Audio: https://sites.google.com/site/sktdeaconed/home/mp3/homily%2002.17.13.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1
W W J D ?
What Would Jesus Do?
Those bracelets
with the initials WWJD were all the rage not all that long ago, and a simple
google search on line reveals that even today you can buy T-shirts, keychains,
buttons, bumper stickers and even a DVD that all ask the same question: What Would
Jesus Do?
Ya
know, I was never all that fond of that question, I’m not sure why, perhaps
because it seems a bit presumptuous to me – like anyone can know for sure
exactly what Jesus would do in a given situation. For if there was one thing that Jesus
consistently did, it was to surprise His disciples! They could never guess what he would do next. And they never did quite figure Him out. At least not until after His death and
resurrection. Still, I think it is good
on occasion that we, who profess Faith in Christ Jesus, ask ourselves the
question: What would Jesus Do?
Today’s
Gospel gives as clear a picture as we’re going to get of what Jesus would do in
a particular situation. In the face of the
devil’s temptation, in a time of testing.
You see, this Jesus, who was fully divine, the Son of God, was also
fully human. A man. A human being like you and me. And subject to all the temptations and distractions
of this world. Temptations and
distractions I am very familiar with. As
I’m sure are you. Something we live with
each day!
We
see Jesus all alone in the desert for 40 days, led there by the Spirit for the purpose
of being tempted, Luke tells us. And at
the end of 40 days, when He is tired and famished and thirsty and weak, who
comes along, but the devil? To tempt Him
three times. At his weakest moment. Perhaps with the very temptations that are
Jesus’ weaknesses. For doesn’t the devil
somehow know, in you and me, exactly what our weaknesses are?
The devil tempts Him
with pleasure, represented by bread.
Tempts Him with earthly power and glory.
And finally the devil takes Him to the top of the temple and tells Him
to challenge God, to tempt the Father!
“Throw yourself down,” the devil sneers, “and see if your Father will
come to protect you, to keep you from dashing your foot against a stone.” Here the devil is even quoting scripture - today’s
Psalm 91. Now. What will Jesus do?
Well
it is said that the true test of a person’s character is to find out whether he
or she will do the right thing even when no one’s watching. So with nobody there other than His tempter,
what is Our Lord’s response?
He
is faithful.
Jesus
remains faithful to His Father. Faithful
to their relationship. He rejects each
of these temptations, each temptation being an opportunity for Him to glorify
Himself, to place Himself above the Father.
He chooses to humble Himself. By
choosing to remain Faithful.
For
you and me, for whom temptation is a familiar thing, especially
when we’re at our weakest, how do we answer the question - What would I do?
Too often, I
confess, I choose to not remain faithful.
To put myself first. To give in
to temptation. To exclude God, forget
about God. Think back to Adam and Eve
in the garden – they’ve blocked God out completely – God is absent when they
give in to the devil’s temptation.
And what is this
called when you an I are not faithful to our relationship with the Lord? It’s called sin.
And
that’s the real meaning of today’s Gospel, I think – keeping in relationship
with God, keeping faithful to Him – clinging to Him, if you must. And we must!
You see, as
disciples of Jesus, you and I are called to be in a covenant relationship with
God through Christ, and so we must strive to be faithful to Him throughout our
lives, as was Our Blessed Lord. For God
our Father is always faithful to us!
He always loves us; we are called to always love Him back!
Our
first reading from Deuteronomy describes a grateful Israelite people celebrating
their covenant with God, celebrating His faithfulness, giving of their first
fruits in Thanksgiving to God. Thankful
that after 430 years in bondage in Egypt, God has set them free. Thankful that after 40 years in the desert, even
though they have been tempted and not remained faithful, God has
remained faithful and has now led them into the promised land. It’s a people who are, for the moment at
least, faithful to their covenant with God.
But a people who will soon forget God’s faithfulness and stray from their
covenant. As do you and I, do we not?
This
time of lent is a time to examine ourselves – in what ways have I failed to
remain faithful to God? In what ways and
in what areas of my life have I blocked God out of my life? What rooms of my life are off limits, to
God? The pantry perhaps? The computer room? The TV room?
The bedroom?
And
how have I failed to remain faithful, not only in the things I’ve done, but in
what I’ve failed to do? Where I have
failed to see God, in the immigrant, the elderly, the poor, the unborn? Where have I failed to even look for Him in
the world around me?
You
see, the Church in her wisdom gives us these forty days of lent to step back,
to retreat if you will, to look at our lives, and become aware of all the ways
in which we have not remained faithful.
And to repent and be healed, to return to relationship. To
repent, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To be healed and return to relationship, especially
at the table of the Lord, receiving the Most Blessed Sacrament, His Body and
Blood. To
And
it’s a time to realize that hard as we try, we do fail at times. A time to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves
off and keep at it. The spiritual
journey is not a smooth or even road – it’s a road with many turns and potholes
and flat tires and even broken axles at times.
But, my sisters and
brothers, the good news of the Gospel is this - we have Jesus Christ as our
great mediator with the Father. Despite
our unfaithfulness, we have our One Lord, the One who did remain
faithful, even to the cross! Who
provides for all of us who call upon his name, not only the great example of
faithfulness, but the grace and strength and courage so that we may grow in
faithfulness. Who will, if we but call
upon His name, set us free from our sin and help us to overcome
temptation.
So that we may be
ever more faithful in the face of life’s distractions and difficulties and
temptations. Faithful to God our Father. Faithful to His Holy Spirit. And faithful to Jesus Christ who is Lord for
ever and ever. Amen.
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