Here is what Jesus heard from Satan: “Take control, prove yourself, worship something easier.” But Jesus does something remarkable instead. He does not argue about it, perform miracles, or do anything to make things easier. He simply trusts the experience and that changes everything. Because salvation is not just God declaring us forgiven from a distance. It is God entering our condition from the inside.
Jesus knows hunger…our weakness…the voice that whispers, “Take the easier path.” He faces temptation not as God pretending to be human, but as real human being…and he wins.
The desert becomes a battlefield and this before he ever preaches a sermon or heals the sick, He defeats the enemy at the root. This is why Lent begins here because Lent is not about proving ourselves worthy of God…Jesus already did what we could not do. Instead, it is about learning to trust the Father the way Christ himself did. Every temptation at its core asks the same question: “Can God really be trusted?" In the garden of Eden, the answer was no. But in the wilderness, Jesus answers yes. And because he said yes, we can begin again. When we feel the “hunger” this Lent, especially the hunger for control, approval, comfort; remember: Christ has already entered that wilderness. He did not go there for himself. He went there for you and me. And where we have failed, he has already been victorious.
Lent is not meant to be lived alone. Because the truth is: most of our temptations are not dramatic. They come quietly, like when a marriage is strained, a parent is exhausted, when grief returns, when you’re trying to stay sober one more day…when you’re tempted to give up on prayer because nothing seems to change. That’s why the Church gives us forty days…and we need the Church and one another through every day which means walking into the wilderness together. Every time we come together whether for Mass, Stations of the Cross, Adoration, or just to be alone, we are stepping into the desert with Jesus…but never alone.
Our parish is not a collection of perfection but instead a shelter for people in the struggle. The invitation of Lent is this: when you feel the hunger of temptation, don’t just grit your teeth and try harder. Come back to the altar because the same Jesus who refused the devil’s bread in the wilderness…now gives himself to us as the living bread in the Eucharist.
The devil says, “Turn stones into bread.” Jesus says, that’s nothing, watch me “I will turn bread into my Body.” And that is how we survive the desert…by his presence.
-Fr. Larry Covington