This past week the news tells us that the car industry suffered a real blow on their President’s Day sales because of this weather. Hence the multiplicity of ads on all the media, trying to tempt us all to get out and buy a car before the next storm. For some people, buying a new car isn’t so much a necessity as it is succumbing to a tempting offer. Maybe there really will be significant savings and if I don’t buy now I will lose out. All temptation may not be sinful but it is at the very least a diversion from the best course of action.
Today on the First Sunday of Lent we once again listen to the story of Jesus and his temptations in the desert. Every Lent we recall the forty days Jesus spent in the desert and the powerful way in which He was tempted to grab a hold of the power He had and to use it to His own advantage. These temptations were designed to distract Him from His mission as our Messiah. The story demonstrates how Jesus struggled. In the end He emerges from the desert, more determined than ever to bring us the Good News and to accomplish the gift of salvation.
We too struggle with temptations. But as I said, all temptations are not necessarily sinful: the temptation to buy a new car; to have an extra helping of food or an extra glass of wine or a second dessert; the temptation to stay up too late at night or to sleep in in the morning. All these are meant to distract us from something that is good: our health, or physical well-being or our responsibilities.
We also are familiar with many other temptations which we traditionally know can lead us to sin. These temptations are also meant to distract – to divert our attention from our relationship with God and our spiritual well being.
Lent is that time each year when we step back and see how we get distracted, how our spiritual journey gets sabotaged and we end up wandering from God. Maybe not in significant ways; but in the day to day living out of our lives. Even the small distractions can begin to erode the closeness of that relationship.
The Lord invites us during these days to “Come back to me with all your hearts. Don’t let fear or distractions keep us apart”.