Using Our Powers For Our Own Purposes

After a while away, I'm finally turning back to this blog. I've been doing a lot of writing, but in other places; and I made a conscious decision to take a break for a while. But with the coming transion here at St. Bridget, my job description is obviously changing, and it makes sense to get back to this forum as a way to communicate.

I thought I first would catch up with a few homilies, starting with Lent. This first one was obviously inspired by the Temptation in the Desert, the gospel for the First Sunday in Lent. I was well aware of the coming changes here at St. Bridget, but there had been no formal announcements. I would probably find no argument in pointing out that our prevailing cultural values glorify individual freedom and choice. This homily doesn't push too hard, but gently raises the place of prayer & discernment in making choices, along with a reminder that all our personal gifts come from God.

Actually the example from The Brothers Karamazov was inspired by another blog writer. It pushed me to research that passage, with its Grand Inquisitor.

1st Sunday of Lent (A), 2007

Good morning. This is the first weekend of Lent. I hope your Lent is off to a wonderful start. I love Lent – it’s like we have this special time when Christians all over the world are setting aside time to be with God, to take a look at our lives. All of us – whether we’re young or old, whether we work 80 hours a week or whether we’re not sure what to do with ourselves, whether we’re someone who goes to Mass every day and has an active prayer life or someone who struggles to make it to Mass once or twice a month, everyone is encouraged to sacrifice a little, to fast and pray, to do things that get us out of our ordinary way of being. As you know, we’re encouraging everyone here at St. Bridget this Lent to give two or three hours a week to our relationship with God beyond what we’re used to doing. If you haven’t yet figured out what that means for you, take some time today to think about that and make some commitment for yourself this Lent. You might pick up one of these Stewardship of Time cards that are there on the table near our Baptismal Font and fill it out. You don’t need to hand it in to anyone. Just fill it out as your commitment to God, and keep it someplace where you’ll see it from time to time, just to remind you.

I love our gospel today. Do you know that the Church has used this gospel for the first Sunday of Lent ever since we’ve had Lent – since the 5th century. Lent started out as time preparation and penance just for the catechumens – those unbaptized adults who were getting themselves ready to enter the Christian community at Easter time. And the wider community saw that at Easter, there was a pure joy and radiance that came from them, a New Life that was so obvious and so wonderful, and they thought “Wow, I’d like to experience that too.” And so Lent became a special time for the whole community. It’s a spiritual journey we’re all called to.

And this gospel is a perfect one for us at the beginning of our Lenten journey. In fact, this gospel event took place at the beginning of Jesus’ journey. Our gospel says that he came from the Jordan – it was right after his baptism by John, when he has heard the voice of the Father over him, and he’s filled with the Spirit. The metaphor is perfect – Lent is like going into the desert. And it should not be a time of dread; the Holy Spirit leads Jesus there, not the devil. We might say the desert is a place of purification, of letting go of what is extraneous, of getting to the heart of things. And there in the desert, Jesus was tempted about what how his power should be used. That’s one reason why, down through the centuries, this gospel has been so very valuable for people to ponder. Why those particular temptations? What did they mean? What are today’s temptations?

One of the classic reflections on this gospel takes place in the book, the Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoyevsky. It’s the passage about the Grand Inquisitor – you might google it for yourself; just type in the words “Grand Inquisitor” and you can find the story. The story is placed during the Spanish Inquisition, and the devil figure in the story says that these three temptations are about miracle, mystery, and authority.

Notice that these temptations are not obviously about good and evil. Sometimes we think about temptation as a matter of moral weakness. And that certainly can be true – an alcoholic is tempted to drink, a compulsive gambler is tempted to wager, a lazy person is tempted by idleness. And all of us have areas of weakness in our lives where we are forced to fight battles with temptation. But we need to go a step further and recognize that temptation can also come in areas of our strength. In fact, I think that we are more frequently and more severely tempted in those places where we are strong. All of the temptations of Jesus were aimed at his power. Now, I don’t think any of us would think of comparing our own power with his – but I am saying that we also do have strong areas, and we shouldn’t deny that. In fact, I’d like us all to focus our minds for these next few minutes on our own powers. We all have some – in fact, here are two symbols of our powers [lift up my “props”] – our calendar and our checkbook. What are we doing with our power, and how are we using it? I don’t have time this morning to take each temptation – I’m going to start with the first, but I invite you to do that with temptations II and III on your own.

That first temptation I’d like to call the temptation to use our own powers for our own purposes. The devil waits until Jesus has been fasting for forty days, and tempts him to use his power to satisfy his personal hunger. There’s no obvious evil that Jesus is being tempted to do! And most of us are faced every day with choices on how to use our abilities, our gifts, our position in life, our wealth… choices about our gifts. And these may be choices between a multitude of things that all seem fine – no obvious evil that we can see. We’re faced every day with temptations to use our power for ourselves – for our own comfort or advantage. Jesus in his temptation comes to an understanding about his mission – that his powers are for pointing the world to a different food that will feed their deepest hungers, a relationship with God. How do we use our powers?

You know, I’ve thought about this so many times, at different stages in my life. When I was young, with far more energy than I have now, I had so many wonderful things I wanted to do. How does one decide, as a young person, what paths to take? What school to go to, what job or profession to follow. How do we make those choices? How do we use those powers? Is there a place for prayer, a place for putting those things before God?

And as a young man I met many very attractive young women. How does one choose the right one? How does one choose to use the power to love? Ooh, that’s a great question! But I admit, so often for me there was the temptation to love someone who loved me. Wanting to be loved is natural, and very human. But I have to tell you, it’s so wonderful to be married for all these years to someone who was good, who wasn’t afraid to push me to grow, someone who had ideals that made me a better person. I know, it also helps that she loves me too.

And now that my children are pretty much on there own – my youngest is ready to graduate from UW this spring – it’s a time of change for me – so I find I’m at another point where I’m pondering -- how to use my God-given powers.

That’s a question for any age in life, but it isn’t always so dramatic. In fact, it’s an everyday question, our routines and habits. Do I exercise my body? What do I eat? Do I take my morning crossword puzzle fix and am I cranky if someone interrupts me during my crossword puzzle fix?

If I’m a student, what are my study habits? If I have a job, what are my work habits? How do I use my everyday powers with the people I meet? Am I fair? Do I lift people up or bring them down? Am I too much in a hurry? Do I fill my time so much that there’s too little time left for the most important things – Gratitude – Love – Prayer?

These aren’t usually questions of obvious good and evil. But if we are always used to looking at our daily life as ways for us to use our own power for our own purposes – then when those big questions come up, we’ll usually look at them the same way. How do we use our powers?

That’s a crucial question for us, whatever powers God has given us. It might not seem to be an obvious question of good and evil, right and wrong. And it wasn’t for Jesus either, was it?

Have a good Lent.

Deacon Denny Duffell