Dear Friends,
Our Lenten liturgies are filled with powerful stories. They are stories that unveil the mystery of
our God. They are stories that reveal our deeper selves and our journey of faith. We may not always
like what they reveal, but if it tells a story of truth, then we must listen to it.
This Sunday we get the story of the temptation of Christ in the desert. What does it unveil? So,
even Christ is tempted? There is no one who can just walk through life without being tempted to do
things that are contrary to the word of God? How can we walk the ways of faith if the temptations are
as subtle as the ones that were presented to Christ – temptations to fill human desires like hunger,
temptations to solve big world problems, temptations to be safe and secure? What is wrong with those
things? Jesus’ answer – wrong god.
Lent is a time for reconciling. Before we can be reconciled with God, we need to be reconciled
with those we have hurt or who have hurt us. Why don’t we do that? Because we fall into the human
temptations to worship the wrong god – we want the gods of safety, security, fullness, human peace. If
we are to love our neighbor, if we are to be reconciled with our brothers and sisters, if we are to walk
the ways of God, then the false gods of security, safety, fullness must be abandoned. What Jesus offers
us is real truth, real peace; but it does not come easily.
For those of you who are seeking to reconcile with someone this Lent, I would like to make a
suggestion for changes that (normally) need to happen before reconciliation can take place. These
changes require some sacrifice on our part. The first change is acknowledging that the conflict is a
shared problem – often we see the person we have a conflict with as the problem. If I can acknowledge
that I am a part of the problem, then we can solve it together. Second change, stop seeing the conflict
as a battle to be won rather than a problem to be eliminated in a relationship. The only win that should
be celebrated is the restoration of the relationship. The third change is stop talking to everyone else
about the problem and talk directly to the person involved. Nice people tend to avoid confrontation, but
that does not resolve the problem. Nor is it helpful to share the problem with everyone else hoping for
affirmation of your own view. Fourth, stop projecting blame. If you hear the word “you” come out of
your mouth when you are starting a sentence, then you are probably blaming and finger pointing.
Being a reconciling person is part of being a follower of Christ. Does that mean you will not
have enemies? No. The enemies of Jesus reveal truths about him. We know more about him because
we know who his enemies are. The evil one in today’s gospel is the enemy of Jesus. The evil one does
not want Jesus to succeed. The evil one does not want us to succeed either. He will try to keep us from
being reconciled with others. Division is an important tool in his box of tools.
Jesus moves against the methods of the evil one. The scriptures depict Jesus as always moving
toward people, toward their pain and forming new relationships with them. Jesus reaches out across the
lines of hostility through his very person; people meet and are held together and form a new humanity.
God is working to bring all things together. Jesus’ mission is to heal and to reconcile us with each other
and with God.
God’s mission is our mission. The work of Jesus is our work. We need to face divisions and
restore relationships. We need to abandon the false gods and trust that Jesus will be with us as we
bravely work to be reconciled with those who are separated from us. We are to be, as Pope Francis
loves to say, bridges not walls.
Peace,
Fr. Damian