"He ate nothing . . . and the devil said to him . . ."
Luke 4: 1-13
The Word for Sunday: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/031019.cfm
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.
Yet, we still mark ourselves with ashes as we begin this annual
season of penitence and conversion. We
probably hear more about the reality of sin this time of year than others
generally. The opening prayer on Ash
Wednesday reminded us of what we face in our spiritual lives as
we heard: “. . . as we take up battle
against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint . . .”
While
that phrase may cause some discomfort due to its somewhat militaristic imagery,
if we want to seriously follow the Lord more deeply at this time, we do have to
recognize that sin and evil are a force to be confronted and that we need to
“arm” ourselves with some defense. The season of Lent is a graced time to enter a desert, a place of simplicity and basic needs, and confront
where we find sin in our lives.
So, 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 in the coming of Christ, God fully took on our broken human
nature to embrace the human experience totally, except for sin but not immune
from temptation, in order to redeem human nature.
So, after 40 days Luke makes
the understated point that Jesus was “hungry.” While that may sound obvious, it
seems he may be telling us that Jesus was in a very vulnerable and physically
weak position. And 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.
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.
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,
one God for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
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