Through the Desert

 

First Sunday of Lent

Gn 9:8-15, Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 1 Pt 3:18-22, Mk 1:12-15

The Spirit Drove Christ into the Desert

St. Mark tells us that the Spirit drove Christ into the Desert to be tempted by the Devil?  Why would God do that to himself?

The Desert is a place of Death

We have in our parish this beautiful poster of the Desert - it is at either Sunrise or Sunset - it seems to be a place of quiet, solitude, and beauty. Looking at this poster - you might be thinking to yourself - “I get it.  Jesus is about to begin His public ministry, so he is going to catch some rays and relax before getting busy saving the world.”  Nothing could be further from reality.

The Source of Death is our decision to Sin

St. Mark also tells us that Christ was driven into the desert to be tempted by Satan.  That tells us a bit about the reality of the Desert - it is the place of death.  There is no water, no shelter, no protection, everything is exposed, dries out and dies.  

The Israelites went into the Desert to Die to Slavery

When the Israelites went into the Desert it was so that they could die to the life of slavery in Egypt and so begin to live life as the chosen people of God.

The Desert is a dangerous place

The Desert is where we are alone, unprotected from the wild-beasts who are all scrambling to find their next meal - which if we are unprotected could be us.  The desert is populated with poisonous things - Snakes, Scorpions and the like - not a place where we could lie down and rest…

Why then does the Church send us into the Desert of Lent?

As I said - the desert is the place of lifelessness.  It is the place of Death.  For each of us, the desert is the place in our hearts where we choose sin, we choose to kill our relationship with God - that is the desert that we are called to enter into so that we can have a holy Lent.

The Desert of Lent is where we die to the Slavery of Sin

The Church sends us out into the Desert of Lent each year so that we can die to the slavery of Sin in our lives.  She does not send us into the desert unprepared, but sends us into the desert armed with the season of grace (God’s Love), and the weapons against the enemy - Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

On Ash Wednesday this past week the parish was packed with people, wall to wall.  The parking-lot was packed - and everyone was excited to be here.  In my experience of Lent, I know that this is early days, everyone is still enthusiastic about this journey - we have yet to stumble, fall or fail at our lenten disciplines - but that too is coming.

What is Sin?  What is Temptation?

All of us are sinners, we all commit sin.  There is nothing more embarrassing than to be a committed Christian and to recognize in your life that you are addicted to sin.  Even though you make a firm resolution in confession to avoid temptation to sin and the sin itself I still find myself committing sin in my life.  

Sin is when I freely take an action that is of grave matter that is directly opposed to the will of God.  Scripture tells us that the wages of Sin is death.  It also tells us the topics that make up grave matter.  The first 3 relate to God

1.  God Alone

2.  God’s name is Holy

3.  Take time to worship God on the Sabbath.

The last 7 are how we relate to one another.

4.  Honor your Parents

5.  Do not kill

6.  Do not commit adultery

7.  Do not steal

8.  Do not lie

9.  Do not covet your neighbor's wife

10. Do not covet your neighbor's goods.

That recognition leads me to the realization that I cannot escape Sin under my own power - that I am weak and that I need help. 

Sin kills our friendship with God - Sin is the Desert

God gave us the commandments (in the desert) to help us to live a good and holy life.  Yet all of us, find ourselves from time to time where we choose to break one or more of these commandments.  In that moment we choose to make ourselves God, and say to the Lord - you don’t know what is good for me - and instead to break the commandment - which kills off our ability to recognize the love of God.

When we do that we find ourselves in the midst of a spiritual desert - a place devoid of life and without the presence of God.  We truly are exposed to the wild beasts and vulnerable to death.  What can we do?

Psalm 107 - The Desert will become a place of springs

In Psalm 107 the Lord says that he will turn the “desert into streams, thirsty ground into springs of water…”.  The desert that the psalm refers to is the place of death that we find ourselves in this Lent.  It is the desert into which Christ preceded us to do battle with temptation by the Devil.  

Christ goes into our Deserts to help us win over sin

Christ goes into the desert - into the place in my life, your life where we choose to sin, where we exclude God from our life and where we begin to die to rescue us from the wages of Sin and Death.  That is what this Lenten season is about.  The Church equips us with Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving to give us the tools of conversion - so that we can die to the slavery to Sin and rise into the newness of life.

Prayer expresses our need for help

Prayer helps us to verbalize our need for God’s help.  Prayer in which we can begin to understand the depths of God’s love for us - that we can drive out temptation to make ourselves God and instead remember that God loves us completely, deeply, profoundly, totally.

