Why would anyone go
out to the desert? I suppose it sounds
pretty good as the thermometer drops down beyond the single digits we have been
enjoying, and goes into the minuses; and the wind blows snow and stinging salt
into your face. My sister has lived in
Tucson for some years and assures me that it is much warmer there. But that is not the kind of desert to which Jesus
goes this week.
The First Sunday in
Lent always brings the Gospel describing Jesus’ spending forty days in the
desert fasting and praying. The three
evangelists differ in what details they choose to include; this year, Mark
mentions the Spirit driving Jesus out, and Satan tempting Him there, but nothing
more about what the temptations were. It
is clear that Jesus is not at some Arizona spa getting away from the winter
weather.
This obviously has
something to do with our own practice of Lent, but what is it? It seems like a historical precedent, and so
it is. Everything that Jesus did is an
example to us. The period of forty days,
the prayer and fasting, all these elements of our Lent have a basis in the life
of Jesus.
Jesus went out into
the desert alone, and so it can seem that solitude is the distinguishing
characteristic of this time of penance. However,
Jesus went out in the desert not so that he could get away from us, but so that he could be with us.
Solidarity, not
solitude, is a powerful part of what we do in these days. When the Eternal Word took flesh of the
Virgin and became man, He willingly joined us in our remote exile from the
delightful intimacy with God for which we are created, and for which we
yearn. That willingness to leave behind
what He enjoyed is the basis of His saving mission. When He goes willingly into even more distant
exile in the desert, He does more than simply show us what to do.
Jesus had no sins for
which He needed to repent, no bad habits He needed to break, and no excesses He
needed to curb. But even as He sets His
face toward Jerusalem and Calvary, He invites us to go with Him, and go with
Him all the way – even through the Resurrection and Ascension into heaven.
When we set out into
the desert of Lent, willingly taking up penances, we are not trying to repair
ourselves by imitating Jesus so much as we are joining Jesus in what He does
for us. The Church calls us to penance,
and the Church unites Christians around the word into one body, following one
path. The Church is the Body of Christ,
and the path is first into the desert, and then, eventually, to the Father.
We do what the Church
does; and what the Church does, is what Christ does. What Jesus Christ does is more than repair
our vices; He redeems all mankind. Our little
Lenten actions unite us into Him and His saving action.
Christ Jesus sought
out the solitude and suffering we all endure in order to be in solidarity with
us. We join Him in that selfless act, to
whatever degree our Lenten practice provides, to be in solidarity with Him. The Church, by setting the time and the
discipline, unites us all into Him: we are the Body of Christ, fasting and
praying. For us men and for our salvation is the reason He, and we, go into the
desert.
Monsignor
Smith
