Tested Together

Sometimes when I am thinking about what to say in my homily each week, I’ll go back and take a look at what I said in previous years on the same Sunday. I did that this past week, and saw that a year ago, the First Sunday of Lent came right after the double snowstorm, which left many people in our area and region in bitter cold and recovering from property damage and other aftermath for long after the snow and ice melted. And then two years ago, I saw that I encouraged us to shake up our routine for Lent, to not be afraid to live differently from how we were accustomed. And then, just a week or so after that, the pandemic began, and our lives changed much more radically than any of us could have imagined.

All of that is to say that sometimes we don’t have to go looking for struggles and hardships – they find us. All year round, we face them, in different ways, but in the season of Lent we look directly at our challenges, our trials, our sufferings, and we strive to accept them, with humility and with faith. We do that because when we suffer, there can at times be a temptation to think that God has forgotten us, that he’s not helping us, and that we are alone in what we face. In fact, this is maybe the most common way that people can lose their faith altogether, in whatever way that looks: when they come to believe that the very existence of struggle and suffering indicates that faith doesn’t do all that much for us.

It’s fortunate, therefore, that we begin each Lent hearing that Jesus himself struggled – that for forty days and nights he suffered hunger in the desert, and at the end of that time was tested by the devil. This Gospel episode is important for us in a couple ways. First, it shows us a preview of what Jesus will endure at the end of his life, in the testing of his Passion and Death. The Cross of Christ gives meaning to all suffering, since it is the path – the only path – to the Resurrection. All of Lent is directed in this way: to see our trials and testings in the light of that final reality – that is, not as meaningless experiences, but as preparations, steppingstones toward the light of heaven.

But today’s Gospel is important in another way, too, and that is as a sign of solidarity. In the temptations of Jesus, we see that the Son of God in his humanity really knew what it was like to endure testing and trial. You might say there is an exchange that happens. Jesus, the Word of God made Flesh, takes on himself the human experience of suffering and temptation, showing solidarity with us in our trials. In exchange, he offers us a share in his victory; because he resists the devil’s allurements, he shows us that in him we can do the same. Jesus is not just our Savior; he is our Salvation – he is literally the means by which we conquer the evils that we face. When we see God as not absent from our trials but very much entering into them – redeeming them and allowing us to overcome them through the presence of his Son – then it can change the whole way that we understand them and face them. We begin to understand that the Lord is not just with us – in our spiritual corner, so to speak – but even more, he is the one fighting within us. It’s his grace that enlivens us and helps us persevere, to overcome temptation and to endure suffering.

Moretto da Brescia, Christ in the Wilderness (c. 1520)

What’s more, the solidarity that Jesus shows us, and that he gives us with him, also allows us to show solidarity with others. St. Paul recommends just that in his Letter to the Romans: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another” (Rom 12:15-16). Lent gives us a chance to recognize and even enter into the experiences of those with whom we are spiritually connected. Maybe that is a family member or a friend who we know is going through a rough time, and by prayer or generosity, we can show our support for them. Maybe it is to support in the same way those who, though distant from us physically, nonetheless are connected to us spiritually: Christians in Ukraine living in bunkers and risking their lives to protest an unjust invasion of their country; priests and catechists in China who have been arrested for their faith and will spend this Lent incarcerated; religious sisters and seminarians in Africa who face ongoing threat of kidnapping and other violence. With these and others, we recognize that we are united in Christ: “the same Lord is Lord of all,” he who is our Head enriches all of us in his Body, so that tested together in him, he sustains in our trials.

Friends, take some time this week to think about you’re being tested this Lent; but think also about how the Lord is with you in those trials, sustaining you, giving you faith and perseverance. And then consider how he’s inviting you to show your solidarity with others, just as he has shown his with you. How can you be the presence of Christ for another in these next forty days? May his Real, sacramental Presence be our food for the journey ahead.