Dear Friends,
The first Sunday of Lent we are offered the temptation of Jesus in the desert as our gospel. It is a moment in Jesus’ life that may strike many people as odd. Why does Jesus have to go through this? Why do any of us have to go through temptations?
C.S. Lewis made this observation on resisting temptation:
Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army
by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying
down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour
later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness—they have lived a sheltered life by always
giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He
was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation
means—the only complete realist.
The reality in our lives is that the process of becoming holy is necessarily a halting affair. We cannot move forward
toward holiness without the light of God’s truth, and there are times that God’s light seems hidden and that is part of
the process. If we are to love God, then we must not only know God but also have the humility to trust God’s goodness, even in the dark.
The idea of being purged through dark or challenging times is biblical to the core. Sometimes the darkness is a result of choosing to sin. For example, Israel in both their wilderness wanderings and their Babylonian exile. Other times, it is a means to deepen your reliance on God alone, such as Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness or Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” In either case, the result remains the same: God is your all-in-all, and God’s grace is sufficient for you. Yes, we cannot move forward without the gracious light of God’s truth, and the times that light is hidden are part of the process.
Too often, we view those dark nights of the soul, as a bad thing, as a hindrance or a failure. It is true that those times can be a result of sin, and we should be able to recognize those times because we know our sin. But there are other times where there is no sin that has beset us, and we do ourselves no favors by racking our brains trying to think of one. This is because purging is not a failure; it is a part of the plan.
Most spiritual journeys will not be a straight line. God is not a straight line. God is a loving Creator, and God’s movements are artful, purposeful, and loving. The time Jesus spends in the desert is surprising, but it is also a time
where his mission is focused and he emerges from the desert with a clear message to deliver and a destiny to accomplish.
That it is possible for all of us to overcome temptation is obvious from Scripture; that overcoming temptation is a divine work and not human should be equally obvious. We need to call on God and receive God’s help to discern what is good, to choose the good and to resist the temptation to take another road. Jesus gives us a clear example today by referring to scripture when tempted. He uses the wisdom of God to resist what may have seemed good at the time – food, power, safety.
May Lent be a time for us to focus on God’s goodness even in a time of darkness and temptation. When all about you are feeling despair, may you be a source of strength because your trust is in God alone.
Peace,
Fr. Damian