Into the wilderness (First Sunday of Lent, Year B)

How are your Lenten sacrifices going? Did you forget to give something up? Or like me, did you try to give up all meat and food from animals and only make it to Thursday? Did you forget to fast or did you eat meat last Wednesday or Friday? Well, the good news is I don't think you'll burn forever in hell. At least not for that. The bad news is that you have no excuse. You can begin Lent today. Today's readings show us how.

In the days of Noah and the Great Flood, God set a rainbow in the sky to remind us of his promise to save us from destruction. Whenever we see a rainbow, we remember God's promise.

In the days of Jesus, God set a cross on a hill to remind us of his promise to save us from the power of sin and death. When we see a cross, we remember God has kept his promise.

Lent helps us remember the God who never forgets us.

Mark's gospel today is short and to the point. Unlike the gospels of Luke and Matthew, there is no dramatic confrontation and dialogue between Jesus and Satan. In fact, Mark doesn't even say that Jesus fasted.

Mark doesn't say the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the desert; he says the Holy Spirit DROVE Jesus into the desert. The goal is the same: to prepare for his life and mission Jesus must confront Satan and overcome temptation.

There are two main characters in the story: Jesus and Satan. There are two groups of extras: wild beasts and angels. And the stage is the wilderness. Only in the wilderness and only by confronting evil can Jesus discover the purpose of his life and the will of God.

And isn't that what we all want to know? What is the purpose of my life? What is the will of God for me?

To find out, we only need to do what Jesus did: enter the wilderness.

Guess what? The wilderness is inside you. The beasts and the angels are inside you. Satan and Jesus are inside you.

You enter the wilderness precisely by giving up things up during Lent, things that distract you, entertain you, amuse you or confuse you.

We don't give up things just to make ourselves miserable for 40 days. We pretend we have sinned so we can pretend we are sorry and after 40 days we can pretend we are forgiven and then at Easter we can pretend to be happy again. Then we wonder why our religion and our life seem like a pretense. Nor should we give up things to try to control God and get what we want and make God do what we want. And the worst reason to give up things is to make ourselves feel pious and holier and better than other people.

No, we fast and we abstain and we give things up during Lent in order to enter into the wilderness of our soul. There we will encounter wild beasts: our fears, our bad memories, our anger, our hatred, our sins. There we will be comforted by angels: love, fond memories, joy, laughter, hope. There we will face temptations: pride, guilt, revenge, self delusion.

There too we will encounter both Jesus and Satan. We learn to distinguish the voice of Satan from the voice of Jesus. Satan says, "You are worthless. You are nothing. Even God cannot save you. Give up." The voice of Jesus says, "I love you. I gave my life for you. You're worth it."

The temptations we face are the same Jesus faced. Feel sorry for yourself. Think only of yourself. Forget your humanity. Seize power. Use people. Betray God. Who would it hurt?

Every sin we commit comes from these temptations.

Satan wants us to forget who Jesus is and to forget who we are and to forget what God has done for us.

You, each of you, are precious children of God, made in God's image and likeness and NOTHING you can do can change or destroy that. Sin makes us forget this.

It's when we forget who we are that evil takes over our lives.

We do not fast and give things up for Lent to earn God's love; we fast and give things up to remind ourselves how much God loves us.

This Lent give up the things, the attitudes, the language that disguise who you are. Give up the diversions that drown out the voice of God in your heart. Give up the habits that distort the image of God in which you were made.

Then you will discover the purpose of your life; then you will know the will of God.