Lent: Road to Calvary AND Temptations in the Wilderness

In talking to the Bible Study group on Wednesday, I found myself in competing images when describing Lent. On the one hand, I was telling them that we were accompanying Jesus on the road to Calvary during Lent (especially as Good Friday approaches), and on the other I was telling them that it was a chance to be in the wilderness with Jesus when he was tempted by Satan. I kept on feeling it necessary to mention both, and it felt a little strange and awkward.

This morning, Metroing in to work, I found myself thinking about those images; letting myself be drawn in deeper too them and it occurred to me (probably nothing new to many) that in joining the two images together – or keeping the wilderness experience in mind as we remember Calvary – that a deeper sense of the Passion can be sensed. Let me see if I can explain better.

Though the gospels do not say that Jesus was tempted during the crucifixion, in many ways it makes sense to think there were elements of temptation during that most trying time. And it is Satan who is known as the tempter, the same Satan who was there with Jesus in the wilderness. We do not need to place Satan somehow physically there at Calvary like some modern interpretations do (cough, cough – Passion of the Christ – cough, cough), in many ways we have a far more human element: memory.

On there, on the cross, it would be easy to remember a moment of great temptation such as what happened in the wilderness. Even in some of Jesus’ words you have a potential remembrance and second answer to the temptations. The Gospel of St. John has Jesus saying, “I thirst.” Why? It would have been so easy, as the Son of God to have quenched his thirst by causing it to rain, or any number of other ways. Indeed, with someone who had learned to control his body through fasting, why would he even need to say “I thirst”? John tells us it was to fulfill prophecy, which it undoubtedly was, but it also seems to be a very good response to the first temptation in the wilderness.

In the wilderness Satan tempts Jesus to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. Jesus responds by saying that humans do not live by bread alone. Flash forward to the crucifixion. It is a very human thing to do to look back over one’s life in times of great agony, especially before death. Jesus is thirsty and the memory springs to mind of Satan making the observation that Jesus could turn stones into bread – why not make water fall from the heavens?

Instead, he humbles himself and states to his persecutors, those who were partially responsible for inflicting this agony upon him: “I thirst.” What humility and restraint are in those words if we bring them into contact with the temptations in the wilderness! Who would have faulted Jesus for making a little rain so that he might quench his thirst, but that wouldn’t be right … and so Jesus humbles himself to say “I thirst.”

The next temptation Satan offers in the wilderness, according to St. Luke, is when Satan takes Jesus to a high mountain and offers him the world if he but falls down and worships him. On the cross – perhaps – a memory stirs: all of the people jeering and insulting him, all of the people persecuting him, all of them could – in an instant – be turned from persecutors into adoring fans and slaves. The soldiers who had whipped him, could be his lackeys; the people who stopped by to insult him as he was hung upon the cross would fall over themselves to worship him. All he had to do was say ‘yes’ to Satan’s temptation. Yet, on the cross, we have Jesus saying other words.

Looking down at the people insulting, jeering, and ridiculing him, he says: “Father, forgive them.” Jesus didn’t want slaves, didn’t want mindless fanatics: he simply loved them, and asked His Father to forgive them for what they were doing to the Son. Wow.

Then, the final temptation according to Luke: taking Jesus up to the temple, and Satan throwing seeds of doubt about the Father’s love for His Son. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; your Father will protect you – well, that is He would if you are the Son of God.”

Crucifixcion, for those who have heard me take about it, was not only brutal physically, but also psychologically. Part of the psychological torture was that you were not hung high up in the air, but only a few feet from the ground: you were slowly suffocating to death and you knew all you had to do was take one step – one small step – and you could breathe again. Except, it was that one step that being nailed to a cross wouldn’t allow you to take.

Jesus, on the Cross, could have taken that step. He, unlike all the others who were killed in that fashion, could have let the nails fall – what is one more miracle among so many. He could have taken that one step and eased all his suffering. Afterall, wouldn’t a father not want his child to suffer; didn’t the Father love him and would understand that simple step?

But Jesus didn’t step down. All that kept him up upon that Cross was love of us and faith in the Father. In the deepest moment of despair he does not give up on those simple facts: looking out at his mother, at John, but also looking out at those who reviled and hated him, Jesus loved them … and so he stayed on the Cross to fulfill what was needed. In the moment of anguish he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Does the Father love him? Is he truly the Son of God? It would be so easy to test God and see; test a Father’s love – how many of us our guilty of testing to see if our parents love us? Then Jesus makes a leap.

It is not a physical leap, but a very human one that we are all called to do: he abandons himself, his own dreams and thoughts, and gives himself to the Father. It is not easy, and even Jesus feels forsaken, but in the ends he has done what the Father called him to do. “It is finished.”

Mary, Joseph, and the Holy Family

It is odd the little things we miss without even realizing it. I felt like that yesterday when I watched “The Nativity Story”.

