On the first Sunday of Lent, we accompanied Our Lord into the desert where the devil tempted him. If we examine the temptations that Our Lord endured, we shall see that they bear an uncanny resemblance to the temptations that the Church on earth seems to be experiencing in our day.
“Command that these stones be made bread”, the devil suggests (Mt 4:3). Just imagine the popularity the Church might enjoy and the influence She might exert if only She gave up insisting on all of that preaching about conversion from sin and devoted Her every resource to social activism; how much more authentic we should look to our contemporaries if only we were to auction off our precious chalices and to make a grand gesture of handing over the proceeds to the homeless. The media would perhaps hail us as the “Church of the poor”.
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” (Mt 4:4). The truth is that the Messiah could easily have produced enough bread and resources to feed and 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 human nature since the Fall. Instead, 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 alive and overflowing with divine love, in order that we might be moved to share the bread that we have with others, in charity. At Mass He does something far more marvellous than turning stones into bread when He transforms bread into His living Body and Blood. This is so that in consuming the Blessed Sacrament, we might be transformed more perfectly into His likeness.
When we are dismissed from the church at the end of Mass, we are sent 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 for God, if we bring with us our contrition for sins committed and ask for God's forgiveness, then we leave the celebration of Holy Mass renewed, refreshed, and energised by the encounter we have with our Risen Lord at the Altar in in Holy Communion.
We are all poor and in need of God’s forgiveness, and during Lent we are called to rend our hearts and return to God wholeheartedly. It is this aspect of conversion and repentance that the devil finds so irksome. He knows that 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. The easiest way he achieves this is by persuading us that there is no sin, that the very concept of sin has no place in a church of the twenty-first century.
The second temptation is also painfully familiar: “If Thou art the Son of Man, cast thyself down from this Temple, and let us see the angels come to your rescue” (Mt 4:6). What an amazing spectacle that would have been, to be witnessed by the whole of Jerusalem. However, we know from experience how quickly novelty wears off. The Word was not made flesh in order to dazzle the fickle crowds with displays of celestial acrobatics. He came rather to win and transform our hearts through friendship, and to manifest the depth of God's love for us by embracing the world in His open arms on the Cross. Even when He is hanging on that throne of agony, we hear the devil’s voice in the mocking of the chief priests who say: “If He is the King of Israel let Him come down from the cross, then we will believe him” (Mt 27:42). May God save us from the Sadducees of today who would have the world saved by crowd-pleasing gestures, gimmicks and soundbites, rather than preaching the Gospel of salvation through repentance, and sanctification through self-denial.
Mercifully for us, our Saviour did not come down from the Cross until He had breathed His last breath and the nails had been pulled from the dead flesh of His hands and feet. To be true to Her founder and Her Spouse, the Church must resist the temptation to replace the preaching of Christ Crucified with novelties and gestures calculated to win the approval of the media.
During Lent, each one of us is invited to defy Satan by confessing our sins and doing penance. We unite ourselves with the Cross through confession, penance, fasting and self-denial. We renew and refresh our relationship with God in our resolution to pray without ceasing. We make sacrifices from our own resources for the poor. We go into the desert with Our Lord so that we may follow Him to Calvary, so that at Easter we shall be well prepared to participate in the joy and the glory of the Resurrection.
Father Julian Large