Desert Combat

Reflecting on the Gospel for this First Sunday of Lent, I was distracted by the thought of a petty Facebook comment by some unknown troll the other day who pretended to dismiss my witness about the Church's need to faithfully interpret the Will of Christ. He said in gist: What do you expect from a guy who still talks about the sacrament of confirmation making one a soldier of Christ? Oddly, the guy did not seem to be the least bit embarrassed about rejecting totally as if passé a central component of the Church's traditional teaching on the effects of Confirmation.

I know why this came back to mind and why the Gospel of the temptation of Christ in the desert set it off. I said a prayer for the guy and for all those who deceive themselves with the thought that Jesus' forty days in the desert were something other than mortal combat with Satan and his minions.

As crass as the man's denial of struggle as part of the Christian life was, there are others, perhaps more respectful or pious, who suffer tremendously at the very thought that trials might even come our way. They seem to think that they and Christ's Church have His words of prophecy behind them: 

Jesus left the temple area and was going away, when his disciples approached him to point out the temple buildings. He said to them in reply, "You see all these things, do you not? Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down." (Matthew 24:1-2)

Will taking up the gauntlet necessarily spare us? How could it? That is really the whole point of the image of the soldier and his willingness to make the supreme sacrifice, in this case not in defense of one's country or cherished values but for the love of Christ and sure victory in His Cross.

May the Lord bless us with a fruitful Lent of genuine combat against the evil one!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI