Word of the Week

First Sunday of Lent

Forty: Tessarakonta (Gk.): meaning, “forty”. Behind this term is a Hebrew expression meaning four decades.

In the Old Testament, the number forty was synonymous with a time of testing a person’s (and nation) character (see below). In the New Testament, we read of several occasions where Christ redeems the events of past, giving them new meaning; events tied to forty days.

The Greek tessakaronta can be found twenty-two times in the New Testament. The synoptic gospels record the term only once, each case speaking to the length of Christ’s fasting in the account of his temptation. As we read of the temptation narratives in the synoptic gospels, in particular Matthew and Luke, we can appreciate the many rich themes that emerge as points of reflection to the beginning of the season of Lent. Keeping true to this bulletin’s focus on the number forty, I will focus on the significance to this length of time in Sacred Scripture and the insights it provides for us as children of God.

In general, the number forty has proven itself to be a time of great trial and testing in the narrative story of salvation history. A careful reading of the biblical text reveals the following events and the rich symbolism behind the number forty:

Of the aforementioned cases in Scripture tied to the number forty, it is Israel and its disobedience to God that shines brightest as the antithesis to what Jesus used to overcome the devil in the desert: obedience. Satan is fully aware of what befalls man if he is disobedient to God. In the temptation narratives, you have Christ’s sonship being directly tested: “If you are the son of God” (Mt.4:3, 6; Lk.4:3, 9). Satan is trying to avert Christ’s attention to an earthly/political mission of sensationalism and power opposed to his mission of his mission to suffer at the hands of the people (cf. Hahn and Minch, 22). Like Christ, we overcome our temptation to Satan by way of personal entrustment to God in penance, fasting, prayer, and a good dose of understanding Scripture in its proper context (again, note Christ’s use of interpreting Scripture verses Satan quoting Scripture).

In Sacred Scripture, we often find some of Christ’s pearls of pedagogy in the way he carries about his ministry in terms of sequence, from one episode to the next. If we carefully read Scripture, we see that the temptation narratives act as the precursor to Christ’s ministry. What are we to glean from this truth? Penance prepares us for ministry by virtue of strengthening our relationship with God. Christ, being led into the wilderness by the Spirit, teaches us that being without in material things is to be with God in spiritual insight. The temptation narrative is a loud reminder of our need to live in spiritual poverty, and in turn, be in relationship with God.

 

“It is as if Jesus were reliving Israel’s exodus, and then reliving the chaotic meanderings of history in general; the forty days of fasting embrace the drams of history, which Jesus takes into himself and bears all the way through the end.”

--Pope Benedict XVI

Primary Texts Consulted

•  Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
•  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch, Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000.

 

 

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