Fasting helps us subdue impulsiveness

Fasting - where we do battle with the impulsive nature of our will.  Satan often tries to get us not through our logical nature - “Hey wouldn’t it be a great idea if you forgo eternity in communion with God for an Icecream cone?  No rather it is through our impulsive nature - I want, I am compelled, I desire…  Fasting helps to strengthen ourselves against our more impulsive desires - because at its heart most habitual sin is just that - we have become so comfortable in our sin that it is a habit and we are not even thinking about it any more…

Almsgiving is an imitation of Christ

Almsgiving - reminds us that everything we have been given is a gift from God, and so therefore we should share the gifts that God has given us with those in need. Almsgiving is a powerful weapon in Lent because not only does it help us to recognize God’s gifts, but it teaches us to imitate God by imitating His generosity - in sharing the gifts that God has given us..

Christ waits to be invited into your desert

Christ wants us to know that the desert is not a place that is foreign to Him, that is devoid of Him - that he is too embarrassed to go to.  No, rather God is compelled by His love for us to enter into the Desert for our conversion.

To bring about a flood of grace

And what of these Springs of Water that God desires to release into the Desert?  The springs of Water are best symbolized by the water of Baptism - in which God’s grace gives life and light to the world - in which we are reborn from Sinners into children of God - vessels of God’s grace welling up in us and through us into the world.  

See that God saves you this Lent

When we allow Christ into our Desert he brings his grace to cure the barrenness of Sin, and to bring about a new life of grace in our midst.  With all of the saints who were great sinners, the desert becomes a place of springs because it is the place where they can clearly see God’s love for them conquering sin and death in their lives.

St. Peter says in the second reading today…

Beloved:  Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.  Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit… 

In which a few persons… were saved through water.  This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.  It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,

Repent (Change your mind) and believe in the Gospel

A clear conscience through which God’s love can permeate our lives and through our lives transform the world.  That is why the Gospel today ends in this way - Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."  Christ has gone before us - it is up to us to follow Him…

Repent and Believe in the Gospel

1st Sunday of Lent – Cycle B

1 Gn 9:8-15, Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 1 Pt 3:18-22, Gospel: Mk 1:12-15

What would Jesus Drive?
In the Gospel today we learn the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert where he remained for forty days, tempted by Satan. When I read this verse, I was struck with a profound thought that led me to some intense scripture study. The Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert? [[PAUSE]] What kind of car did they drive?

After hours of searching the scriptures, I finally found the answer to this life-altering question - What would Jesus Drive? [[PAUSE]] A Honda Accord – John 12:49 – Jesus says “I do not speak of my own accord…” Well, I knew that had to be true because the Apostles followed his example as Acts 5:12 demonstrates “all the Apostles were in one accord…” as well.

Now, I am sure that the car aficionados here with us today are brighter than I am, because later I learned that the Honda Accord was not invented until 1976, so I have to go and rethink my understanding of Sacred Scripture.

Jesus is tempted in the Desert – This Lent we ought to arm ourselves to understand the dynamics of temptation.
Let’s take a second run at this. Why did the Holy Spirit drive Christ out into the desert? – So that Christ could be tempted by the Devil. Christ is fully God, but He is also fully man, and as a man He was tempted like the rest of us.

What is the nature of Temptation?
Because it is early in Lent it is good for us to reflect on the nature of temptation so that we can learn to imitate Christ when confronted by temptation to sin.

Pope St. Gregory the Great – The path between Temptation and Sin
Temptation is the tool that Satan uses to lure us away from God. St. Gregory the Great taught about the path from temptation to sin. Gregory taught that there are three waypoints on the journey from temptation to sin. The waypoints are:

· We hear a suggestion (from the Devil)
· We think about the suggestion
· We act on the suggestion

The Temptation of Ice Cream.
If I gave up Ice Cream for Lent, then after dinner I might be thinking about desert and the suggestion might come to me that Ice Cream would be an excellent desert. The thought enters my mind, and I begin to think. My stomach hears what my mind was thinking and says – yes, and makes some yummy grumbling noises. My mind begins to fantasize about how sweet and choclatey and smooth and creamy that ice cream would be sitting in a big bowl while I eat it. I begin to see how good Ice Cream is until I sit down with the mega-jumbo bucket of ice cream and start shoveling it in. I have fallen to the temptation to eat Ice cream and before I know it I have eaten five pounds of the stuff.

