1st Sunday of Lent, 2007
I few weeks ago I gave you a short hand for my homily on the call of Isaiah and Peter. It was Wow Oh No Send Me. Today’s short hand is Me, You (pointing to Jesus on the Cross and Us. Me You Us. That’s it for today.
The Me comes from my earliest memory of Lent. It was not my favorite time of the year because I had to “give something up” for 40 days. It was always chocolate and it never worked. At some point I gave up on giving up.
Then as I got older I realized that the Lenten season was a special time of journeying with Jesus, especially coming close to him in his humanity. Beginning with the temptation scene in the wilderness/desert, we are invited to be in solidarity with the person of Jesus, to see our salvation at work in him.
But then I began working with those adults who were preparing for the sacraments of initiation at Easter and I learned that the real focus of Lent was “us’, who we are as a community of faith, walking with those folks who are moving these Easter sacraments. And that is a source of great joy in this season of repentance, fasting, and reflection. (note on the Deuteronomy passage)
In today’s scriptures there’s a little bit of “me”, more of You and a lot of “us”
We find the “me” in the words of the psalm “Be with me lord, when I am in trouble” and in the words of Paul, “If you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved” There is an invitation for each of us individually to reflect deeply on who we are in God’s eyes, what God may be asking of us, facing our own demons and resistance to God’s initiative of Love.
And of course there is the focus on “you” Jesus. Led by the spirit, Jesus is strengthened for combat against Satan, the force of evil, the Not-God in the world. Luke invites us to see a very personal struggle within Jesus and the “powers that be”. What we are meant to see is how truly human Jesus is, that he is like us in his struggles against the temptations that might lead him away from God’s mission for him.
But most of all there is a strong sense of “Us” in the scriptures. In the reading from Deuteronomy we have a liturgical text. The people are gathered for worship and they make the offering and tell the story of their salvation, (like we do today) But notice that the story begins “my Father was a wandering Aramean but the “my and me” soon becomes “our and us” This is not about individuals but rather about community. There is a powerful senses of “Corporate” Identity. That is a body of people who are united by the covenant.
Even though we tend to focus in the temptation scene on Jesus as individual, the resonance with the temptations of the people of Israel in the desert are meant to be remind us that Jesus is embodying the struggles of all people. His temptations remind us of the manna in the desert (the bread from heaven), the worship of the golden calf, testing God at the waters of meribah and massa. Although more pronounced in matthew’s version of the temptations, the sense of Jesus not just as I but as “us” is also there.
And that is the great mystery we celebrate in Jesus’ life and death and rising. There is no distinction between I and You and Us. In Jesus we are made one. In Jesus our common humanity and struggle is affirmed. We are called to be “for” each other and with each other.
Me, You and Us. Three in One. A trinity for Lent.
May this Lenten season be a time of personal prayer and reflection
May this Lenten season be a time of intimacy with Jesus
May this Lenten season be a time for Us all to be Christ for each other, and especially for those who are receiving the easter sacraments.