Our Time In The Desert

 

There are questions we answer with our lips, and those we answer with our lives. Lent is an important part of our journey. Each step we take has been walked at one time in the gospels. We know that this our spiritual journey begins in the desert and leads us to the cross and to a tomb and “ends” with Easter, where our journey to God begins again. In our readings for this upcoming Sunday, Luke 4:1-13 , the first Sunday in Lent, we are told that “Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”  What do these temptations or tests mean to us in our lives today? 

I have been fortunate to have travelled fairly extensively in my life, both for business and pleasure. Admittedly travelling is one of my passions, although in recent years I am more selective about my destination with regard to the risk to benefit associated with where and why I am travelling. Is the payoff worth the sacrifice? 

Over the years I have observed that there are two types of journeymen. I would categorize these as being either tourists or travelers. The tourist travels through his journey in comfort, ensuring that his experiences are familiar and safe. He makes sure that he takes “his stuff” from back home with him. There are many vendors along the way who, for a price, would be willing to accommodate the tourist’s expectations and satisfy his needs, most of which are likely superficial and soon forgotten when he returns home armed with photos, souvenirs, and pleasant memories. 

On the other hand, a traveler is one whose goal is to enjoy the journey as part of a total experience in which the destination is just a part of a continuum. He travels to open his mind and spirit up to new experiences and perhaps into the unknown in the hope that something new will learned and be revealed. 

A few years ago, we decided to take a trip to Galapagos; our goal was to experience it as up close and personal as we could, requiring that we leave our “comfort zone” and all the attachments of our lives back home. In addition to there being no cell phones, internet or TV, our accommodations were acceptable but far from luxurious. While this was a far cry from the way we usually travel, it was one of the most enjoyable trips I’ve ever taken. We were living in the journey; completely absorbed by the experience and focused on the experience and unencumbered by distractions. 

Jesus’ time in the desert reminds me of our journey as a traveler not a tourist. We left our comfort zones and worldly distractions and became on with the trip. If our desire is to recognize the presence of God in all things and in us, we may have to look for Him in unfamiliar places. Like Jesus, we place ourselves in God’s hands and listen for his promptings and his will for us.

Compassion is a Verb

 

Sometimes, Jesus’ teachings don’t seem to make practical sense. When we hear things like love your enemies and do good to them, turn the other cheek when struck, give to anyone who asks, do to others as you would have them do to you, be merciful, stop judging, forgive, and give to others, we get a bit unsettled. After all, it’s okay for God to do all of these things, but does He really want us to do them, too? Many good-hearted Christians really draw the line with some of these ideals and say, “No way!” They even remark that if someone did something hurtful to someone they loved, they would have no reservations seeking severe retribution. 

There is still this persistent thinking, even among those who consider themselves Christian, that a violent action deserves a violent response. Somehow, we continue to justify this. Yet, it is most clearly against the very grain of the Gospel. Part of our difficulty has more to do with understanding God’s love. We wrongly think that sinful or hurtful actions and evil people somehow are seen as lesser in God’s eyes. They are not. God loves the sinner as much as He does the saint. And, both of these inclinations exist in every human being, even those who consider themselves holy. 

Both the capacity for good and the disposition toward evil exist in every one of us. Viktor Frankl has this to say when reflecting on the Holocaust: “Our generation is a realistic generation because we have learned what a human being really is. When all is said and done, man is that same creature who invented the gas-chambers of Auschwitz; but he is also that being who walked upright into those chambers with the prayer ‘Shema Yisrael’ on his lips.” If we believe in God, we have to act like God. Whether we like that idea is another issue. If we don’t then perhaps, we need to reconsider our faith and whether we really believe in Jesus Christ. We are made in the image of God, not the image of ourselves. (Luke 6:39-45) The Christian must, at all costs, leave resentment and the need for retaliation behind, lose defensiveness and bring into the mind and heart the realization of who we represent in this world. (Adapted from St. Benedict Church, Holmdel, NJ, February 20, 2022.)

Love your enemies...

The teachings of Jesus and the example set by Mahatma Gandhi were the models that inspired Martin Luther King Jr.'s practice of non-violence as a means of effective protest. Just as Jesus reinterpreted the biblical laws for the audience and culture of his day, King implemented modern practice their relevance for him and his contemporary audience. For King and others, Jesus' words were not meant to be taken literally as he understood their intent, and while not all Christians have followed his example, King replaced a natural inclination to retaliate with temperance and love.

