My brother drew three perpendicular vertical lines on a sheet of paper. Then, he said, "Using no more than 6 additional lines make 10."
We were at the end of a conversation about brainteasers, Eric's favorite being the Green Door puzzle. So, I knew I had to think hard and as is often the case with puzzles, I had to think outside the box. (A worn out cliché I know but it makes my point nonetheless.) So, adding four more lines I created the Roman Numeral VIIIII. While that was not the specific answer Eric was looking for it did solve the puzzle within the defined parameters.
A saying credited to Albert Einstein goes, you can't solve a problem with the same thinking that caused the problem in the first place.
It seems to me that is precisely what Jesus was asked to do in the Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent. Jesus was tempted to live his life with inside the box thinking.
During Lent I need to take time to think and see in new ways, to see life with baptismal eyes. The good news of the gospel is counterintuitive. Good News that demands I turn the other cheek and forgive those who wrong me. Good News that challenges me to be attentive to and include the outsider. And perhaps one of the most counterintuitive elements of the Good News, to save my life I must lose it. To save my life I must give it away.
On this first Sunday of Lent, I recommit myself to the invitation of today's Gospel, repent and believe in the good news. I pray for the courage to believe.
"Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant." Ps 25: cf. 10