First Sunday Of Lent, Year B-- Among The Wild Things

He was among wild beasts.

(Mark 1:3 from our First Reading)

This is no Garden of Eden.

Jackals, “wild dogs, cheetahs, spotted hyenas and lions all of which are often "starvation driven" must exploit every opportunity to obtain a meal, which includes humans.1 The wild beasts “likely refers to hostile demonic opposition to Jesus; and the service of angels, to their assistance in battle.”2 Many see Psalm 91 as a background text, which promises salvation from wild beasts by angels to God’s chosen.

A comedian said, “I have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. I’m also deaf in one ear.”

The devil's jackals are like the roaring lion spoken of in 1 Peter 5:8: temptation is never far away.

Teresa of Ávila, in her classic, The Interior Castle, exhorts, “Let us endeavor to do our best: beware of the poisonous reptiles which are the bad thoughts and aridities which are often permitted by God to assail and torment us so that we cannot repel them. Indeed, sometimes we feel their sting! He allows this to teach us to be more on our guard in the future and to see whether we grieve much at offending Him.”

Verse 12 from our Gospel says, “The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert,” into isolation, and exposure and discomfort to the heat and cold at night. It is the abode of evil spirits in the Old Testament and in later Jewish and Christian traditions (Lev. 16:10, 1 Enoch 10:4-5; Matthew 12:43; Luke 11:24).

The true desert is within us, in our soul, but it’s buried under interior turmoil or everyday annoyances, business, and legitimate pursues in sports and entertainment. The purpose is to possess ourselves, as Dom Guillerand said, “What men possess in themselves, they find nowhere else.”3

In Joseph Noel Paton’s famous painting called, “Satan Watching the Sleep of Christ,” Jesus sleeps. The devil plots, sporting a perfect halo of interspersed shoots of fire at just the right height, but unlike a saintly halo, this one is generated within the head of a disguised, but damned fiery body. Similarly, in a song by Terri Gibbs entitled “Someone’s Knockin,” it turns out that the devil is knocking at her door and she says, “I never dreamed he’d have blue eyes and blue jeans.”

The problem, per se, is not a person with blue eyes and blue jeans; it’s the temptations to objectify that and to be unfaithful. Unmistakable paw prints.

Once again, it was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the desert, which is the good news. The bad news is that Matthew 4:11 qualifies that the angels attended to Jesus AFTER the devil had finished his temptations.

You are on your own in the meantime.

Who you gonna call?

Start from within.

Our battle to win souls for Christ, by grace alone, must begin in the heart. Each one must wage the battle with himself, determinedly conquering in his heart the spirit of pride and self. This terrible struggle with the root of evil within one, this constant striving after purity of intention, how exhausting it is. It is the battle of a lifetime.

Reliance upon one's own efforts will make it the failure of a lifetime; for self-winds-itself even into the attack on self. Of what use are one’s own muscles to one struggling in a quicksand? A firm support is necessary.

Your firm support is reliance on Christ. Like Mary, lean upon him with complete trust, for she is deeply rooted in that humility which is vital to you. In turning towards Christ must necessarily turn away from self so that he crushes the serpent of self, with its many heads.

Temptations are defeated from protection from self-seeking; from self-sufficiency; from self-conceit; from self-love; from self-satisfaction; from self-advancement; one studies Christ who is God alone, in the Holy Spirit. There is no room for plans of self or reward or from self-will; distrusting the promptings of one’s own inclinations and in all things listens intently for the whisperings of grace.4

We hear about the Rainbow from Genesis 9:13 in our First Reading: The rainbow is a sign that God won’t punish the earth by a great flood anymore, and Sirach 43:12 tells us to “Look upon the rainbow, and bless him that made it: it is very beautiful in its brightness.”

There are rainbows in heaven: and a rainbow is around the throne” (Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 4:3).

It’s said that “Life is like a rainbow: “you need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear.”

In fact, many cultures have divided their history after a nation-destroying flood, like the Book of Genesis does. After humanity was wiped out, it gets a second chance.

In conclusion:

“The wilderness gives Jesus strength. It is not simply a place of negation or temptation. It is also a place of preparation and perception, absent of human power structures and controls, a wild place where supernatural forces move unfettered — a place that can empower, depending upon how the experience is handled. Our wildernesses and deserts are not our endings. It is the Spirit of God who leads us about in them. They are our opportunities.”5