First reading tells the story of the people of Israel wandering in the desert for years. And how they confronted their temptations, fears, doubts, unfaithfulness to God, their journey with God to enter the Promised Land [peace, wellbeing]. They were called to make the commandments of God the guiding light for life and nation.
Gospel narrates how Jesus was tested in the desert. The devil’s Temptation was meant to destroy the relationship between Jesus and God. Hunger, disease, trials are part of life and life is a journey and it doesn’t end on earth; our destiny lies in God. Devil or satan is one who deceives. Devil pretends to own the world and he would give it to Jesus if he worships the devil. This is about changing loyalties and instead of serving God, trying to find fulfillment in things one possesses and to feed one’s greed. Devil knows that Jesus is the beloved Son of God and asking Jesus to jump from the top of the Temple is meant to test the divine protection promised to him or tempting God to intervene. Jesus says his delight is in obeying God and trusting in him. Setbacks, sickness, marital troubles often tempt people to alienate themselves from church and God. We confront our temptations with trust in God, with the word of God, and by gazing on the greater truth about life that we are called to a loving fellowship with God and others.
What the writer Don Miller says about writing a book can be said about changing our life story, and experience a deeper spiritual renewal during Lent: we have to force ourselves to visualize our new way of living, following Christ. He says ‘We have to get up off the couch and turn the TV off, we have to blow up the inner tubes and head to the river. We have to write the poem and deliver it in person. We have to pull the car off the road and hike to the top of the hill. We have to make altars’. I imagine ‘the getting off the couch and turning TV off’ as letting go our resentful, frustrated self, ‘blowing up the inner tubes’ is saying no to negative thinking that kills our joy; heading to the river is approaching God’s grace in the sacraments; ‘write a poem and deliver it in person’ is not letting anything diminish life but we want to multiply our talents; ‘pulling the car off the road and hiking to the top of the hill’ is to abandon the need to control, dominate and destroy for greed; and allowing our whole self to rest and meet God in the silence of prayer. ‘Making alters’ is our renewed and reconciled self.
Lent invites us to understand the riches hidden in Christ by which we are enriched; it means we do not need to worship false gods of politics, ideologies or feed our ego with hatred, greed, revenge, domination or abuse of nature. We embrace the attitude of Christ who said, ‘I have come to serve and call the sinners’. Our peace, stability, joy is linked to the wellbeing of people in our lives. We acknowledge that our deepest longing is for Jesus the bread of life!