(March 7, 2022: Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs) Ask for the grace and the strength to follow the example of Christ. Ask for the insight to see the ways in which you are tempted to spend your life wishing you were someone else. However, his belief in God's plan for him allowed Jesus to disavow the empty promise of a quick fix for the path that leads to true happiness, health and holiness.Īs we journey through yet another season of Lent, let us ask for the courage we need to recognize the voice of the tempter in us. Jesus was tempted to take the (seemingly) easy way out. Jesus was tempted to forsake the authentic pathway of love for the hollow, devilish promise of a shortcut. Jesus was tempted to be someone and be somehow other than who he was. Believe me, this is the most important point - and the least understood - in the spiritual life.” ( Letters of Spiritual Direction, p. Direct your thoughts to being very good at that and to bear the crosses, little or great, that you find there. Don't long to be someone other than what you are rather, desire to thoroughly be who you are. “Don't sow your desires in someone else's garden just cultivate your own as best you can. How often do we tell ourselves that we would be happier, healthier and holier if we were someone else? How often do we say that there must be another way (read, an easier way, a shortcut) to be a good wife, a good husband, a good son or daughter, a good sister or brother, a good friend or neighbor? The tragedy is that if we spend our lives believing that we'd be better off if we were someone or somewhere else, we never live the one life - the only life - that God gives us. Jesus was tempted to believe that there was a shortcut to salvation.
Jesus was tempted to believe that there was an easier way to redeem, to save, to sanctify. Jesus was tempted to be a different kind of savior.
What is the fundamental temptation here? Jesus was tempted to be someone other than who God wanted him to be. Jesus was tempted to throw himself from the temple: presumably, to convince people of his identity and authority. Jesus was tempted with all the power and glory of earthly kingdoms. Jesus was tempted to turn stone into bread. While Jesus was preparing to begin his public ministry - to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God, to be the kind of Messiah envisioned by His Father and to open up his mind and heart to the power and promise of the Holy Spirit - he was tempted.
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