First off, there are a few things in “The Nativity Story” that do not directly jive with Catholic tradition, but that is a topic for another time. One of the things the movie does do well, however, is to show an aspect of Mary and Joseph that is too often minimize, or perhaps I should say too often minimized in my own thoughts. The Gospel of St. Matthew presents some of St. Joseph’s view of what was going on before the birth of Jesus: it presents the struggles and difficulties with accepting his fiance, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was already with child, and the vision of the angel telling him what was to happen. St. Luke tells the story from the perspective of the Blessed Virgin. Two accounts of the same event from two different perspectives, that is how I always saw it.

However, there is another dimension that I so easily forget when I compartmentalize the stories: we celebrate St. Joseph, the Blessed Virign, but we also celebrate the Holy Family. The Holy Family has it’s own feast day in the calendar of the Church between Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (January 1). It is a relatively recent phenomenon, started in Canada and growing to encompass many more in the Church.

The importance for also thinking of the Holy Family was driven home to me in watching the movie. At a moment after Jesus is born and laid in the stables, you can see a faint sadness in the eyes of Joseph, a sadness that Jesus was born in a stable of all places. It is then that Mary reaches out and takes Joseph’s hand, and a note of strength returns: St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin were amazing people, chosen by God, but they – like all of us – were also strengthened by each other through God. Simply put, they were not alone, to practice and follow God on their own: they were a family, they strengthened one another through the bonds of a family.

It is odd the little things we just don’t think about that sometimes needs pointing out.

Pope's Letter about lifting excommunication to 4 SSPX bishops

Though I suspect this will get far less "play" than the original ruckus concerning the lifting of the excommunication of the 4 SSPX bishops, the Pope's statement is is a very powerful counter to the knee-jerk responses to the decision. It is quite moving and touching, and is very useful for anyone to read who finds themselves in a position of defending their Faith and the Church.

You can find the Pope's letter in English here.

Reflection on Mass Readings for this Sunday

There is a wonderful continuity in the bible passages for this week’s Sunday Mass, which serve to illuminate and highlight each other. Sometimes I think it is too easy to gloss over the fact that the readings, all the readings, are chosen as a whole, with not enough attention given to the totality of what is being read.

In the passage from Genesis we have one of the most heart-rending and difficult (in my view) passages in the Jewish Scriptures. Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his own son: the son that was promised to him, the son of his old age, the son that … is there any real need to add things to the simple fact that a father was commanded to sacrifice his own son. Too often we skip to the end – Isaac was sparred everything was okay. But was it? What anguish went on in Abraham’s mind, let alone Isaac’s! The grief, the pain, the heart-rending journey to Moriah, all in the belief that God knew what God was doing.

There have been various attempts to add to the image by trying to tell more about Isaac and Abraham and what was going on in their minds, but perhaps what is better is to simply rest for a moment in the apparently awful feeling of that moment.

But not for too long, for God did provide a way out. Isaac was spared, and not only spared but flourished (though I have often wondered how difficult the relationship between Isaac and God might have been after that day). Through that act of faith, the whole world has been blessed repeatedly!

It is through reading the account in Genesis that the Psalm 116 is given more power and light. Trying reading, hearing it as if spoken from the mouth of Isaac: he was to be the sacrifice, he was to die at the hands of his father, but then the Lord let the ropes slip and he was saved! An offering of thanksgiving is made rather than one of grief and desolation.

And then, of course, we come to the crux of the matter. That father and son we were talking about earlier and the anguish at having to sacrifice, is – despite the Father knowing the outcome – is what The Father and The Son went through in some mysterious way. But unlike Abraham, the Son was sacrificed; the Father did not spare his own Son. But after the sacrifice came the most amazing part: the resurrection. Everything is changed. God’s great laugh. Jesus is then raised up and sits in glory with the Father forever more as the chosen one of God, as our mediator.

It is in the Transfiguration that we get a glimpse of that. Jesus is shown in all his glory as a foretaste of paradise for the apostles, much like God telling Abraham that he would be blessed through his son before asking him to sacrifice Isaac. We, as very frail human beings need a glimpse of the reward from time to time. We also need to realize, however, that God has a plan regardless of what it might seem like, and in order to follow that plan we need to heed the call of God regarding Jesus: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

Week of March 3-8

Well, the second half of the university semester is here, which means things are gearing up for many students, and some of the things here at the Centre are getting quieter in general.

The Alternative Spring Break was a big success – a great and rewarding time for both students and coordinators alike. The Newman Centre website will soon be updated to include reflections about the trip, as well as some pictures about our adventures. Check it out and get a sense of what the Alternative Spring Break is about – I hope it is the first of an annual event.

The website is also (finally) up, which is the cause of much celebration ... at least for me as I had been wanting to put up a new site for quite some time. If you have any comments or criticism, feel free to mention them to me. I know there are still some typos, but I think it is pretty much set.

With the start of the semester, various other programs are starting up again like the soup and bagel program, the Fireside Chat (the topic this month: “The Catholic position regarding Stem Cell and Medical Research), and the Bible Study. The Bible Study is starting off with a bang on 1st Corinthians 13 – the famous love chapter! And, of course, with it being March, it is also time for the annual Newman Ball!!! Check out the NSS website for more details!