*****
“Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert where he was tempted by the devil.”
While Jesus was preparing to begin his public ministry – to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God – to be the kind of Messiah envisioned by His Father – to open up his mind and heart to the power and promise of the Holy Spirit – he was tempted.
Tempted to turn stone into bread and to use his saving power for his own convenience. Tempted to settle for earthly kingdoms and to be satisfied with passing glory and majesty. Tempted to throw himself from the temple and presumably, to convince people of his identity and authority through a single, dramatic, headline-grabbing event.
Fundamentally, Jesus was tempted to be someone other than the poerson God wanted him to be. Jesus was tempted to be a different kind of savior. Jesus was tempted to believe that there was an easier way to redeem, to save and to sanctify. Jesus was tempted to believe that there was a short cut to salvation, a “one-size-fits-all” road to redemption.
We can relate to this temptation. How often do we tell ourselves that we would be happier, healthier and holier if we were someone else? How often do we say that there must be another way (that is, an easier way, a less inconvenient way) to be a good wife, a good husband, a good son or daughter, a good sister or brother, a good friend or neighbor? The tragedy is that if we spend our lives believing that we’d be better off if we were someone or somewhere else, we would never live the one life – the only life – that God gives us.
Francis de Sales wrote:
“Don’t sow your desires in some else’s garden; just cultivate your own as best you can. Don’t long to be someone other than what you are; rather, desire to thoroughly be who you are. Direct your thoughts to being very good at that and to bear the crosses, little or great, that you find there. Believe me, this is the most important point– and least understood – in the spiritual life.” (Letters of Spiritual Direction, p. 112)
Jesus was tempted to be someone other than the one whom the Father wanted him to be. Jesus was tempted to forsake the authentic pathway of love for the hollow, devilish promise of a shortcut. Jesus was tempted to take the (seemingly) easy way out. However, his belief in God’s plan for him allowed Jesus to disavow the empty promise of a quick fix for the path that leads to true happiness, health and holiness. To use Matthew Kelly’s image, Jesus was tempted to settle for something less than “being the best version of himself”.
As we journey through this season of Lent, let us ask for the courage we need to recognize the voice of the tempter within us. Let us ask for the insight to see the ways in which we are tempted to spend our lives wishing we were someone else. Let us ask for the grace and the strength to follow the example of Christ, the one who shows us that love is not about quick fixes or short cuts, but that love is about being willing to go the distance…faithfully, one day, one person at a time.
*****
“You shall not…You shall.”
Today’s readings remind us that being children of God comes with its share of “dos” and “don’ts”.
• The “don’ts” include:
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not lie or speak falsely.
• You shall not defraud or rob.
• You shall not withhold.
• You shall not curse.
• You shall not spread slander.
• You shall not hate. The “do’s” include:
• You shall feed the hungry.
• You shall satisfy the thirsty.
• You shall clothe the naked.
• You shall welcome the stranger.
• You shall care for the sick.
• You shall visit the imprisoned.
Many people experience the commandment to follow both the letter and the spirit of God’s Law to be burdensome. In today’s Gospel, Jesus insists that living by God’s Law is not only not burdensome, but in fact is the way to Beatitude – it is the way of experiencing blessing by being blessing in the lives of others. Be it through “do’s” or “don’ts”, how might God be asking you to be a source of divine Beatitude – that is, a blessing – in the lives of others today?*****
“To mutter something with the lips is not praying if one’s heart is not joined to it. To speak it is necessary first to have conceived interiorly what we wish to say. There is first the interior word, and then the spoken word, which causes what the interior has first pronounced to be understood. Prayer is nothing other than speaking to God. Now it is certain that to speak to God without being attentive to Him and to what we say to Him is something that is most displeasing to Him…God tests more the heart of the one who prays rather than the words pronounced by one who prays.” (Fiorelli, OSFS, Sermons on Prayer, p. 18)
Authentic prayer is not a matter of words. Authentic prayer is a matter of the heart, a heart whose stirrings must ultimately be displayed in actions.
*****
“When God saw how they turned from their evil way, He repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them…”
Today’s reading from the Book of Jonah illustrates two things about God. First, God is just. God expects us to turn away from evil. God expects us to turn toward the good. Our failure to do so can result in clear and unambiguous consequences. Second, God’s justice toward us is outdone only by His mercy toward us. There appears to be no doubt that God is always prepared to give us the benefit of the doubt, even if we are making only a modicum of progress in the love of God and neighbor.
