First Sunday of Lent

03-01-2020Weekly ReflectionFr. Will Schmid

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had disobeyed the Lord, they found themselves in immense shame. In their shame, they tried to hide from God. They did not want to be seen for who they had become, so they covered themselves up and fortified themselves behind the trees to avoid being seen. When the Lord came to them to call them out of hiding, he asked them a question. Not a question of accusation like, “What have you done?” or a question of confusion like, “What is going on here?” Rather, he asked them a deep and personal reflective question: “Where are you?” Salvation history, the process by which God saves us from sin and death and draws us into new life and love, begins with a question inviting us to locate ourselves. The season of Lent, in a sense, is inviting each of us to ask the deeply personal and reflective question, “Where am I?”

Whenever the Lord asks a question, for those who are willing to listen, it results in the strange experience of being painful and wonderful, unsettling and illuminating, and inconvenient and inspiring, all at the same time. Even though God calls us to emerge from our hiding places, and the experience of emergence is always freeing, the very fact that God’s questions meet us in our hiding places, causes all of our disorientations, delusions, and shame to stir up within us. No one is on secure ground when the Lord starts asking questions. Yet, that’s the way a cure usually works: things often get worse before they get better.

As we all know from the book of Genesis, man is made in the image and likeness of God. The Lord has breathed His own breath of life into man. God, in His essence, is a Trinitarian communion of persons united in a bond of self-giving love. Love, then, is man’s mission and is the activity that brings him true joy and fulfillment. Satan’s dirty little trick in every temptation is to try to get man to forget who he is and to give himself away to something other than the One for whom he was made. In other words, since love is a communion persons, Satan deceives man into trading his person for a possession; a “who” in exchange for a what.” Persons are always greater than things. Trading myself for things is always a very bad business deal.

The three temptations Jesus faces in the desert - to turn stones into bread to satisfy physical hunger, to jump off the Temple as a way of ensuring safety and security from the Lord, and to worship Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms and wealth of the world - are questions concerning what satisfies and fulfills a human person. Am I truly satisfied and fulfilled if I am well fed? If I am safe and secure - free of any potential harm? When I have worldly power and status? If I have all three of these these things, will I then be happy?

I don’t know about you, but I have met a lot of people who are well fed, safe and secure, extremely wealthy and also unhappy. Don’t get me wrong, I think every human person should have enough food to eat, feel safe and secure in their environment, and have all the basic necessities of life. Yet, our true happiness, our deepest fulfillment, is never found in things. They are found in relationships. The most important relationship for our true happiness and fulfillment is our relationship with the Lord. We were made for a loving relationship with God. It’s stamped into our soul. We are restless until we rest in Him.

The season of Lent is a time to let the Lord ask us the question, “Where are you?” Have I found myself trying to find nourishment and life in things that, in the end, don’t provide this? Am I trying to force stones to be bread? Am I searching for safety and security apart from God’s plan for my life? Am I making decisions apart from the Lord and expecting (and maybe even demanding) that God provide me with a worldly solution? Am I on a fruitless quest for excessive wealth and status? Have I given my heart to the world and worldly kingdoms instead of the One for whom my heart truly longs? As long as we choose to remain in our hiding places, surrendering our hearts in exchange for worldly possessions and comforts, we will never be able to step out of hiding and into the light of Christ. Jesus refuses to save us without us.

Lent is the time to be led out of hiding and into the light of God. Will we let Jesus meet us in our hiding places? Will we take seriously the glorious, yet dangerous, question, “Where are you?” Our hearts were made for the Lord and can only find true peace and fulfillment in Him.   

Peace in Christ,
Fr. Will