Here is the text of the homily I shared with the gathered community, a meditation on the temptations of Christ and a few suggestions for how they can help us to live as disciples today.
God’s tears
A
few days ago, we began the journey with Christ toward the cross, and the
Resurrection. Throughout these forty
days, the Lord wants to prepare us, like he prepared the disciples so that the
crosses we must bear do not stop us from understanding our trials as a part of
the journey to the fullness of life.
The
book of Genesis reminds us that our journey began when the Lord God formed us from the dust of the ground, and breathed into
our nostrils the breath of life.
Those of you who are parents can perhaps remember the moments when your
children were born, when they first drew breath, when their first cry pierced
your ears and filled your soul with overflowing joy. This must have been what it was like for God
to see the first of his human creations come alive, and since that moment, he
has continued to experience that joy each time one of us comes to life. I wonder if God sheds tears of joy.
Parents
need to provide nourishment for their children from the moment of their birth,
at least until those children are able to provide for themselves. Parents also need to establish certain rules
because they love their children and want to protect them from harm, but
children always find ways to test the rules, don’t they? You
shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. Have you ever noticed that if you tell a
child not to do something, that is exactly what he or she will want to do, and
then they will try to blame someone else for having made them do it? Notice that as soon as they ate the fruit of
that tree, there were consequences: their
eyes were opened. I wonder if God
shed a tear of disappointment when he discovered that his beloved children had
broken the rules.
Once
some things are broken, they cannot be put back together. Thankfully some things can, but there is
always evidence to tell us that they have been broken in the past. Saint Paul was referring to the sin of Adam
and Eve when he told the Romans that sin
came into the world through one man, but the story didn’t end there. The pieces were put back together. We still see evidence of sin in our world,
but we also see evidence of the abundance
of grace and the free gift of righteousness which is the healing remedy
given to us by God through Jesus Christ.
It
wasn’t a coincidence that Jesus was tempted by the devil: we all are, but Jesus
shows us that it is possible to recognize the serpent in our midst, and it is
possible to turn away from his temptations.
The devil is constantly at work, tempting us to believe that we don’t
need God, that it is possible to eat the fruit of the tree without dying, that
we have the power to turn stones into bread, that we can put God to the test
just as children put their parents to the test, and that material wealth will satisfy
every longing. Lent is a time of grace,
another opportunity for us to recognize that the devil’s promises are hollow,
that we do not live by bread alone, but
by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Adults understand the fact that
children should not put their parents to the test, since the rules are put in
place in order to protect them so why do we have such trouble understanding
that we should not put God to the test because he has only ever wanted to
protect us from harm?
Perhaps
it isn’t possible for God to fully restore us to our first innocence: that jar
was shattered long ago, but the pieces have been put together again. There are still cracks that refract the
light, evidence of the wounds that have been inflicted, but thankfully, God has
never left his people alone, so when the devil tempts us to think that we can
find true happiness in the splendour of this world, it is possible to resist
because we know that Jesus has done it before us.
Lent
is a time of grace, an opportunity for us to rediscover the immense joy that
comes from knowing that we are all God’s children. As we gather here to worship him, and as we
strive to serve only him through
living lives of service to others, may we come to know the joy that once
brought a tear to God’s eye, and that still brings tears to ours.
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