Indeed, God is love, a love that tempers – that is, strengthens – justice with mercy.
It’s always tempting to get tough on other people who don’t measure up to our expectations. Ironically enough, this seems especially true in our relations with those we love. Perhaps, their lack of progress isn’t because we aren’t being tough enough, but perhaps it’s because we aren’t being merciful enough.
*****
“Ask and it will be given…”
In today’s Gospel Jesus continues to give instruction on prayer. He tells us “everyone who asks, receives; the one who seeks, finds; to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
In a sermon given on April 5, 1615, Francis de Sales made the following observation regarding asking for things in prayer:
“We have said that there are two kinds of goods for which we may ask in prayer: spiritual goods and corporal goods. There are two kinds of spiritual goods. One kind is necessary for our salvation: for these (faith, hope and charity) we ought to ask God simply and without condition, for he wants to give them to us. The other kind (ecstasies, raptures, spiritual comforts and consolations) – although also spiritual – we ought to ask for under the same rubric as corporal goods, namely, only if it is God’s will and if it is for His greater glory. Under these conditions we may ask for anything.” (Fiorelli, OSFS, Sermons on Prayer, p. 15)
Of course, when Jesus assures us that we will receive when we ask, we cannot assume that He means we will always receive precisely that for which we ask. Insofar as God does hear us, God will always answer our petitions, albeit not necessarily in accordance with our wishes. When God’s response does not appear to match our request, Francis encourages us to not become discouraged, since “perfection does not consist in having these goods, but rather in having our will united to that of God. It is this that we may and ought to ask from the Divine Majesty continually and unconditionally.” (Ibid, p. 16)
Referring to the order in which the petitions are ranked in the Lord’s Prayer, Francis notes:
“We ought to ask first that His Name be hallowed, that is to say, that He may be acknowledged and adored by all. Next, we must ask for what is most necessary for us, namely, that His Kingdom come for us, so that we may be inhabitants of Heaven. Third, we ask that His will be done. After these three requests we add, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ Jesus Christ makes us say, ‘Give us our daily bread,’ because under this word ‘bread’ are included all temporal goods. (Ibid, pp. 16-17)
We’ve all heard the dictum: “Be careful what you pray for.” Jesus tells us something altogether different. He says: ask for anything, but be careful about the reasons for which you ask. Is it for your comfort and consolation or is it for God’s honor and glory?
*****
“If the wicked, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, St. Francis de Sales observed:
“Our Savior’s redemption touches our miseries and makes them more beneficial and worthy of love than original innocence could ever have been. The angels, says our Savior, have ‘more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just that have no need for repentance.’ So, too, the state of redemption is a hundred times better than that of innocence. Truly, by the watering of our Savior’s blood, made with the hyssop of the cross, we have been restored to a white incomparably better than that possessed by the snows of innocence. Like Naaman, we come out of the stream of salvation more pure and clean that if we had never had leprosy. This is to the end that God’s majesty, as he has ordained for us as well, should not be ‘overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good’… (TLG, Book II, Chapter 5, pp. 115 – 116)
This display of God’s generosity is nothing if not breathtaking. God loves us so much that not only does God not hold our sins against us if we should repent from our evil ways. No, God goes even further by applying his grace to our repentance in ways that can transform us into something more beautiful than if we had never committed sin in the first place! How generous is God? God can even turn our sins into a means of our salvation if we but trust in his unconditional and abiding love for us. But should this act of God really surprise us? After all, have you ever noticed that some of the greatest of saints started out by being the greatest of sinners?
Are there any ways in which you are disfigured by the leprosy of sin? Don’t be ashamed; rather, be assured that God can transform your spiritual disfigurement into something – actually, someone – far more beautiful than you could ever have believed possible.
And God will effect this transformation beginning even today!
*****
"Be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul..."
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Genuine, living devotion presupposes love of God, and hence it is simply true love of God. Yet it is not always love as such. Inasmuch as divine love adorns the soul it is called grace, which makes us pleasing to the Divine Majesty. Inasmuch as it strengthens us to do good, it is called charity. When it has reached a degree of perfection at which it not only makes us do good but also do this carefully, frequently and promptly, it is called devotion.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 30, p. 206)Indeed, “Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!”
Carefully, frequently and promptly!
