Lent Reflection

Lent is an excellent time for some reflection on the meaning of our Christian lives and our sense of purpose and direction.

The first half of Lent takes its theme from Christ's going out into the wilderness of Judea to be tempted by the devil. This temptation and testing takes place immediately after Christ's baptism, and before Christ begins his earthly ministry.

Christ spent forty days in the wilderness as a preparation for all that lay ahead in his ministry. Instead of rushing in to action, which would be the temptation of most modern people, he makes himself ready by setting out the course he will take, and rejecting the other options that are cast before him.

The time in the wilderness has many Old Testament resonances. It should remind us of Moses and the Israelites going out of Egypt into the wilderness for forty years. You will remember that this was not an easy time, and the Israelites were tempted and went astray many times. Yet despite their faults God led them into the Promised Land.

It should also remind us of Elijah and Elisha, who would go out into the wilderness and there see manifestations of divine power. We are reminded of Elijah in the cave watching God go by, and of the departure of Elijah in the fiery chariots.

In the Bible we often find that the wilderness is the place where people see God. It is a place where they are tempted and tried. The wilderness is not an easy place, but it is somewhere in which vocation and healing is found.

Everyone has some desert places in their lives: places of darkness and difficulty that we do not like to think about or acknowledge. Whether this wilderness is the result of sin, anxiety, anger, or pain inflicted by others, all of us know what it is like to feel lost in our inner wilderness. Lent is a time for us to go and look at our desert places, and to allow God's goodness to heal them and make them fertile.

I hope you all have a good and holy Lent.