
February 18, 2014
1st Sunday
of Lent
Year B
For Jesus, the desert appears first and foremost as a struggle against the dominant forces of the world.
THE DESERT
This Lent we will highlight some symbols that emerge in particular from the Gospels. On this first Sunday our attention is focused on the desert, of which we want to bring out three aspects: the desert as an anti-idolatrous struggle; the desert as vocational consolidation; the desert as a recovery of interiority. For Jesus, the desert appears first and foremost as a struggle against the dominant forces of the world. First of all, power, which wants to assert itself through violence, then self-love, which leads to narcissistic withdrawal and finally the anti-messianic logic, which wants to remove the way of the cross – as via amoris – to follow the path of triumphalism. These dominants still influence the path of the Christian community today. But they are not the only ones. Let’s think about the logic of utilitarianism, where the person is reduced to a mere instrument; to consumerism (a fascinating and seductive idol), which propagates the idea that happiness equals satiety. Hence the need for positive asceticism, vigilance, discernment and spiritual struggle for the Christian. In the desert, Jesus consolidated his call to baptism; in that event he became aware of his divine sonship and his messianic mission. Jesus will experience the desert face to face with temptation but also with the word of God which becomes for him the foundation and goal of his actions and operations. In the desert (midbar), Jewish tradition states, the One who speaks (medabber) is heard. Finding silence therefore means having spaces of interior silence, recognizing the centrality of the word of God, and discovering the face of others as the incarnation of the face of God. Hence, the third step, the discovery of one’s own interiority, of one’s own profound soul. Interiority is not only the hidden soul of human existence, but, borrowing a verse from the American poet Emily Dickinson, what allows us to grasp transcendence as disclosed immanence. As an icon for this first Sunday of Lent we refer to Christ in the Desert (1872) by Ivan Kramskoj. The trial that grips Christ does not concern bread, nor power but nothingness. Jesus is alone, among the rocks of the desert, and meditates on his destiny in the absolute silence of God.
Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)
Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey