There is a story of a man who loved desserts and candy. On his way to work every day, he would stop at the bakery and get donuts or cakes and he would eat them for lunch. One Lent he decided to give up desserts and candy. He devised ways to avoid the temptation; he even changed the route that he would drive to work so that he would avoid the bakery. One morning, however, he arrived at the office carrying a large, sugarcoated coffeecake.
His colleagues scolded him, but he only smiled and said, “What c...
There is a story of a man who loved desserts and candy. On his way to work every day, he would stop at the bakery and get donuts or cakes and he would eat them for lunch. One Lent he decided to give up desserts and candy. He devised ways to avoid the temptation; he even changed the route that he would drive to work so that he would avoid the bakery. One morning, however, he arrived at the office carrying a large, sugarcoated coffeecake.
His colleagues scolded him, but he only smiled and said, “What could I do? This is a very special cake. What happened is that, by force of habit, I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning and, there in the window, were trays of incredible desserts.”
He believed that this was no accident that he passed by that way, so he prayed, “LORD, if you really want me to have one of those delicious coffee cakes, let me find a parking space right in front of the bakery. And sure enough,” he said, “on the ninth time around the block, there it was!”[1]
Today’s Gospel awakens us to the fact that Jesus was human just as we are. As Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan tempted Him just as he tempts us. And we can be sure that the temptations Jesus experienced were far more serious than whether or not to buy a coffeecake. The temptations He experienced were about the kind of power that he could have as He was beginning His public ministry. His temptations were about how he could force his way upon the people and how wonderfully he could live under the influence of the power at His disposal.
However, He took on the role of suffering servant. Instead of being popular, He took on the serious issues in His day and challenged the people who might have made life very easy for Him. He resisted temptation and went on to complete His mission: proclaiming God’s kingdom, showing us how to put aside our own concerns to focus on the needy.
We are called upon to work through and resist our temptations: things like seeking the comfort and security we experience when we stay quiet in the face of injustice, when we look away from the needy, when we are indifferent to those suffering physical or emotional pain.
Ultimately, the only real comfort and security we experience is given to us by God and only truly experienced when we empty ourselves and surrender ourselves to the power of God in our lives.
In his book When the Well Runs Dry, Thomas Green likened this surrender to the physical act of learning to float in the sea. He says learning to float is difficult because “it demands much letting go.” The secret of floating lies in doing the opposite of what our instinct tells us to do. When we follow our instincts, we tend to fight the waves and we will tire and eventually sink. Yet, if we relax and float we are buoyed up by the waves.[2]
This is what we are to do with God if we are to both follow the His will and experience the comfort and security that only God can offer.
As we move through this season of Lent, may we use these days as an opportunity to empty ourselves of those things that keep us from trusting in God and those things that keep us from doing the work of God in our world. May we seek to work through the temptations that keep us from following God as we should. May our sacrifices and prayers bring us closer to God and closer to a willingness to give ourselves over to God’s will.+
[1] Bausch, William J., A World of Stories for Preachers and Teachers, Twenty-Third Publications, Mystic, CT, 1999, p. 390.
[2] Green, Thomas, When the Well Runs Dry, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN, 1998.
