RESPONDING TO THE 2022 “TEMPTATIONS IN THE DESERT“

“The devil said to Jesus,
‘If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.’
. . . . Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and said to him,
‘All this will be yours, if you worship me.’
Then he led him to the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
‘Throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Luke 4:3-9

Here we are in 2022 and, like Jesus, we are on a “mini-retreat” into a Lenten desert, trying to discern what this year’s growth into a truer disciple of Jesus will be like for each one of us, and for us as a parish community.  We know the situation: how our homes, towns, country and world are, and how we (and God) know what they could be, with a little more effort from each of us. We, like Jesus in the desert, are pondering whether or not to step into our roles as God’s disciples, spreading the news of God’s goodness into all these locales. What will be the focus of my 2022 journey into God? What will be my ministerial contribution to establishing the kingdom and kinship of God in our really God’s world?

Deep down inside I know what the right choices are – not those effortless, quick fixes presented to Jesus by the devil. The right choices are those that require our efforts to become more ethical, more communal, more intellectual, more emotionally stable, more spiritual, . . .  more Christ-like.  They require making time for prayer, study and soul-searching for truth and justice – not theoretical, but concrete and from the heart. This requires probing into the nature of God and humanity, a willingness to see ourselves and each other as we are in the eyes of God.

I can squander my time making the things in life into the bread dough of money, in creating a material empire for myself, in being sloppy about developing my true humanness as God is encouraging me to do.  That’s my present day throwing myself from a tall building and expecting God to send His angels down to save me. Give me my freedom to do what I want, to do what pleases me or motivates me at this moment in time.

But the truth is that in every age, including that of today, we need to face our tendencies to make bad choices. If we don’t, what will happen? Sadly, more things like the horrors we are hearing in the news each day.

As we come to Mass this weekend, let’s do so after pondering this:  What are the temptations facing me in my 2022 retreat into the Lenten desert?  What is my 2022 life going to be like? What is my 2022 journey into God and my 2022 ministerial contribution to establishing the kingdom and kinship of God in our (really God’s) world going to be?

Sister Loretta