St. Bede-St. Denis Parish Home

My dear brothers and sisters:

 

The great danger we followers of Jesus face is irrelevance. We risk becoming salt that has lost its flavor and light that no longer illuminates anyone. We call ourselves believers and, in practice, end up diluting God in our lives because we are too focused on our own projects, interests, and worries. We think we follow God when in reality we lead lives in which we seek God to follow us.

 

We inhabit a hyperactive world and breathe air so permeated with individualism and the pursuit of personal autonomy that we lack the silence and contemplation necessary to hear what God is asking of us in our hectic lives. This Sunday's Gospel presents Jesus in the desert facing temptation before embarking on his tireless work of proclaiming the Kingdom of God. The tempter tests Jesus by making him doubt his status as the Son of God and seducing him with the promise of immediate results, the success that comes from wielding power, and the comfort that comes from riches.

 

The temptations of Jesus show us that what is decisive is not so much their content, but rather adopting a lifestyle in which, seduced by so many things, we end up forgetting who we are and who the God in whom we believe and trust truly is.

 

Contemplating Jesus, who experienced temptation, helps us strengthen our Christian identity and prevents God from fading from our lives. Jesus responds to the tempter by reaffirming the freely given love of a Father who needs no concessions or results to be credible. Jesus confirms our hope, as long as we embrace God's love for us and do not try to drag him along with the impulses of our desires, our personal projects, and interests.

 

"If you are the Son of God..." The inner whisper of the tempter's voice accompanied Jesus' life until the very end, right up to the cross.

 

It can also accompany ours when we go through times of trial and doubt, when God seems to disappear from our lives. Let us not fall into the amnesia of activism, and let us never forget that no matter what happens, nothing and no one can separate us from the love that God has for us. A love that cannot be bought with results because it is free and unconditional. A believable love that is worthwhile and that gives meaning to our lives. 

 

Happy Sunday!

 

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