2nd Sunday Lent A - Homily 1

Homily 1-2003

Today’s Gospel passage situates us in the days immediately preceding Jesus’ public life. He had just experienced that mysterious moment down by the Jordan river where John the Baptist had been at work. As if in answer to the plea made centuries beforehand by Isaiah: “Oh that you would split open the heavens and come down..”, as Jesus had come up out of the water, the “heavens suddenly opened” and Jesus saw “the Spirit of God descending … and coming down on him”. More than that, through the opened heavens a voice declared: “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him”.

What might it have been like for Jesus to hear that supernatural voice say of him: “You are my Son. I love you dearly. You delight my heart”?

He needed time — time and space and stillness — to allow the message to sink deeply into his heart and mind. He went out alone into the nearby Judean wilderness to be with “the Spirit of God” that he had seen “coming down on him” back at the river.

Today’s Gospel passage said that Jesus stayed there for about six weeks, after which “he was tempted by the devil”. Matthew creatively described three basic temptations that confronted Jesus: to focus on his own selfish interests; to manipulate people’s attention and admiration; and to adopt the familiar power politics of other popular leaders.

They are the temptations we all face in one shape or other as we go through life. We seek personal security — and wealth if possible. We seek acceptance and popularity — whatever the cost. We seek influence and control over others.

Jesus, however, had other priorities. His focus was God, expressed particularly in respect and care for others. He was especially sensitive to people pushed to the margins, excluded from the world’s fruitfulness and productivity.

Within days, Jesus would be proclaiming to all who would listen: “The reign of God is close at hand. Repent. Trust the Good News!”

Trust God! Take time to get to know God personally! Reverse your values! Trust God and God’s ways! Get to know God’s ways! Let go of control!

Jesus was convinced that there is one way to experience joy. Let go of our fruitless fixations on pleasure. Learn to love; but take the trouble to learn what loving really means. Loving is not what most people think it is. It is worth the effort.

We are into Lent. Its observance has been part of the Church’s experience for centuries. Our bishops recommend that we look once more at three priorities.

1. Focussing on those at society’s financial margins. Project Compassion is one very concrete and effective way of doing that — and there are so many other projects operating in similar fields: the local St Vincent de Paul Society, Rural Australians for Refugees, etc. However, it is important that we that we are quite conscious of why we support these projects. Our support needs to be the expression of our love for people and for our world.

2. Our prayer. We need to listen to Jesus’ recommendation: “When you pray, go to your private room … and pray to your Father who is in that secret place.” The purpose of prayer is to deepen our personal friendship with God — not to gain points.

3. Fasting, or other works of penance. Their purpose is not to test or to prove ourselves, but to develop self-control; thereby to strengthen those virtues that assist our practical love for others.

And the why of it all, the good news of the Gospel, is that, just as God loved his Son, the Beloved, the same God loves you with that same infinite love; and the God who loves you loves everyone else in the same way. In our case, God’s love inevitably takes the necessary shape also of unconditional forgiveness.