March 6, 2022: First Sunday of Lent Deuteronomy 26:4-10 Psalm 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15 Romans 10:8-13 Luke 4:1-13 Making contact with our own felt goodness A reflection by David Jackson The Gospel presents us with the devil tempting Jesus. It seems the temptations hinge on the words, “If you are the Son of God." This is exactly what the devil is challenging. Not only who Jesus is, but can Jesus prove it? Will Jesus use the power of Love to satisfy his ego and vanquish a challenger? That is, will Jesus betray the Love he has been given? All that Luke conveys about Jesus in the rest of his Gospel depends on Jesus' passing this test with honor. As we begin Lent, this passage takes us back to the end of Jesus' forty days. We begin our forty days, Jesus ends his. One may wonder if these temptations were real? Were they literal or symbolic? Surely the comparisons with Israel’s years in the desert are not coincidental: forty days, forty years; desert for the Jews, desert for Jesus. The challenge to turn stone into bread reminds us of miraculous manna to feed the wanderers. The desert people denied God to follow a golden calf. Jesus is challenged to tempt God. Jesus remains faithful. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Jews were unfaithful. We are unfaithful when we are living out of our false selves, when we stop short of trusting the Love that we are. During Jesus' public life people tempted him to multiply loaves. People wanted to make him an earthly king. People called for spectacular signs to attract more crowds. Jesus didn't give in to any of these temptations. Jesus stayed true to the mission God had given. In the Ash Wednesday readings, we hear, "Come back to me with all your heart." My call to conversion this year is framed in the words of Fr. Virgil Elizondo, “a discovery of the goodness within us that we have not yet activated." Many years ago, I thought of Lent as returning to the loving embrace of God. I used another expression then, "to be hugged by God." When we get a good hug, we are affirmed in our goodness. Some years back a diocesan priest psychologist and a Medical Mission Sister psychiatrist set up a program for clergy and religious called The House of Affirmation. At this facility, programs were offered to assist in "making contact with one’s own felt goodness.” Lent, and any time of conversion, is an opportunity to “make contact with our own goodness," but before we can feel that goodness we need to connect with our own self-defeating behaviors. This Lent, can we allow God to hug us? Can we make space for the loving heart of Jesus speak to our hearts? Pope Francis has repeated again and again that God never tires of showering us with mercy. We may tire of asking for mercy but Love never tires of offering it. Once we receive this mercy, we are called to be more merciful in our actions. God wants us to feel our own felt goodness so that we can help other people feels theirs. When we encounter the holy, we become more aware of the unholy in us. Several Sundays ago, we heard the scriptures giving us three examples of people getting in contact with the holy and then becoming aware of their own unholiness: Isaiah, Paul, and Simon. Perhaps this Lent we can come closer to Jesus, accept that mercy, and discover goodness in ourselves that we have not yet activated. Once this goodness is discovered, then we are called to action, to activate the goodness we now realize we have, to shower those around us with this newfound goodness. Having said this, there is nothing magical about Lent. Lent doesn't work unless we do. Perhaps that’s why Luke and Matthew list three temptations that the historical Jesus faced before he began preaching. Jesus is not planning to become a cloistered monk or a detached philosopher. He’s determined to proclaim God’s word in the real world. That means confronting the pitfalls of a real world. In this situation, Jesus has to avoid addressing only people’s physical needs, avoid selling out to the forces of evil, avoid doing only what gets him noticed. Jesus commits to fight against these three real world temptations for the duration of his ministry. Jesus is determined to relate to others on the deepest levels possible, to be guided by God’s plan for creation, and to do what is necessary for God’s people even if it never makes the evening news. When Luke ends this passage with the comment, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time,” that time could have been just a few hours, or a few days, but we can rest assured it wasn’t long! The historical Jesus had to confront these temptations throughout his ministry. Even as we must confront our self-defeating behaviors throughout our lives. We must come in to contact with them so that we can also make contact with parts of our own goodness that have not yet been activated. We say the devil tempted Jesus three times, but more accurately he tempted Jesus three ways – and innumerable times throughout his ministry. Just as with us, we can be so tempted to choose to be less than our best, to give in to behaviors which take us away from our best selves, that we fall short of activating – and exuding – our own felt goodness! |