Temptation: Our Desert Warfare

St. Mary Roman Catholic Church

New Britain, Connecticut

temptation

In today’s Gospel St. Mark invites us to reflect on temptation both in Christ’s life and our own. In his brief way, Mark says, "The Spirit sent Jesus out toward the desert. He stayed in the wasteland forty days, put to the test there by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him."

The Spirit sends Jesus out to the desert where he is tempted by Satan. So we can say God permits temptation. God even sees it as a necessary step in Christian life. But God himself does not tempt anyone. St. James 1:13 says, " Let no one who is tempted say ‘I am tempted by God’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He himself tempts no one." But obviously God permits us to be tempted, and we need to understand why.

God wants our love and obedience, but it has to be a love and obedience we freely choose to give him. A forced love is not love. If you have ten robots who love you because they are programmed that way, then their love isn’t worth anything. It doesn’t deserve to be called love. If you had ten slaves who obeyed you for fear of their lives, that obedience is nothing more than terror. The only love that counts is the one we freely choose to give. Without temptation to put us to the test, we don’t know where we stand, with God or without him, for Him or against Him. Temptations are stepping stones to bring us closer to God, to freely choose Him over sin.

Mark says Jesus was in the desert wasteland with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him. The desert wasteland represents the human heart. The desert is a solitary place, and it is in the aloneness of our hearts that we experience temptation. The wild animals and the angels represent the continual battle between the forces of good and evil for control over our spirit.

It is easy to notice a war like the one taking place in Bosnia, with daily bombardments and civilian casualties. But the war within us is just as real, and just as serious, even though it doesn’t seem so since it is not large scale, bloody, or dramatic. But our eternal salvation depends on the outcome of the battle that is going on in our hearts. So for each of us that interior struggle is as serious as any world war.

The poet Gerard Manly Hopkins says:

"But be the war within, the brand we yield

Unseen, the heroic breast not outward steeled,

Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray."

The most important fight we are in, is the struggle in our soul.

"He was with the wild animals, and the angels waited on him. "The angels protect him from the wild animals: The forces of the evil one are not allowed to overpower him. Which means that in the middle of our temptations God is there, supporting us with his love and grace. St Paul says in 1 Cor 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to any person. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

Even when we feel alone or abandoned, God is at our side, sustaining us. When we freely choose Him instead of sin, we experience the joy and strength of His embrace.

Top

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Weekly Bulletin ] [ News ] [ Gospel ] [ Prayer ] [ Sacrament ] [ Religious education ] [ Gallery ]