Sorry this post is coming at the end of the day. I have spent much of the day reflecting on these three readings and their significance in connection to the Lenten Season.
I am struck by the images of power that are used to describe God in the first reading in contrast to Jesus' refusal toward the temptation of power in the Gospel. Moses reminds his people:
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
I think this passage demonstrates just how deeply Moses loved God, but also how trusting he was to God's promise to deliver them to salvation, a land in which Moses did not see in his life time. God did deliver to his people. I am amazed and slightly overwhelmed by Moses' witness to faith. His connection to God was one so intimate that all the adversity in the desert was not able to draw question in his mind. Moses was so open to relationship with God he was able to experience, see, and feel God's presence actively working in his day to day life.
I took a class in college entitled "The Mystery of God and Human Suffering." It was one of my professor's hopes that the material would be so thought provoking that it would draw us to question the very depth of our faith in order to come to a deeper understanding of God's intricate role in our life. One of the basic claims of this course was: "The human being is naturally oriented toward the greater good," the second was that "a human being is in a constant state of becoming, where as God IS." The idea of natural orientation means that we, as humans, are programmed to desire good, most specifically the "greatest good," meaning God. We cannot fully understand God because God IS and we are in a state of becoming. Our orientation causes us to seek temporary goods (short term happiness, career success, money, material pleasures) in hopes of satisfying our need. What often happens is a person is makes the claim: If I could just ________ then I could________________. When we fill the blanks and find that need satisfied we soon find that we are able to fill the blanks with a new need.
In lent, and in our faith journey, we are challenged to fill that need of satisfaction not with material goods or temporary happiness, but with and active longing for deeper relationship with God. We are then asked to fast, or abstain from something in our life that is causing distraction or is disrupting our ability to be open to this connection. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the rhythms and routines that dictate our day to day transgressions that we can find ourselves gliding through life without pausing to reflect on the meaning of our actions and the impact of the wake that we inevitably leave behind us. I guess the challenge then is to make time to be aware of the choices we make and the impact they inevitably have on the kingdom.
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