reminds us, he does - but only for parts of three years. The temptation of Jesus gives hope to all who are aware of th…