Before he started telling us all about Jesus’ prophetic preaching,
Mark writes these short messages: “The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. He remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan; he was with the wild beasts and the angels looked after him.” These brief lines tell us all the basic experiences that Jesus went through until he died on the cross.
Jesus did not have an easy and quiet life. He was led by the Spirit, but he suffered in his own flesh the forces of evil. His total surrender to his Father’s project led him to a life that was torn apart by conflicts and tensions from all sides. His followers ought to learn how to live in times of crises.
“The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.” He did not lead him towards a comfortable life. He led him into all sorts of trials, risks and temptations. Seeking the kingdom of God and his justice, announcing his message without any distortion and working towards a better and just world is always very risky. It was like that with Jesus, and it will always be the same for his followers.
“He remained in the wilderness for forty days.” Actually, his whole life was going to be spent in a wilderness. This deserted place became a symbol of being tested and purified. In such places, one learns to live with just the essentials; it is also a dangerous place for anyone left alone with his own strength and resources.
“He was tempted by Satan.” Satan stands for any adversary and enemy of God and of those working for His kingdom. By being tempted, we are tested to prove how much truth or lie there is in us; how much light or darkness we spread, and how much faith in God or justice we are willing to prove with our lives.
All along his life, Jesus was vigilant and ready to discover Satan in the most unlikely situations. On one occasion, Jesus pulled aside Peter with these words: “Get away from me, Satan, because your words are not God’s!” Our times of crises should be faced as He did, attentive to what could separate us from God.
“He was with the wild beasts and the angels looked after him.”
The wild beasts, the most violent ones on earth, are an image of all the dangers that Jesus would have to face. The angels, the best of God’s created beings, suggest God’s closeness that keeps blessing Him and looking after His safety. That’s how Jesus stayed away from Antipas, whom He calls “fox”, while praying at night to His Father.
We must live these times of crises with our eyes fixed on Jesus.
It is the Spirit of God taking us into the desert. Out of this crisis, one day, the Church will come out more humble and more faithful to our God and Saviour.
DRIVEN OUT INTO THE WILDERNESS
Mark has handed down to us the story of Jesus in the desert as a story of his life. Let us highlight some points. According to the evangelist, “the spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness.” So it wasn’t Jesus’ idea. It was the Spirit of God that led him all the way to the desert: Jesus’ life wasn’t going to be a smooth adventure; on the contrary, there were going to be trials, insecurity and threats.
Still, the desert at the time was the best place to listen, in silence and solitude, to the voice of God. It was a place where one went back, in time of crises, to find God’s ways within the hearts of the people. That’s what people believed in the time of Jesus.
Once in the desert, Jesus “was tempted by Satan.” Nothing is said about the content of those temptations. They came from the Devil, the tempter, who seeks to ruin God’s plan by destroying the human person. This Adversary will not return again in the whole gospel of Mark. Jesus, however, will see him active in all those who go against His mission – that includes Peter.
The short narrative ends with two very contrasting images: Jesus is with “wild beasts”, but he is “looked after by angels.” The “wild beasts,” the most violent creatures, represent the dangers that will always follow Jesus and His projects. The “angels,” the best creatures, proclaim God’s closeness, blessing, care and protection of Jesus and his works.
Christianity is going through very difficult times. In terms of sociological findings, we are in a crisis of secularisation and being rejected by much of the modern world. Perhaps, if we look at the problem from the angle of faith, we might have to say something else: Is it possible that God himself is driving us into the “desert”? Aren’t we in need of something that will liberate us from our own deceit, vanity and false triumphs that have been accumulated through so many centuries? We would have never followed these ways ourselves.
This desert experience that may keep growing for a few more years, could be an unplanned time of grace and purification for which we will have to thank God. He will keep taking care of His “project”. We will be expected to reject clearly any temptation to deviate once more from this new return to the real Jesus.
LENT – FORTY DAYS
The use of numbers in Scripture is clearly ‘symbolical.’ God purified the earth with the floods and saved Noah’s ark. The wandering Jews, for forty years, were changed from slaves to children of God. Jesus went into the desert for forty days, and came out as the Messiah.
The practice of the “Forty Days of Lent” started well into the XV or XVI centuries.
It is worth noting that the first real “Lenten” people, who fasted and prayed for
and prayed for a long time, were not Christians, but the unbaptized catechumens.
They were still pagans on the way to become Christians. These learners or neophytes publicly wore sackcloth and ashes, and lived the days ( 40? ) before Easter as public repentant sinners. But something happened when the long-time Christians noticed something remarkable at the Easter Baptism ceremony of those neophytes: they were struck by the joy and radiant faces of those baptized, and they felt, to put it frankly, envious. Why should the catechumens alone have all this fun! They, too, longed once more to experience the thrill of a new birth and the strength of a new life, after a public baptism. They sort of realized that they have become somewhat routine Christians in their faith, and so they decided to do something about it.
Well, the following year, when the new catechumens began their preparation and fast for their future baptism at Easter, the already-baptized joined them. They, too, put on the sackcloth and ashes and they, too, traversed the forty days of Lent as repentant sinners. They did this so that they could rekindle their faith, apologize for lukewarmness, and experience once more the joys of rebirth at Easter. And that is how Lent got into our Church. Soon later the custom started, in the fifth century, of reading the Gospel of the Three Temptations on the first Sunday of Lent.
The question, then, arises – which are some of the modern-life temptations that we are subjected to? Fr. William J. Bausch, a great homilist and writer, refers to Three Temptations in particular, that most of us may experience in our modern culture.
- The neglect of the inner life. This may caused by overwork or too much leisure. It is felt by overworked mothers, to overstressed public persons, busy pastors and religious.
Everyone is subject to the ever-increasing attraction to or by personal hobbies, family concerns, professional and social obligations. We are all victims of the syndrome of exhaustion and fatigue. The computers, the e-mails, the beeper, the cell telephones, the Fax machines have only added work and worry, as they follow us into our homes, our cars, the beach, the bathroom! Add to that, music and TV, and there is no time left for solitude, reflection and silent relaxation, prayer and planning. Wouldn’t it be nice and healthy if we could occasionally submit ourselves to a salutary “Lenten therapy” package? No beepers, no telephones, no gourmet food and fashionable dress?
- The second temptation that we modern people experience can be labeled as the tendency to hang onto emotional garbage. With experiences such as broken relationships, fractured lives, disappointing political and financial or family stresses, people remain tied down into debilitating memories and experiences. We carry them with us: prejudices, disappointments, hurts, betrayals, guilt or simply “negativism” and cynicism. If we could only use a “Lenten experience” and hand things over to God, and get on with our lives, unencumbered by such baggage!
- The third temptation for us ‘moderns’ is to think that we are different. “I’m not like those people!” I don’t have to carry those limitations, pains and complexes. I am different. I don’t need redemption, renewal or feasibility studies. Lent is the time to accept reality: we all need to go occasionally into the desert, interrupt our journeys, and face the two realities – our temptations and our God.