In today's Gospel we read about Jesus' 40 days in the desert and the 40 days of Jesus in the desert serve as a pattern for our Christian Lent. The fact that Christians observe lent for 40 days is because of the 40 days which Jesus spent fasting and resisting temptation in the desert, so Jesus can serve as our model.
Now one of the questions that people sometimes ask me when they read this story in the Gospels, they say, "Father, do you really think that Jesus confronted the devil and the devil really did these things? Are you sure it wasn't just like in his imagination, or it was just made up by the evangelists?" And I'll often ask them well why do you think that? And they'll say, "In one Gospels, St. Matthew's Gospel the temptations are in one order, and the other Gospel, St. Luke's gospel, they are in another order."
