On this first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel reminds us of the origin of Lent in the life of Jesus. Jesus went into the desert and prayed and fasted for forty days before setting out on his public life and his work of preaching the Gospel. So we are encouraged by the tradition of the Church to live the forty days before Easter with special attention to our spiritual lives. In this way we prepare to renew our Baptismal vows and to commit ourselves once again to Jesus, to his person and to his enterprise of the Kingdom of God.

While Matthew and Luke have dramatic stories of the Temptations of Jesus in the desert, Mark only gives the very simple account which we read today. Yet the simplicity should not prevent us from seeing Mark's theological insight. "Jesus was with the wild beasts" - just as Adam was before the creation of Eve. Mark is telling us what St Paul directly teaches several times in his letters: Jesus is the New Adam. Therefore in Jesus, God will restore Adam, and so the whole human race, to that harmonious relationship which he had with God in the beginning.