Luke 4: 1-13
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030622.cfm
(In light of our present world tension in the Ukraine, eastern Europe and beyond, it seems that to care about other things may in some way diminish the grave apprehension of so many. Lent, however, may be the best time for those of us who enjoy so much of what our brothers and sisters have sacrificed, to join our own sacrifices on their behalf this Lent. We must pray, do penance and fast for their sake all the while doing what is possible that such unjust and inhumane oppression will cease.)
This past Wednesday we began Lent with our
very familiar Ash Wednesday celebration. The day is unique in our liturgical
celebrations and it goes back to the earliest centuries of the Church when
doing public penance, sitting in ashes and sackcloth outside the Church for all
to see, was reserved for the greatest sins.
Those who did public penance plead for prayers and the mercy of
passersby who would enter the Church.
Needless to say, this was not something the average Christian would want
to do as an act of public humiliation so that practice eventually was abandoned
and became the roots of private confession to a priest, not to mention that
such an open display of scandal would lead others to the sin of gossip no
doubt.
Yet, we still mark ourselves with ashes as we
begin this annual season of penitence and conversion. As it reads in the Ordo, the priest’s
sacristy manual, “The annual observance of Lent is the special season for the
ascent to the holy mountain of Easter.”
This season, imagine that you are preparing
for a mountain climb. You would prepare
all the gear from proper boots on up to face and eye protection. So, this season of “ascent” to the mountain
top where the sun of Easter Sunday shines remains a wonderful image as we begin
our Lenten climb towards the summit of the Easter season by works of penance,
prayer and charitable service to others.
However, this season of Lent is a graced time
to enter a desert and not necessarily imagine a mountain top yet in our
beginning weeks. Luke states that Jesus
was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit after his baptism in the Jordan by
John for 40 days of fasting and prayer while the Evil One was planning to
confront him. It seems a bit strange, maybe that the Holy Spirit would “lead”
Jesus into this experience but the Spirit plays a major role in the Gospel of Luke. The Holy Spirit participates in the mission
of Jesus as he carries out the will of his father.
So, after 40 days Luke makes the understated
point that Jesus was hungry, physically exhausted, vulnerable and more
influenced by basic human needs. When you’re hungry, thirsty, and exhausted,
you would eat just about anything to satisfy that basic human need and so the
dark one appears to propose his three temptations.
It reminds us that during Lent we may want to
be more aware of three sources of temptation that this Gospel reveals: the world, the flesh and the devil. While our
own broken nature remains imperfect and inherently wounded by sin we may say
our own flesh may be the cause or temptation. Not because the material world of
our body is bad or without worth but because that “flesh” is wounded by
sin. Good and beautiful but carries a
wound of sin.
I think there is an important connection here
to the three calls we heard in the Gospel on Ash Wednesday. In this season we are invited to: fast, pray,
and give alms. The discipline we adopt
during Lent can be an expression of any one or all three of these fundamental
spiritual tools but the devil began with Jesus most desperate need: hunger.
Stop you’re fasting, you’re hungry so use your power to turn these
stones to bread and satisfy yourself.
Yet, the greatest need we have is for the
life of God within us. God will satisfy
our needs and so, one does not live on bread alone, Jesus quotes from
Scripture. Such a temptation to satisfy
ourselves with temporary things as if they were an end in themselves is to go
counter to the culture around us.
Then the devil shows him all the kingdoms of
the world. He can have all this since it
has been given to Satan (lie!). Jesus would be a king but not one of earthly
power and influence. The temptation to
fame is subtle but very real as we turn material objects into near idols and
make them the center of our lives. Jesus
rebukes Satan with, “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall
you serve.”
That first commandment of the ten, to make
God alone the center of our lives in this Lent through alms giving and
re-prioritizing all we possess is at the heart of conversion. What we have is
meant to be shared or given away for the common good of all. All we have is
gift. It is not a power we grasp.
The final temptation is one of the most
subtle. Yet, prayer in our lives is to
acknowledge God to be Lord of our lives.
So, Jesus is tempted to test God.
Satan knew of Jesus’ special relationship with God so why not see if God
will indeed preserve him so, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down
from here . . . God will rescue you.
Call his bluff and let’s see just how special you are to him.
Jesus quotes, you shall not put the Lord,
your God, to the test. To presume on God is to expect him to conform to our own
wills and desires or maybe worse, to take an equal position with him, the
height of pride itself.
Our prayer, fasting and giving generously to
those in need, our works of charity, remind us that this ancient practice is
here not to restrict us but to bring richness and beauty to our lives. To make God front and center, to realize our
position before him and to find strength to fight against temptation and the
distortion this world contains. As Jesus
submitted to hunger, weakness, vulnerability he faced evil and confronted it
with goodness and the word of God; a power always greater than what the world
may bring. For God is ever faithful and true as our first reading reflects.
From Deuteronomy we hear Moses speak of God’s
constant faithfulness to his people.
Even in spite of their sin and ingratitude, God never abandoned them and
formed them as a nation of his own. In
the desert they found much that would have discouraged them and sent them
gratefully back to Egypt. But in the
desert they also found God was with them and there his mercy brought them
hope. They recognized that God shared in
their struggle and forgave their sin as Jesus in his desert embraced that same
struggle. Our walk in this desert
experience of Lent is to know that Christ stands with us in a time of testing.
He knows what the struggle entails.
These temptations of Jesus are basic to all
of us: fame, power, independence, wealth, superiority, greed, lust, abundance
all face us each day. Yet, in Lent and
beyond, the Church reminds us that through our prayer we find and know God more
deeply, through fasting and going without we make room for the meaningful
things of life, and through alms giving we recognize that it’s not all for me
but that all is gift from God and justice demands our generosity. The more we give away the more we receive in
kind.
This Lent let’s recognize that faith is
essentially a time to find God as living and real in my life. To see our faith
as a relationship of love and not primarily a listing of creeds and teachings
or rules and rubrics to be fulfilled.
As we move to the Holy Eucharist we receive
what Jesus chose for us - his very Body and Blood. The strength we find here, our prayer and
charity, is how we arm for the spiritual battle we face in the desert time of
Lent as we journey higher towards the summit of Easter.
Grant, almighty God,
through the yearly observances of holy Lent,
that we may grow in understanding
of the riches hidden in Christ
and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
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