We are in
the midst of Lent (Quaresima in Italy),
the 40-day period, not including Sundays, that starts on Ash Wednesday and
culminates at Easter. During this long period,
late winter into spring, Christians have been encouraged since the Second
Century, at least, to make some sort of sacrifice, such as giving up specific
foods, especially meat, on either a daily or a weekly basis. In recent years, many have renounced chocolate,
by now a cliché. A devout man I used to
know would give up cigar smoking with his buddies. The faithful do this in preparation for Holy
Week. Preparation entails not only fasting
but also prayer, penitence, and extra acts of kindness. 40-day spiritual retreats appear more than
once in the Bible: Moses spent 40 days on
Mount Sinai, preparing to receive the Ten Commandments, and Elijah walked for
40 days to the "mountain of the Lord" (Sinai). Forty days is also the time Jesus spent
fasting in the desert, newly baptized by John.
"Then Jesus was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights,
and afterward he was hungry. And the
tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones
to become loaves of bread.' But he
answered, 'It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4: 1-4) When the Adversary appeared to him, Jesus had
already been alone with the Spirit for forty days, preparing to carry out the
task of fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, that of the Messiah, the Anointed
One, who would open a way for all of humanity, Gentiles as well as Jews, to
return to the state of spiritual integrity mankind departed from after the Fall. Out in the desert, Jesus was tempered like
steel by the language of God. He was not
tempted or even capable of being tempted by the World. But Satan had a few more suggestions: he urged Jesus to fling himself down from the
temple in a test of the scripture that said God's angels would protect
him. Jesus told Satan again that it is
written not to tempt the Lord your
God. Then Satan took Jesus to a very
high mountain and showed Him all the riches and kingdoms beyond, saying, "'All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.'" (Blasphemy
of blasphemies! That stupid devil should
be "tied to the foot of the Cross," says Father Amorth, Italy's best
known exorcist.) Jesus had a ready
answer, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, 'You shall worship the
Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" (Matthew 4:10) The enemy gave up and the passage concludes
with Jesus' finally being ministered to by angels. When John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus
went to Capernaum by the sea. There he began
preaching, "Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17)
Among the things we are to do during Lent is, indeed, repent. Everyone, no matter their religion, can take an
honest look at his or her own weaknesses.
As Jesus once warned, we must make amends with everyone we have offended,
too, lest we end up in spiritual prison, "...truly,
I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny." (Matthew
5:26) Many Christians are out in the virtual
desert now, listening to the small still voice and resisting temptation. But it is so easy to slip up. For my part, I have decided to closely guard
my words during this Lenten period, to finally give up using unwanted expressions
that I learned long ago. As you can
imagine, force of habit gets in the way and I have to stop and correct
myself. No matter, I will not quit
trying to win control over my own tongue!
God is listening to each one of us.
Besides, we are all on the air, like radios, contributing to a common air
space. Silence, perhaps, is the best
remedy for a Lenten gesture such as mine, but even in silence, the mind is
happy to keep producing verbiage. Someday
we will all be confronted with the truth of another important warning, "But what comes out of the mouth
proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man." (Matthew 15:18) Out in the desert as in noisy society, we had
best watch our own thoughts as well.
Rather than to allow them, along with our words, to draw us away from
grace, we should let "every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God" protect and nourish us as they did
Jesus. UN'AMERICANA
A VENEZIA
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