633 sligo avenue, silver spring, md 20910
633 sligo avenue, silver spring, md 20910
Rev. Susan G. Astarita
March 5, 2006
In the upcoming issue of the Epistle I share with you one of the best contemporary discussions about temptation published recently. For those who have not received their Epistles, I share it with you here: It is right and proper to begin Lent thinking about temptation -- the human condition from the Garden of Eden on! The fact that the cookie jar was off limits may be one of our earliest memories. But it is difficult to accept that Jesus' temptations might be anything like our own.
...The temptations of Jesus out in the wilderness seem so grand compared to our, often trivial, wanderings. Asked to turn stones into bread, jump off a pinnacle, or given an offer to claim all the kingdoms of the world if he would just worship the devil, Jesus said a flat no. Jesus turned the tempter down!
Nevertheless, the temptations offered to Jesus were very real to Him. Real temptations, real decisions to be made. Real consequences to live with. He was tempted just as human beings have always been.
"Tempted just as we are," as the saying goes. Under each of these temptations was the elemental temptation to deny who He was and how He was going to be. To give in, to follow another path, would be to deny His singular mission, His vocation, His being.
As Jesus' ministry took form, there were always other voices asking him to be somebody else. Some wanted him to be their idea of the Messiah. Some asked him to sound and act more like a Savior they would easily recognize. Some asked him to be more of a healer and miracle worker, a more traditional teacher, a more visible hero. And Jesus turned them down!
For us, Lent can be forty days and nights of trivial temptations about things that don't really matter all that much. (You and I know the regular items for a Lenten discipline!) OR it can be a creative wilderness time to ask ourselves some deeper questions. You see, we all really do share the elemental temptation of Jesus.
Our temptation as well is to deny who we are, and how we are supposed to be, and instead, keep trying to become 'someone else' for all the 'someone elses' out there in the world. We are always tempted to quit being who we are instead of discovering the person God has always wanted us to be ... ourselves.
Being ourselves in a world that consistently asks us to be someone else is the most difficult task we can have in life, and it is a task that never goes away. We, of course, can try to improve. People do get better. People do put aside destructive ways of behaving. Being ourselves just means that we don't need to try to become someone else in order to be loved by God. This is hard for us to believe -- but it is the gospel truth!
Living into ourselves -- our particular set of gifts -- is hard work, tiring work. When Jesus himself had finished his work of self differentiation and purpose in the wilderness, angels came and took care of him. Angels will care for us as well in the midst of temptation. But we must risk some wilderness time in order for that to happen.
Faithfully,
Mother Susan +