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1st Sunday of Lent, Cycle C
St. Ursula, St. Joseph, St. Isaac
Jogues, and Immaculate Heart of Mary
February 16-17, 2013
The Desert As a Life-giving
Place
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P.
Amato
The
Desert and Demons
Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus goes into the
Judean desert east of Jerusalem to face his demons.
This act at the beginning of his ministry symbolizes
the need we all have to wrestle with the dark side of our own life and to do it
in a desert like place, that is, in the silence of our hearts, without the
comforts of life to which we’re accustomed: just me and my dark side.
If Jesus, who is like us in all things, save
sin, finds it necessary to wrestle with his own dark side, shouldn’t we also need
to do the same before our life can really come together?
In the gospel, we see that the demons Jesus has
to face are the same with which we must wrestle.
1.
Stones into Bread
The first demon is the temptation to change
stones into bread. And he responds, “One
does not live on bread alone.”
Those who first heard Jesus and observed his
lifestyle realized that he was in touch with a life that went beyond the
physical and the earthly. What Jesus is saying is, “Yes, we are to live on bread, but not on bread alone.”
Thus his followers believed this and attended to
feeding hungry spirits with the food of God’s Word, as well as hungry stomachs
with bread.
Seeing all men and w omen as God’s children would take a
180-degree turn in what they valued and the choices they made.
They realized, as do we, that it’s not just
bread I need to make available to you, if you are hungry, but to put into
practice God’s Word that addresses the very structures that helped create the
lack of food in the first place.
Jesus’ plan to change social and political
structures is more difficult and it will take longer, but it will be the way to
make a difference in hunger for the world.
So, the demon we need to face within is the
temptation of doing nothing when I see you hungry or doing nothing to change
what created your hunger.
2.
Power over All
The second demon is the temptation to gain power
over every aspect of our lives.
In Jesus’ time, people were expecting a Savior
to come with great power. His response once
again presents his hearers with a different plan: “You shall worship God alone.”
It is tempting to worship power, to resort to
the solution of force to do even good things.
The problem is that this way usually leaves some death and destruction
in its path. Today we call that “collateral damage.”
We can see this in our relationship with other
nations and we can see it in our personal relationships as well. Jesus is cautioning us about power and force
and calls us to be respectful of others and seek what is good for all sides.
While not always possible, Jesus does hold this
way of acting as the way to go.
We are to stop playing the power games of win/lose
and right/wrong with each other and, rather, seek mutual well-being for
ourselves and others whenever possible.
The demon we are confronting is the temptation
not to give up power or brute force.
3.
Proving Our Greatness
The third demon is the temptation to jump off
the parapet of the temple to prove his greatness as God and Jesus responds, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the
test.”
The issue here is that often we want to make
ourselves the center of focus. We want to impress others with how much we know
or how successful we are.
We may do this by not listening to others and interrupting
so as to get things focused back on ourselves.
We need to recall that the risen Jesus did not
feel the need to appear at the front door of Caiphas’ home or Pilate’s home
with a TV crew and say, “Look at who I
really am and how wrong you were.” On
the contrary, he is simply present to his followers as a way to continue his
work.
In a similar way, we become more God-like and
feel better and better about ourselves not by calling attention to ourselves,
but by living responsibly and doing the best we can in everyday life.
The demon in this final temptation is to reject
Jesus’ example of having to prove his greatness.
Conclusion
Bread, power, greatness – the demons Jesus
confronts in the desert are the same ones we need to confront in the silence of
our own hearts, in our own deserts.
Lent invites us to go the desert within, with no
comforts or illusions, and to deal with the demons we will find lurking there.