Jesus’s intent in his own words were not to abandon God's Law handed down to Moses, but rather re-interpret them in light of contemporary realities. This did not lessen the challenge of ancient biblical texts for modern society as Jesus' own life was their incarnate fulfillment made relevant by his words and his behavior. (Luke 6:27-38)

It was common practice to retaliate for harm done whether intentional and unintentional. This was supported by Old Testament readings and by the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, "an eye for an eye." But Jesus admonishes followers not to oppose the evil doer violently but resist and “turn the other cheek.” Jesus alternative strategy was intended to overcome evil with good which had a paradoxical effect in that what was perceived as weakness, humiliated and shamed those in power. Many of us old enough to remember the reaction to Dr. King’s behavior by those “in power” who violently opposed him, recall how the oppressor who embodied the love of power was overcome by the power of love.

Loving unconditionally and forgiving one's enemy are not just models for our behavior but on a broader scale, representative of the perfection of God and his divine love. As such, Jesus provides an intriguing image to capture the meaning of this quality of God and one that God's followers should strive to emulate. As a tree provides shade for all who sit below, God provides for the just and the unjust, and so we must treat others without bias whether "good" or "evil.

 

I learned the truth at seventeen

 

 How many of us were raised to think that the Beatitudes were an outline of character traits that we as Christians were called to embody? While in some ways this is true, here again we see Jesus turning everything in the world upside down.  Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are they who mourn; blessed are the meek. Really? Doesn’t this contradict those traits that usually characterize success? Jesus is saying that those who have no reason in this world for hope or joy are the ones for whom God’s Kingdom has been prepared? 

A few months ago we had an opportunity to celebrate my granddaughter's seventeenth birthday which prompted discussion of memorable birthday’s in our lives. As I listened to the reflections from others, I remember that seventeen was a year of betwixt and between; it was the best of times and worst of times. It was a care free time of adolescence in which the child in us had its way, but it also was a time of approaching “adulthood” with the world knocking and wanting answers that we were not always prepared to give. Some would say Can’t we just stay here a little while longer; do I have to be so ready to make like-altering decisions? Others could not wait to forge ahead. In both instances there is a learning curve and the care-free days of youth are turned upside down. This is a time to get serious about life, or is it. 

This introspective discussion prompted me to think about our Gospel (Luke 6:17, 20-26) and the eatitudes and how they run counter-intuitive to what we were been taught as society’s rules for successful living. Janis Ian and Jesus summed it up for me: 

To those of us who knew the pain,

Blessed are they who mourn,
Of valentines that never came,

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst,
And those whose names were never called,

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
When choosing sides for basketball,

Blessed are the meek
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free,

Blessed are you when they insult and persecute
to ugly duckling kids like me...

It isn’t all it seems At Seventeen. 

To me this is related song relates to Jesus’s ministry and the upside down world of God’s Kingdom vs our world. The laws of man and of the world have little to do with God’s. Over the past weeks we have read that man’s worldly expectations of power, wealth, fame, and happiness are not God’s. Jesus challenges our conventional wisdom that suggests that success, however we define it, or wealth or power equals happiness. He teaches that concern for losing those fleeting, superficial abstractions relate to a life of fear and competition which leads us to believe that we can only be happy by winning, and by beating someone else at the game. At seventeen we leave our childhood behind and prepare to enter the “grown up” world. At seventeen I learned the truth... It isn't all it seems, at seventeen. 

One of the reasons this upside-down approach to living appears to be so elusive is that it requires that we accept that we are vulnerable; we are human. We have to accept our basic vulnerability as humans in order to let go and embrace life as it is. Most of us find this quite difficult, if not downright impossible. It requires that we acknowledge our vulnerability—which is something most of us spend a lot of energy and effort trying to avoid. Our egos rule our self- image and take us to places that require us to want the props that support a façade that will eventually break. 

There is something about letting go of our obsession with getting what we want, and accepting what life brings us that opens up our ability to enjoy the goodness around us. This Jesus way enables us to relate to others with love and compassion. We begin looking at the world with the eyes of Jesus and live in God’s Kingdom in the here and now on earth as it is in heaven. At seventeen I learned the truth. Really?