THOUGHTS OF A MONK

Temptation

April 1, 2007

Zc 9:9-12; 16-17a; Ph 3:10-4:1; Jn 12:1-19

It’s spring!  And you know what that means: We’re busier than ever. Parents taking the kids to soccer practice, music lessons, and activities without end. Making up for snow days lost. And there’s spring cleaning, planning for the summer vacation dealing with the laundry list of emergencies that hit us: sickness, visits from or to relatives, water pipes bursting, problems at school or work and on it goes. We dash around from pillar to post as the saying goes!  Rushing to try and get everything done. Busy, busy, busy.  And it goes on here at the monastery too. We think that our busy time is in the fall with the mail order season and all the services leading up to Christmas.  Now, we have to think about a workshop we’ve scheduled in April, prepare for the possible influx of visitors in the wake of the broadcast of the new Animal Planet TV show DIVINE CANINE which features New Skete, plan for our Open House in June and our Annual pilgrimage in August plus the two major feasts then, and all this is after Holy Week and the Paschal Feast!  Busyness can make us feel important, that we’re solving all the world’s problems. Oh how the temptations of life can draw us away from God. It happens in subtle ways.

In our community at the beginning of Great Lent we heard the Gospel lesson about Jesus beginning his ministry by going into the desert and facing the temptations of the devil. He fended off all those temptations: the call to turn stones into bread, or to leap off a cliff to show that God’s angels would protect him and finally to gain power over all the cities of the world if only he would worship the devil. These temptations were intended to lure Jesus away from God. Today we celebrate the entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, and notice what is happening here: Adulation, the shouts of Hosanna, the declaration that Jesus is the Messiah/King, the one who will liberate the Jewish homeland from the Roman occupiers.  This crescendo of praise is a temptation Jesus faces from little children and the crowds with them!  The temptation is that “power can be yours, you only need to do what we want you to do.” One might see similarities between this temptation and the one in the desert where the devil said: I will give you all of the cities of the world if you will but worship ME!  In Jerusalem as in the desert, Jesus is not disturbed by these temptations but instead continues on his journey to Golgotha. How many of us would be looking for an escape route from a similar situation?

We took a course here several years ago on the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One image from that course that has stuck in my mind is that of the four quadrants into which all life’s activities can be placed.  The first quadrant is for emergencies and the fourth quadrant is for the activities that are well planned out so that they do not become emergencies. The fourth quadrant is where the course intends us to live most of the time yet we may notice that the tendency is to live in the first quadrant rather than the fourth. How easy it is to turn every telephone call, every email, every knock at the door, and every event in the world into an emergency that we much deal with immediately if not sooner.  But if we notice Jesus Christ, he never turned anything into an emergency, even his inevitable death on the cross. He met all the challenges that came his way without panic. That is the model of humility that he gives us today and this week. Whether it is the adulation of the crowd or the condemnation of the crowd, Jesus does not let either one undermine his trust in God. This approach to life by Jesus is our model – not like some model airplane sitting on a shelf to be admired but rather a model to emulate, to live. To live always with the assurance that God will be with us even in our darkest hour when that real emergency comes. 

What kind of entrance into Jerusalem would we make? It is so easy to succumb to the temptation to become famous, or well liked, or rich or just important, to be noticed. Jesus constantly pointed to God and not himself.  I am about my Father’s business, is his refrain.  Can we too see that what we are about is the Father’s business and that God is truly with us in it? Are we ready to really make God a partner in all we do?

How does one live in complete reliance on God? One way is to not be afraid to engage with God in prayer. Really engage with God.  We can say we rely on God but then go about life as if God didn’t exist. We may be timid, in a prideful way, and say we don’t want to trouble God with our problems, God’s already too busy to notice and besides, we’ve got everything under control. “We’ve got everything under control!” That says we’re the important actor here: No need for God. Then we end up nailed to the cross and wonder what happened and don’t know how to handle it. We need to wrestle with God, shout at God, complain to God, thank God, cry before God, sing to God, in other words we need to take our life’s joys and sorrows to God in prayer and then live humbly according to the model Jesus gave us.

A desert father was asked for a word of wisdom by one of his disciples. “Go to the cemetery and curse the dead,” said the old man. The disciple went off and stood among the graves and shouted: “You cowardly, sinful brood! The stench of your sins is an offense to Heaven, I curse you with all the power at my command. May you never see the light!” The young man went back to his master and told him that he and completed the task. “Did the dead say anything to you?” the old man asked. “Not a word!” answered the disciple. “Now go to the cemetery and praise the dead.” The young man ran off, stood among the graves, and began a great eulogy: “You are greater than the apostles. Your good deeds rise up to Heaven like the incense. You inspire those you have left behind to great deeds. Such is your power, you glorious saints!” The young man hurried back to his master’s cell. “Well,” said the old man, “how was it this time? Did the dead have anything to say?” The disciple answered, “They were as silent as before.” After a period of silence, the old man said, “That is how you have to be—like the dead; beyond cursing and praise, unaffected by the opinions of others.”

Once again a desert father story captures the essence of the Gospel message of this week from the “Hosannas” of praise on Palm Sunday to the curses of the crowd shouting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Jesus remained unaffected by the opinions of others for he knew that the only voice that mattered was his father saying: “This is my beloved son.” We are all called to be God’s beloved sons and daughters. Jesus invites us to live in that assurance.