On the First Sunday of Lent, we heard the Gospel account of Our Lord's forty days in the desert. Our Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness “to be tempted by the devil”. But why should this be? Why should the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who can neither sin nor be deceived, allow Himself to be subjected to temptation?
If we reflect on the temptations that Our Lord endured, we shall see that they are the very same temptations which the Church often encounters in Her earthly mission. “Command that these stones be made bread”, the devil suggests. Just think of the popularity the Church might enjoy and the influence She might exert if only She gave up insisting on all of that wearisome preaching about conversion from sin and devoted Her every resource to social activism. Imagine how much more authentic She would look to our contemporaries if only She were to sell all of those precious vessels of the altar and elaborate vestments and to make a well-publicised gesture of handing over the proceeds to good causes. The media would certainly congratulate us on having finally woken up to the real needs of modern man. Surely we are missing a trick?
Our Lord's answer to Satan is masterful: “It is written, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. The truth is that the Messiah could easily have produced enough bread to feed Himself, and sufficient food and resources to feed, clothe and house humanity for the rest of history. But in itself, such a magnificent miracle would have done nothing to combat the self-centredness that has been the blight of the human soul and of the human race since the Fall. Any “Great Reset” of society based on purely human efforts to create an earthly utopia can only end in further social disintegration. All efforts to “build back better” which ignore the reality of Original Sin and the need for God's healing and restorative supernatural grace, and which disdain the laws which the Creator has written into human nature and handed to Moses amid thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai, are hell-bound from conception.
Certainly, care for the needy and solicitude for the disadvantaged are touchstones of the authenticity of our Christian religion. Without them, our profession of faith is as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Fasting and prayer are an integral part of our Lenten observance, but in the absence of charity they become a grotesque parody of religiosity. Almsgiving is really the queen of Lenten precepts, because charity is what gives sweetness to the incense of our prayers and makes them pleasing to God. Our Lord's response to the tempter, however, reminds us that He has come to do something far more wonderful than turning stones into bread. He has come into the world to transform human hearts from hearts of stone into hearts that are vibrant and overflowing with divine love, in order that we might be moved to share the bread that we have with others. At Mass He does something far more marvellous than turning stones into bread when He transforms bread into Himself. This is so that in consuming the Blessed Sacrament, we might be transformed more perfectly into His likeness.
Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This month we shall celebrate the feast of St Joseph solemnly with a High Mass and in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio, to mark this year dedicated to the most holy foster father of Our Lord. Nowhere in the Sacred Scriptures is any word spoken by St Joseph ever recorded. He is presented to us rather as a listener, who obeyed the word of God with perfect trust. We should ask St Joseph to accompany us through this Lenten season and to help us to discern what the word of God is speaking to our hearts. The urgent message of the Lenten liturgical texts is “Metanoia”, or profound conversion.
When we are dismissed from our churches at the end of Mass, we are sent out into the world to build the Kingdom of God around us. If we come to Mass in humility, with a recognition of our own neediness before God, if we bring with us our contrition for sins committed and ask for God's forgiveness and assistance, then we shall leave the church transformed and energised by the encounter we have had with God at the Altar in Holy Communion. In the Catholic view, we are all poor and in need of God’s forgiveness. It is this aspect of conversion, repentance and obedience to the word of God that the devil finds so irksome. He knows that even if we devote our whole lives to philanthropy and humanitarian endeavour, we are still his if only he can persuade us to remain in our sins. We must call the devil's bluff. It is once our sins are forgiven and we are on the road to renewed and continuous conversion that our efforts to do good have the power to build the Kingdom of God on earth, and to count towards salvation.
Father Julian Large