First Sunday in Lent
C.
A woman told me that she wasn’t giving up anything for Lent
this year. Instead of giving up
something she was going to work on being kind.
I told her that it sounded like she was giving up sin for Lent and
focusing her life on kindness. A good
Lent is one in which we seek to live our lives according to what God wills, no
Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to fast for forty days and to be tempted by the devil. All of the temptations of the devil are clever attempts to distract Jesus from the deepest meaning of his life. The devil said, “If you are God’s Son, prove it by doing something for yourself. Change these stones into bread.” The devil said, “If it is power you want, forget about God and follow me.” The devil said, “If you want to be noticed, let me tell you what to do.” .
Monday evening I saw the movie “Passion of the Christ,” by Mel Gibson. While I think the violence in the movie was excessive – perhaps even too much for some – it made a powerful point. Living out our lives to the fullest degree possible and doing what has to be done in fulfillment of God’s will demands love, courage and suffering, sometimes even immense suffering. Jesus shows us the way to resurrection and eternal life by embracing his life and God’s will even when that meant the horrors of death on a Cross. One of the most intriguing figures in the Passion is the devil who not only tries to tempt Jesus out of his God-given mission during the forty days in the desert, but who also appears throughout the Passion story trying to tempt Jesus into thinking that the burden of the sins of the world was too much to carry and the ability of Jesus to carry the Cross alone was too little. The devil constantly tempts Jesus to turn away from the path of his life and to look for and easier way. Left to his human power alone, with the temptations and easy alternatives offered by the devil, Jesus would have surely failed in his mission as savior of the world. But there was another person present in the passion of Jesus, the presence of the God Jesus lovingly called “Abba,” “Dear Father”. As long as Jesus kept his attention focused on the love of his heavenly Father none of the torments he suffered could turn him away from the victory of love – love in the midst of suffering – that he was to accomplish on the Cross. My sense is that the Passion would be an even more powerful movie if it had focused more on the constant presence of God the Father’s love and on the victory of love of God, and the love of all human beings, even enemies, in the death of Jesus on the Cross, and less on the details of physical brutality. In fact, the Passion of Jesus is not primarily about suffering, it is about God’s faithful presence in the midst of suffering and Christ’s victory over death. Jesus has saved us by empowering us to walk the way of the Cross and to triumph with the risen Christ.
Recently I listened to a woman talk about the sorrowful journey of her own life. She gave me permission to share her story. This woman grew up in a loving and very religious Catholic family. She always looked confident and well put together. Her family had given her grace and confidence. Unknown to her family this young woman was sexually abused as a child. As a result she found it impossible to date during high school. During her young adult years her self-loathing led her into a whole string of sexually destructive relationships and two abortions. She finally married someone who was even more desperate for love and understanding than she was. The marriage ended in more abuse and a divorce. During all of this time she had wandered further and further from the Church and active faith in God. Her life was one of great suffering, self-loathing and frantic searching in deep darkness for light. Then she reached the bottom. There was no self left. It had all been ripped away. The only things that were left were God and the devil. There were two choices, to literally die or to die to self and trust God. To turn to God she had to overcome her fear that God wouldn’t be there for her. She thought that she was not good enough for Mass and for God’s love. By the grace of the Holy Spirit this young woman reached out for God. In God’s love she triumphed over sin and darkness. She triumphed over the pain and confusion. She was redeemed in and through her suffering and rose to new life.
The truth of the Passion of Jesus Christ is that Jesus entered into the depth of human suffering to show us that God is with us, even in the deepest moments of desperation and pain. God is with us in our sinfulness. God is with in the confusion of death. God is with us always. The movie led us into the depth of Christ’s suffering and showed us the evil that is in us and the pain that we inflict on others and have to endure ourselves. The movie would have been much more powerful if it had dealt less with suffering and more with the triumph of the resurrection. The story of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a story of God’s victory over sin and suffering. The Passion of Christ has meaning only because God is faithful in our darkness moments and overcomes the darkness with resurrection and new life. Jesus redeems us by entering into our darkness, showing us God’s saving presence even there. Like Jesus, may we embrace our lives willingly and with deep faith. May the grace of the Holy Spirit lead us though the passion to resurrection and new life. For Jesus, the conqueror of sin, darkness and suffering, we give God thanks and praise.