Our Lenten journey from ashes to Easter has begun. Last Wednesday we heard, “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.” Dust represents the human condition: transitory and fragile. But the sign of the cross on our forehead symbolizes that Jesus Christ has redeemed our “dust.” God lives within us and we live within God.
Lent is a forty-day retreat: a time to ask again what are our most important priorities. Yes, it's a time to follow Jesus into the wilderness, not only to get our priorities straight in light of our ultimate purpose in life but also to replenish ourselves with the gifts of the Spirit (that is, wisdom to recognize what truly matters in life, intelligence to discern what's true, courage to stand up for what's right, empathy or compassion for the needy, good judgment to do right, and wonder and awe to worship the great God of this universe). Lent is a time to recall how the Hebrewss of old saw the desert: not only as an abode of wild beasts but a place where a person encountered God and where God encountered the person.
In today’s busier-than-ever world, with its many distractions and temptations, we need this retreat more than ever.
So, what are we bringing into the wilderness.
Maybe we feel a dissatisfaction. Things are OK, but we wonder: is this all there is? Maybe we're building an impressive resume, but what does it all mean in the end? Let this be the season to focus on doing the right thing. As Shakespeare wrote, “To thine own self be true.”
Maybe you’re facing new challenges and unexpected problems: making the family income stretch a little more; living with a serious illness; supporting a son or daughter through an especially difficult time. Maybe there’s a new development: a wedding, the birth of a child; an anxious first year of college.
Or maybe we're confronting the “tempter.” We have to make some tough decisions. Listen to Jesus’s response in the wilderness when He confronts the devil: God instead of material things, a God-centered instead of a self-centered life, service instead of power.
Lent is a time to look at our options, to ask who really am I, where am I going and what's my true purpose in life. It's a time to reflect on what we want our life to be and why God gave us life.
During these forty days of Lent, the Spirit leads us to rediscover the presence of God in our lives; to walk with Jesus as our companion through our wilderness; and to let his Spirit of compassion and his light of wisdom subdue the “tempter” as we strive to be the best version of ourselves.
Lent challenges us to fix our eyes on the things that truly matter, to have a change of heart, to live in a better relationship with God and one another.
The word of God today carries us back to three characters: a man, a woman and a snake. The author explains through a story or legend how evil entered the world.
In the beginning, the Book of Genesis says, God fashioned a magnificent universe and created man and woman to enjoy it. They walked with God; they had friendship with God and friendship with one another.
It's a symbolic story. There's the tree of life, as in many ancient stories. But there's another tree, the one with knowledge of good and evil, a tree symbolizing divine status.
Enter the cunning snake. It slithered through the grass and laid low the unwary. It set people against one another and against God. The man and woman wanted divine status, to be self-sufficient, so they ate the “forbidden fruit.” They lost their friendship with God, they fell from grace.
Evil intruded into their lives. And ever since, although we are intrinsically good, left to our own devices we have a tendency to choose evil over good. How else explain the appalling violence in century after century.
Since the fall from grace, human beings have cried out for God’s healing power. And then, God became one of us in Jesus of Nazareth: so we could experience God's friendship anew.
The author may be asking us whether we see God as our friend, as our walking companion as we face life and its challenges.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Rome says very simply that, just as we fell from God's grace or friendship through the first Adam, so now through the second Adam, the crucified and risen Christ, we have God's grace or friendship again.
Paul may be asking us whether we are living a godlike life, a life of virtue as a friend of God should.
In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness as the ancient Hebrews were tested centuries before. Would Jesus simply satisfy his physical hunger at the expense of his mission or purpose in life? No. His food is to do the will of his heavenly Father. Would Jesus work signs and wonders simply so people would puff up his ego? No. Jesus refuses to play superman to suit his whim. Or would Jesus seek power so that people would kowtow to him? No. Jesus refuses to worship anyone, adore anything except God alone.
Jesus will not make a god out of material goods, celebrity status or political power. No. He will only seek to do the will of his heavenly Father.
Jesus may be asking whether we are pursuing some things at the expense of what truly matters: our relationships with God and one another.
Lent reminds us that it is time to ask God for the grace to get our priorities straight. It's a time for prayer; a time to do without unnecessary things so that the needy can have necessary things; a time to reach out with a helping hand through volunteer service or charitable giving or whatever.
For hundreds of years, Lent has focused on these three disciplines: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Re-discover and re-treat yourself to these age-old disciplines again this Lent. Draw nearer to God.
