Every year on the First Sunday of Lent, we hear the gospel reading of Jesus’ temptations. These temptations in the wilderness are not all that different from our own. The wilderness is not so much a place as it is a situation. Like Jesus, we are sometimes left alone with our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Who am I? What is my life about? How will I get through this? In the wilderness, there will always be a voice that is quick to offer an easy answer, a superfluous idea, or an easy way out. We are tempted to do less than what we are really being asked to do. We are tempted to take shortcuts through life. It’s easy to justify. Everyone does it. No one got hurt. I deserve it. The ends justify the means. No one knew. Then there are the times we negotiate with God. Have you ever thought or perhaps prayed, “If you really love me, if you are the God I want you to be, then catch me, give me, do for me?”
Every challenge and temptation we have is an opportunity for us to rediscover, affirm, and claim our own identity as a beloved child of God, one in whom He is well pleased. Each of us, I suspect, has known the hole and emptiness, restlessness, boredom, and maybe, from time to time, the sense that we are going nowhere and life has no meaning. Sometimes in the midst of these temptations, struggles in the dessert, we hunger for attention, acceptance, and approval. We’ve likely tried to fill our emptiness and fed our hunger with something less than nutritious and life-giving, something other than what we know God would want for us. We only wanted a little something to get us by, fill the hole, the void, and satisfy the hunger. But it doesn’t. It never does. It only gets us to the next fix. Jesus was tempted in the same ways that we are, to take the easy way out.
How are we to understand our own temptations? Life at times can be confusing. It can be full of unexpected twists and turns that test our good judgment and assumptions about life. At times we may come face to face with difficult circumstances and decisions. In dealing with the uncertainty of life, we may experience a hunger for control, certainty, and approval. We may seek out a pat on the back, a word of praise, a nod of approval, all of which can feel validating and can put a self-doubting mind at ease. Whose stamp of approval am I striving for and why? Whose pat on my back makes me feel golden, valuable, or worthwhile? Whose opinion of me do I seek out? Who has the power and wisdom to reassure me of all my fears and insecurities? Whose validation, attention and acknowledgment do I need in order to feel special? The duality between good and bad, right and wrong, passing and failing, often underlies our understanding of temptation.
Our responses to the temptations of life tell us something about ourselves. They offer information about whom and whose we believe ourselves to be. They reveal where we place our trust, how we see the world, and our way of being towards others. In facing our temptations, we discover our true hunger and emptiness. We find out where it hurts and see how we act out of our wounds. We discover our vulnerabilities and weaknesses. We become more awakened and self-aware.
In Jesus’ struggle with his own temptations, he began to know himself, be filled with, and led by, the Holy Spirit. The voice that spoke externally to Jesus at his baptism was interiorized into the depth of his very being. That is important information. All of this offers us the opportunity for a new life and a new way of being, as beloved children of God. There is no salvation without temptation. You could say we are tempted into our salvation. With each temptation, may we learn a little more about ourselves, and the presence of the Holy Spirit that is always available to us.
Lord, You know the areas of my vulnerabilities, emptiness, and pain. You know when and how I will be tempted today, and in the days that lie ahead. May every challenge and temptation become an opportunity for me to rediscover, affirm, and claim my own identity as a beloved child of God, one in whom You are well pleased. May I face my temptations with courage and deepen my understanding of your love. Help me to walk in the light of the Gospel of truth. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.