In today’s Gospel Story (Matthew 4:1-11) Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted. The majority report sees this Story as telling us about Jesus beginning his public ministry. It reflects how the communities that gave rise to it remembered what they had heard about Jesus. He went through this experience alone. He had not yet started his public ministry so he had not yet chosen any disciples. There is a saying in scriptural theology that all of the stories in the bible are true, and some of them even happened. The Gospels are not history. They are theology. They reflect what the early christian communities believed about Jesus.
As usual, the minority report can have a vastly different understanding of it all as the Story speaks to us in the nitty gritty of our everyday living. Among other things, the Story invites us to be aware of both the Spirit and the “Devil” in our own lives. While we do not believe in a devil looking monster with horns and a pitchfork tail, we certainly recognize the reality of evil. In varying degrees in our own life we recognize that temptations come from inside us, from our values as we make choices. We see evil all around us, perhaps even in us. It affects us in any number of ways. Each of us may even contribute to it in our own way.
There is a connection between the Temptation Story and Jesus’ telling us in the Gospel for Ash Wednesday to go to our “inner room” and spend time with Abba, listening for what he would say to us. In other words we need time for quiet prayer. When we are open and let them, the prayers we say point us to the quiet prayer mentioned by “Be still and know that I am God”, or “Be still and know I AM”. When Moses asked God what he should tell Pharaoh is the name of the person sending him, God says, “Tell him I AM is sending you”. In other words, Yahweh is telling Moses his name is I AM. So, we might say “Be still and know I AM, be still and know me”. Not know about me, but “know me”. Quite a difference.
“One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Abba is always speaking to us in some way, Our desire to be open to Abba’s word in our life is one aspect of prayer. We spend time not asking or thanking Abba, but just listening, spending time with a true friend. The role of our prayer is not to influence God, but to change the one who prays, change me. Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts, as important as these are. It’s a way of living every day in the Presence of Abba. We can’t really ask to be in the presence of Abba in our lives because we are already in Abba’s presence by the very fact that we are alive. Nothing can change this. The tradition of Welcome Prayer, not just saying the prayer but doing my best to live it, is one way to try to be open: “I welcome everything that comes into my life today because it is of you”. This certainly has helped me over the years as it does today.
Sometimes the “every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” is telling me things I don’t want to hear, reminding me of things about myself that I would rather forget. Yet even with these words I might not like or want to hear, there are countless others that speak of loving forgiveness, acceptance, healing. They remind me that the words of love and forgiveness I have known in my own life I am asked to live with the folks I meet every day, and I cannot be selective, even though often I am. We all know this is no easy thing, and can be very demanding. And so we need the grace, the sacrament, of the present moment. As difficult as it is, I need to be alert to Abba happening in every present moment, every encounter, in ways I don.’t understand, but firmly believe.
We experience the kingdom in the individual people we meet in our lives every day. In various ways they teach me a difficult lesson: no one has to live to my expectations of them. It is on me to learn to accept people as they really are, and perhaps forgive them for not being as I want them to be. Through a lot of falling down and rising, and a lot of kicking and screaming, I’m coming to learn I do not have any right to these expectations of people. To the extent that I do this, and I really do, I am frustrating my contribution to building the kingdom, and hence doing damage to the kingdom itself. In my own way, by my choices and impulses, I am inflicting harm on others. This is not what I want to do, or who I want to be.
The well known writer Henri Nouwen says the three temptations Jesus faces in the desert with Satan are: to be Relevant – turning stones into bread, to be Spectacular – leaping off the temple, to be Powerful – bowing to Satan. What does this say to me at this stage of my journey through the desert? As I look at my life lately it is clear that I have been living his understanding of the temptations. I have been trying to be relevant, spectacular, powerful, all of which Jesus rejects in the Story. I’ve been making things all about me and how I look. Again Abba’s words are telling me things I don’t want to hear.
Father Arrupe, SJ: :Teach me your way of looking at people . . . I would like to meet you as you really are, since your image changes those with whom you come into contact . . . Teach me how to be compassionate . . . Teach me your way so that it becomes my way “ so I can get out of the self-serving rut that I so revel in. Perhaps I am fortunate to be led by the Spirit into my own desert these days. Maybe, under Her guidance, I can come to choices that reflect how She led Jesus through his desert. The desert is a journey.with the occasional oases and mirages, at times a lonely place, There’s a lotta stuff going on here. Not sure I understand it all. Just sayin . . .