JESUS IS TEMPTED LIKE US!
Where did Jesus find His strength to survive the desert's harsh
conditions and the tempter's seduction?
I just read this
story recently and feel it is fitting for today's reflection:
Richard Miller was
a high-school senior of the early 1900's. He was a rebellious youth with little
respect for authority. He fell passionately in love with a neighbor girl,
Muriel McComber. Her father feared the wild ways of Richard and succeeded in
breaking up the romance. Heartbroken, Richard wandered into a saloon where he
met a woman called Belle. In the language of those days one would call her a
"flirt," a woman who played at love without any serious intentions.
Richard had too much to drink, tried to fight a salesman, and was thrown out of
the saloon. His father, a sympathetic and understanding parent, slowly helped
his son regain his balance. By a secret message Richard learned that Muriel
really loved him too. He decided to reform and wait for her.
This is the plot of
a pleasant comedy written by Eugene O'Neill in 1933. It is called "Ah
Wilderness!" The play enjoyed a wide popularity because it pictured a
truly human and common situation in everyday life. It pictured a part of the
wilderness in which we live.
Today's Gospel
tells us that Jesus went out into the desert; into the wilderness for forty
days. This is one of the reasons for the forty days of Lent. The desert was the
dwelling place of evil spirits; wild beasts that represented the evil in which
Jesus had come to conquer. Why do we read about this on the First Sunday of
Lent? What connection is there between the wilderness where Jesus lived during
the first Lent, and the wilderness you and I live in during this Lent of 2015?
We too have to face our troubled times with the threat of war, trying to take
God out of the world, loss of jobs, broken relationships, hatred, being lost,
and so on.
What motivated
Jesus to spend forty days and nights of solitude, prayer and fasting in the Judean
wilderness? This desert landscape was largely uninhabitable and was full of
danger for anyone who dared to venture in it for long. There was the danger of
the scorching heat by day and the extreme cold at night; danger from wild
animals and scorpions; deprivation of food and scarcity of water. For the
Chosen People of Israel the desert was a place of testing, encounter, and
renewal. When the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt they wandered
forty years in the wilderness. This was seen as a time of purification and
preparation for entry into the Promised Land. Moses went to the Mountain of the
Lord at Sinai and stayed there for forty days and forty nights. Elijah, the
Prophet, spent forty days journeying there.
Matthew, Mark, and
Luke tell us in their Gospel accounts that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to
spend forty days and nights in prayer and fasting in a lonely place. Mark
states it most emphatically, "The Spirit immediately drove Him out into
the wilderness" (Mk. 1:12). Why was Jesus compelled to seek solitude for
such a lengthy period? Was it simply a test to prepare Him for ministry? In a
similar way, God tested His servants to see if they were fit to be used by Him.
God tested Abraham to prove his faith. The Israelites were sorely tested in
Egypt before God delivered them from their enemies. Jesus was no exception to
this testing. Despite His weakened condition, due to fatigue and lack of food,
Jesus steadfastly rejected Satan's subtle and not so subtle temptations. Where
did Jesus find His strength to survive the desert's harsh conditions and the
tempter's seduction? He fed on His Father's Word and found strength in doing
His will.
Jesus was tempted
like us and He overcame sin not by His own human strength but by the grace and
strength given Him by God. He had to renounce His will for the will of His
Father. He succeeded because He wanted to please the Father and Jesus trusted
that He would give Him the strength to overcome all obstacles. A true obedience
to God's will and willingness to embrace the cross reversed the curse of Adam's
disobedience. Jesus' victory over sin and death won for us not only pardon for
our sins but adoption as sons and daughters of God.
How can we overcome
sin and oppression? God gives us His Holy Spirit as our Guide and Consoler to
strengthen us during times of temptation and testing. God wants us to
"fight the good fight of faith," (cf. 1Tim. 6:12) whichcomes from His
grace.
In today's
Responsorial Psalm we acclaim, "Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to
those who keep Your covenant" (Ps. 25:10). Your ways teach us and guide
us.
You are God, my
Savior!