Episode Details

In this First Sunday of Lent episode of Building a Kingdom of Love, Msgr. John Esseff reflects on the universal story of humanity’s fall and redemption, beginning with Genesis and culminating in the Gospel of Matthew’s account of Jesus’s temptation in the desert. He reminds listeners that every human person shares a common origin in God’s breath of life and a shared inheritance of sin, temptation, and death through Adam and Eve.

Turning to Matthew’s Gospel, Msgr. Esseff walks through the three temptations of Christ and shows how Jesus succeeds where humanity failed. By refusing bread apart from the Father’s word, rejecting the testing of God, and refusing false worship, Christ overcomes the devil, reverses the disobedience of the desert, and opens the way to freedom from sin and death. Lent becomes a forty-day journey of conversion, mirroring Christ’s own path of fasting, prayer, and trust in the Father.

The episode closes with a direct invitation to renewal. Msgr. Esseff calls listeners to examine their own temptations, pray Psalm 51 with honesty, and entrust their weakness to God’s mercy. Whether preparing for baptism or renewing baptismal vows, Lent is presented as a turning back toward God, stepping out of darkness and into the light of Christ, who alone brings redemption.

Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions

1. Where do I most experience temptation in my daily life during this season of Lent?

2. How am I being invited to trust God more deeply rather than testing or doubting him?

3. What does conversion look like for me right now in prayer, fasting, and self discipline?

4. Where do I need to ask for mercy and allow forgiveness to reshape my heart?

5. How can I more intentionally renew my baptismal commitment to follow Christ this Lent?

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offense.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

My offenses truly I know them;
my sin is always before me
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done.

That you may be justified when you give sentence
and be without reproach when you judge,
O see, in guilt I