Today’s readings: Deut. 26, 4-10; Romans 10, 8-13; Luke 4, 1-13.
Lent is mainly about refocussing on the reason to believe. We all have reasons not to believe but Lent is the opportune time in which the true self in each of us is explored and made to face the deepest questions that provoke our identity, particularly our identity as believers.
No one likes being tested because that necessarily entails coming face to face with weaknesses and failures we dread to acknowledge. But life itself makes us cross deserts we never dream of crossing. Richard Rohr, in his latest book, calls the true self an “immortal diamond” which calls to be sought and uncovered. Life itself becomes worthless as long as this diamond remains hidden.
Today’s first reading from Deuteronomy very significantly invites us all to recognise ourselves with Abraham our father as basically ‘wandering’ beings. ‘Wandering’ can easily characterise our lives today given that we have difficulties to identify who we are and where we stand.
We all dream different forms of liberation which, of course, are never envisaged as easily reachable. Even as believers, we know that liberation can only be achieved and is never automatically awaiting us at the end of the Lenten tunnel. Lent is only a symbolic time, and like all symbols it points ahead to meanings that are hidden, that need to be sought and brought to light.
The gospel account of the three temptations of Jesus calls for a deeper reading rather than the usual repetitive recycling. To reach out to what is deeper, we are called to acknowledge our own deserts and come to terms with whatever in daily life creates them, particularly when loneliness, desolation, and frustration take over.
The focus of the Lenten season, contrary to what many a time we are made to believe, is not our sinfulness or the need on our part to amend our ways. The focus should be God himself, the God who comes, who is creative and innovative, and whose grace in us is sustaining and healing.
We need Lent because we cannot rely on our selves. We are not the lords of our own lives. We need to put ourselves in listening mode because God’s voice in the desert of our life is gentle and soft and can very easily be missed. Yet in the harsh reality of life, it is the balm that restores fragrance.
Satan, as depicted in the gospel, tries to instill doubt in Jesus about his identity and about the Father’s project for him. Doubt very often drains all energy in us and kills all enthusiasm, it undermines our inner stability and is corrosive of our deep convictions. Doubt slows us down and weakens our determination.
This does not happen to Jesus who offers the remedy to the malady, whose immediate reaction dispels the power of the tempter and of temptation alike. Jesus in his temptations is only our representative.
What happens in him can happen in us in very similar ways. Jesus is actually proclaiming that God’s Word is stronger than Satan, reminding us at the same time how natural it can be for us to belong to the kingdom of Satan, who promises heaven on earth.
Very often we are blinded by a culture that gives priority to having over being, that seeks to address the basic needs but ignores the real emptiness that can never be filled with whatever we possess. It is a culture that shapes our being and existence. It is a culture that seeks to tease our basic appetites, making it more and more difficult for us to cross our deserts the way Jesus did.
The credo of the Western mind today seems to be shaped by the tenet: “I consume, therefore I am!” We’ve been transformed first and foremost into consumers. That is the identity we are mostly known by. The response of Jesus to Satan’s temptations sounds too risky to a generation which is finding it so difficult to turn its back on that culture.
Lent can arouse in us yet again the true search for the authentic self in us. But that is a spiritual endeavour and it can only occur in the lands of the Spirit. We cannot have divided loyalties.