The temptations of Jesus in the desert is always our Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent. The tempter says to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread” (Mt 4:3).

Jesus goes back to that garden of Adam and Eve, which is now a desert because of sin, and he relives their temptation. If you are sons of God, the serpent whispered to Eve, stretch out your hands and eat the fruit. Make yourselves into gods. Decide for yourselves what is good and what is evil.

The answer of Christ is to quote from Deuteronomy: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4; Dt 8:3). Which voice am I listening to? The voice of the tempter, the serpent, our ancient foe? Or the voice of God?

Pope Leo, in his Wednesday audiences, has been giving catechesis on Dei Verbum, the document from Vatican II about the Word of God. He says that the Word, the dialogue of speaking and listening, is love. God speaks to us because he loves us, he wants to be in relation with us.

“The first attitude to cultivate is listening, so that the divine Word may penetrate our minds and our hearts; at the same time, we are required to speak with God, not to communicate to him what He already knows, but to reveal ourselves to ourselves.

Hence the need for prayer, in which we are called to live and to cultivate friendship with the Lord… Time dedicated to prayer, meditation and reflection cannot be lacking in the Christian’s day and week. Only when we speak with God can we also speak about Him.

Our experience tells us that friendships can come to an end through a dramatic gesture of rupture, or because of a series of daily acts of neglect that erode the relationship until it is lost. If Jesus calls us to be friends, let us not leave this call unheeded. Let us welcome it, let us take care of this relationship, and we will discover that friendship with God is our salvation” (Leo XIV, Wednesday, 14 January 2026).