1ST SUNDAY IN LENT (February 26, 2023)
St. Matthew's Gospel provides details of the nature of the test that Jesus experienced in the desert: to be a different kind of Messiah, to find a quicker or more spectacular way to win people over, to employ a one-shot way of doing God's Will that would make everybody happy.
In other words, Jesus was tempted to be someone other than who God called him to be.
This test in the desert was simply the beginning. The temptation dogged Jesus every day of his ministry. The voices came in all different shapes and sizes - expelled demons, Pharisees, Sadducees, family, friends, even some of his closest disciples. Screaming, whispering or shrieking, the voices of temptation tried to dissuade Jesus from being himself, to lose his focus, to abandon his mission, to turn away from his role in God's plan of salvation. Even as the life drained out of his body on Golgotha, Jesus still heard the voices of temptation taunting, “You saved others, save yourself. Come down from that cross.”
All of us are tempted to be someone other than who God calls us to be. Voices around us, voices within us attempt to convince us that we would be happier, healthier, more successful, powerful and persuasive if we were someone - anyone - other than who we are.
We are most like Jesus when we strive to be faithful to God's plan for us. We are most like Jesus when we are faithful to our unique role in God's plan of salvation for others. We are most like Jesus when we refuse the temptation to settle for less, to sell ourselves short, to look for a short cut. We flirt with the easier, the more convenient, or the more popular way of trying to do what is right, of trying to do what is good, of trying to do what is just.
St. Francis de Sales' advice is on point: "Don't sow your desires in some else's garden; cultivate your own as best you can. Don't try to be someone other than who you are; rather, desire to be thoroughly who you are."
With God’s help, and the encouragement of others, let us be who we are…and be that well. In the midst of the challenges of life, let us be true to ourselves…and give glory and praise to the God who made us.
