Consider some Lenten suggestions for families. https://marfam.org.za/families-and-lent/

22 February. Sunday Lent 1A.  SEE: “Wow, we have two temptation stories today,” Fr Fidelis began his homily., “that of our first ancestors and of Jesus.   Eve gave in to the devil, ate the fruit and then she tempted Adam who also gave in. That makes them both guilty. They recognized their sinfulness, expressed symbolically in seeing their own nakedness.  Jesus was not guilty of sin because he was able to resist the devil who tempted him. Temptation comes to us all as we well know and I think you will agree with me when I ask myself too, “Can’t it be quite difficult to decide when something is temptation and something a sin?”  He paused for a bit, then added, “Jesus was tempted, but did not sin. We do.  Why not discuss this whole issue at home and think of some examples of both.”

St Francis. Quote: “All Christians agree that Jesus is divine, but we do have different views as to why God became human.  Many believe that God sent Jesus as the repairman, to correct the damage that had been caused by the original sin of humanity’s first parents, Adam and Eve. The Franciscan theologian John Duns Scotus saw the reason for God’s choosing to become man as God’s love, not human sin. The incarnation means that God becomes a human person, a baby, poor, helpless and humble.  God freely chooses to move beyond his own self-loving and to share that loving with something other, namely all of creation, especially but not exclusively humankind. Scotus recognizes that God’s love is hard to see in the misery of the abandoned Jesus on the cross, but the love glorifies the whole creational project in the Resurrection.”  From Care for Creation.”  In simpler terms, God loved, God continues to love, God wants to share that love and be part of his creation which includes suffering and overcoming death, and in all this Jesus was our model on earth.   

JUDGE, reflect and share.  Scripture:  The serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ”God knows that when you eat of the tree your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Gen 2 – 3.  At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. From Matthew 4:1-11. Pope Francis:  the creation accounts suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships; with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself.  According to the Bible these vital relationships have been broken, outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. It is significant that the harmony which St Francis experienced with all creatures was seen as a healing of that rupture. LS 66.

ACT AND PRAY. Discuss the issue of temptation and sin at home and think of some examples of both. Read, reflect, study and share on parts of Pope Leo’s Dilexi Te, and the concept of God’s love being the reason for the Incarnation. In what ways does God’s love link with our experiencing temptations in life.