Fr. Dawid Kwiatowski, St. Anne Catholic Church

As Lent begins, we are invited to step into the desert — not just as a symbol, but as a real spiritual place where our faith is tested and deepened.

It is a place where, like the Israelites long ago and Jesus Himself, we face trials that ask us who we really are and whom we truly serve.

The Scriptures for this First Sunday of Lent bring us to two deserts. First, we see the Israelites, newly freed from slavery in Egypt, wandering in the wilderness. God had rescued them with mighty signs, but when hunger and thirst came, they doubted. They cried out, “Did God bring us here to die?” They longed to return to the very slavery they had begged God to deliver them from.

And then we see Jesus, led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, where He faced temptation after temptation.

But unlike the Israelites, He stood firm.

Both stories speak to us because we, too, walk through deserts in life — times when God feels distant, when we feel empty or tempted, when faith no longer feels easy.

Today, many people, especially the young, are leaving the Church, searching for something to fill the emptiness inside. Maybe part of the reason is that we have forgotten how to walk through the desert with God. We have been taught that faith should always feel good, always be comforting — but the desert teaches us that faith is often about trusting God even when we feel alone.

One of the first temptations Jesus faced in the desert is the temptation to turn stones into bread. It’s the temptation to think that if God really loved us, He would fill our bellies and give us what we want, when we want it. But Jesus responds, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

How much this speaks to us today! We live in a world obsessed with food, diets, and health — and yet still starving for meaning. Whether it’s the newest fad diet, extreme health regimens, or the constant chase for the perfect body, food and health have become, for many, a kind of false religion. Jesus reminds us that while food is important, it cannot give us life in the deepest sense. Only God can.

The next temptation is more dangerous — Satan offers Jesus all the power and glory of the world if only He will bow down. It’s the temptation to worship anything but God in exchange for success and comfort. Our modern world is full of false gods: money, power, nation, ideology, and even ourselves. We put them at the center of our lives, hoping they will save us. But as history has shown, when we worship these idols — whether human-centered philosophies or political ideologies — they lead not to freedom, but to disaster.

Jesus’ answer is clear: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve.”

Finally, Satan tempts Jesus to throw Himself off the Temple to prove He is God — to demand a miracle as proof of love. Don’t we often do the same?

“God, if you love me, fix this problem. Heal me.

Make me happy. Prove You’re real.” But Jesus refuses, because real love doesn’t need to be proven through stunts. Real love is shown in faithfulness, even when the feelings are gone, even when the answers don’t come.

Many of the saints speak of the “spiritual desert” — times when God seems absent, prayer feels dry, and life feels heavy.

But these are not punishments. They are invitations to deeper trust. Like a mother weaning her child off milk so they can grow, God invites us to a mature faith that relies not on feelings but on love.

So when prayer feels empty, pray anyway.

When Mass feels dry, come anyway. When you feel abandoned, trust that God is still near.

In the desert, God gave Israel manna to survive.

But to us, He gives something greater — Himself in the Eucharist. When we are tempted to seek comfort in things that can never satisfy, Christ Himself comes to feed us.

When we bow before the tabernacle, we bow before the One who truly gives life.

Lent is a journey through this desert — but it leads to Easter. If we walk with Christ now, we will rise with Him in joy.

So let’s take this journey seriously. Let’s remember that even when life feels like a desert, God is there — shaping us, loving us, leading us to something greater.