Is. 9:1-6; Eph. 4:7-13; Mt. 4:1-7
“We know only a little about Jesus’ early life and education. I suspect it was not unusual for him, by the time he was thirty and beginning public life, to take breaks from his work, family, and village by climbing up alone into the hills or hiking in the wilderness.
In our own times we seem to be aware of an increasing need to regain contact with ourselves in the way we do when alone. Even the partners in a marriage relationship can have the need at times for being alone for their own maturity and well-being. Fulfilling this can bring fresh and energy to their union. Maybe all of us can learn more and more how to be alone in a healthy way, just as we all learn how to live with other people.
We also need and crave the periodic immersion in the natural world in which we evolved as human beings. City parks, trees, and gardens are gentle ways to begin to reconnect with the earth and with that pre-rational part of ourselves that needs caring for. But these are not nearly enough at all.
Our monastic predecessers had a familiarity and a deep respect for the natural solitude of the deserts and forests. They felt called to go there as the only way they could realistically begin to follow Christ and live the gospels more fully. They have left us a wealth of wisdom stories and sayings that were the fruit of their experience.
We also know a quite a bit from the diaries of hikers and explorers today, and from our own experiences, about what might happen when you are away from human interaction and society’s securities, obligations, and distractions. You begin to see things differently and a lot clearer after just a few days. Some healing and rejuvenation may come about. I would imagine you get to learn an awful lot about yourself after being out there for forty days as the Lord was.
Some have gone to extremes in the search for solitude, with or without any guidance or sanity. Recently I came across a photo of a monk’s hands reaching out through the tiny window of an otherwise completely walled-up stone cell. Somewhere in Russia or the Far East this recluse had imprisoned himself to be free to grapple more intensely with his inner demons and without distraction climb the ladder to enlightenment. Ironically, the photo’s caption said this practice was outlawed by the government and was punishable by…imprisonment. (I guess this means somewhere other than his present cell.)
The gospel read today says Jesus was fasting as he was led by the spirit into the desert. We might look at that journey and that barren topography as reflections or symbols of a part of the landscape of human life that needs some tending to or which has become the site of a harsh inner conflict.
We know there were Essene communities in remote locations there, oases where Jesus might possibly have found support in his own quest. We can only imagine how much they must have helped him recover from his physical and spiritual ordeal, no doubt as gently as the angels mentioned in the gospel.
Yet the work of uncovering the roots of his own human motivations and waging the battle for his soul could only be accomplished alone. As the very human but newly baptised son of God, he had the moral and psychological strength and spiritual insight he needed. Today’s story gets down to the essence of this scrutiny and testing, this contest with evil, where each word was a sharp sword. With utter clarity Jesus pierced through the weakness of the flesh, the worldly delusions, and the convoluted rationalizations thrown at him by the tempter.
This was not to be the end of it for Jesus. We are told later about withdrawing from the crowds, nights spent praying, his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, and finally his last words on the cross.
At times we might perhaps see ourselves sharing a bit in the archetype of this heroic story, not only when meditating on it but when wrestling with choices that seem nearly impossible, and in trying situations that test our own mettle. These might even begin to feel less like occasions of temptation and more like the fire of purification.
Christ is in our midst!
