Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.” (Matthew 4: 1 – 3)

Before the miracles.
Before the crowds.
Before the Sermon on the Mount.

First – the Desert.

For those of us working in Catholic schools that detail matters. The wilderness wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t punishment. It was part of formation.

Some terms feel like that. The slow grind of assessment and reporting. The pastoral conversation that lingers long after the bell. The quiet fatigue that creeps in by mid-term. And then the whisper: If you were a better teacher … If you were doing this right …

The tempter begins with the same strategy: “If you are the Son of God …” It’s an attack on identity.

But before the wilderness, there was a voice at the Jordan declaring who Jesus was – beloved. Identity came before performance.

In our classrooms across Australia – from Sydney to Perth – we can forget that. Catholic education is more than outcomes and optics. It is vocation. It is presence. It is witness.

Jesus was hungry. That detail makes him real. We, too, know professional and spiritual hunger. The temptation is to turn stones into bread – to fix, to shortcut, to prove ourselves.

Instead, this Gospel invites us to stand firm in who we are.

Beloved.
Called.
Sent.

Even in the desert in Term One.