TOPIC OF THE MONTH - MARCH
The Desert
By Ernie Basile
Perhaps you know someone who has served in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the
Persian Gulf War. These men and women know the desert far more than the
rest of us can ever know.
Lent, above all is a desert season, and Jesus invites us to spend some
time there with Him, in the desert.
Lent is not simply a time for giving up things like TV, desserts, candy.
Nor is it simply a time for greater devotion such as the Stations of the
Cross, daily Mass, or the Rosary. These things can and should be part of
Lent, but above all it is a time for us to enter the wilderness of the
desert to face our own desert demon. No other demon will do. The only
demon that matters is waiting for us in the desert, on his own turf.
Like Jesus, we must go to the desert for the showdown, to stalk the
beast in his lair. In the desert Jesus did not conquer the devil, He
simply held His ground until the devil went away.
And we do not have to conquer the devil, we just have to survive the
desert. The victory belongs to Someone else. But if we survive the
desert, we come out a different person.
The desert is not something you do, it is something you endure. And so
many of us avoid the desert, sometimes for most of our life. But if we
do, there is a price we pay. We are not all that we could have been. We
grow old wishing we had done things differently. We have chosen fear
over courage, denial over truth, safety over love.
This year perhaps Jesus is inviting us to go with Him into the desert,
not only as individuals, but as a community which we call church.
Perhaps we are called to squarely face the best and the worst in us as
church, to acknowledge the good and the evil that we are capable of, and
to endure.
Specifically, in many ways the desert has already come to us. We are a
church still unable to avoid the relentless news stories of scandal and
shame, not far away but here in the archdiocese of Chicago and our own
Joliet diocese. Some of us are angry, or saddened, or hurt, or simply
confused. We hope it will go away, or we wait for someone else to make
it all better.
Perhaps this Lent we can receive ashes on our forehead together as
church, the body of Christ, and not just as individuals. As we hear the
words that we are “dust, and into dust we shall return”, we might pause
to remember that maybe we too often have given the devil his due. Like
Jesus, we are constantly tempted with the allure of possessions,
prestige, power. Unlike Jesus, we are seduced. We have tried to be happy
instead of seeking the fullness of life. And we are left with dust, and
the taste of ashes.
Perhaps we will be given the courage to follow our Master to the future
church to which He beckons us, without looking back, Can He be telling
us that the glorious temple, the glorious Church we knew in the past
must die, so that from its ashes a new and more beautiful church will
rise? Is He asking us to let go of the church we knew, so the Spirit can
give birth to a church we can’t even yet imagine? Can He be challenging
us - the People of God - to take the responsibility which is ours to
renew our church? This would really be a call to repentance. For the
biblical word for repentance is metanoia, which means taking a new, a
fresh look at things. Change the direction you’re going in. Maybe even,
“think outside the box”.
If so, how? Perhaps athough difficult it’s not as complex as we make it.
What if we, the local church, the church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in
Darien Illinois, as a community committed ourselves to follow the Gospel
more fully, to listen to it more carefully, to believe in its power more
deeply? What if we really believed and acted on the words of Jesus,
“blessed are you when people despise you, and insult you, and think all
manner of evil of you. Rejoice and be happy….” What a different way to
look at things! What Good News! The Greek word for “blessed” is macarios,
which means happy, or lucky. Jesus is telling us that what we as church
are now going through should make us feel lucky! It is a time of pain,
of struggle, but of opportunity. Now is the time that perhaps we are
ready to surrender to the Spirit.
In acknowledging our brokenness and our wounds, God will have a place to
enter - what some spiritual masters call the “hole in the soul” and what
St. Paul expressed in his words “when I am weak, then I am strong”.
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and
the fact that I think I am following
your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the
desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never
do anything apart from that desire. And I know
that if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton
For further reading: Faith That Dares To Speak, by Donald Cozzens. |