Temptation to sin
For most of us temptation to Ice Cream is not the problem, it is the temptation to something else, Pornography, abuse of Alcohol or Drugs, Stealing, Violence. I use Ice Cream as an example, but we can all see that we follow the same through process with whatever our temptation to sin is.

4 Defenses against sin.
Knowing the steps from temptation to sin can help us to recognize where we are along that path and to avoid the sin that leads us away from God. Taking St. Gregory’s waypoints we can now think about some defenses that might be useful this Lent.

Defense 1 - Avoid the suggestion
For some sins, yes, or at least we can reduce the amount of suggestion that we suffer from. First, we can pray and ask for the grace and strength to avoid the suggestion. Some sins are more easily triggered by sight. Pornography, for example. If we know that we are tempted by pornography, then get rid of the things in our lives that bring that suggestion to us, our computers, or books or movies or magazines. If we aren’t exposed to them, then they are less likely to tempt us.

Defense 2 - Thinking about the greater good
When we are confronted with a suggestion, we begin to think about it because we need to make a choice. Most suggestions from the Devil try to make us choose between two lesser goods without acknowledging that there is a greater good that we should see clearly. This is part of the reason why Lent is a season of penance. Lent is penitential to help us to see the big picture – that God loves us and that God wants the best for us. Often times the devil wants us to choose between a lesser good and nothing. This was the case with Eve in the Garden of Eden – “Eve” he said “do you want the knowledge of Good and Evil or do you want to be ignorant?” Eve failed to think about the consequence of eating the fruit. She didn’t realize that she would lose her relationship with God which was far better than the knowledge of good and evil. Eve failed to see the big picture; she chose the lesser good and so fell into sin.

The temptation of Alcohol
If my temptation is the abuse of alcohol and when I drink I drink myself into a stupor then I may be avoiding some pain or difficulty. The temptation presents itself to me in the form of – “Do you want to feel good or not”. Rather than “Do you want to be free of this pain (seek Christ’s healing) or suffer from the effects of Alcoholism – heart disease, sirosis of the liver”? When we face Temptation we often miss the big picture. Let us not be fooled!

Defense – 3 – Act – choose the greater good.
The third waypoint that St. Gregory spoke of is that of what we choose to do, how we choose to act. Temptation turns into sin based on what we choose to do. It is in acting that we sin, or avoid sin. For most of us, when we only consider the two choices that the devil tempts us with, we choose the better of the two. It is an illusion; he distracts us from the bigger picture

This Lent is an opportunity for us to choose the greater good, and to act in a way to free us from our sin. St. Peter reminds us in the second reading that our Baptism was not to “clean the dirt from our body”, but that it is “an appeal to God for a clear conscience”. This means that God gives us the grace in our Baptism to see the big picture and to act in a way that leads us into the embrace of God’s love.

Defense 4 - Trapped on the path from Temptation to Sin?
Many of us here today are trapped on the path from Temptation to Sin. All of our defenses have failed, and we find ourselves mired in sin and stuck. Fortunately, there is a defense even when we are trapped in sin – forgiveness. If we are trapped and we want to escape then it is easy, ask for God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation.

The Light is on for you – A new way
The Church is here to help us on our journey this Lent by offering us the sacrament of reconciliation. This is where we experience the healing forgiveness of God’s love at work in our lives. This Lent the Church has a special program to help us to deal with Temptation. It is called “The Light is on for You”. This Wednesday, you can go to any Catholic Church in the Archdiocese from 4:30 to 7:00 PM and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we go to confession we receive grace from Christ, healing for the wounds that we have suffered while trapped on the path from Temptation to Sin and grace to choose a new way in our lives, to grow in holiness.

Jesus did not fall for either lesser good
Jesus was tempted in the desert, but he never fell into the Devil’s trap. He always had the big picture of God’s love for us in mind and so he was able to act in a way that was consistent with God’s will. He did not fall for the two lesser choices, but rather chose to take the third option – he chose the Kingdom of God. He chose to see the love that God has for us, and then to live out that love in His life and ministry.

After the desert we are free to do the work of God
When Christ finished his time of temptation in the desert he left there and began his mission, to proclaim the Good News of God. He went to Galilee and proclaimed “that the kingdom of God is at hand”.

The ministry of Jesus was to tell us about the third choice that the Devil does not want us to see. In order to see it, we need to change how we act, this is the meaning of the word “Repent” – to change our ways, to choose to act in a new way. Don’t take the choices that Satan offers you when he suggests something to you, choose the kingdom of God, that is what it means to believe in the Gospel.