The words of Jesus to Satan have taken on a whole new meaning for me this week. As I’ve prayed and meditated on today’s readings, I knew I was missing something important and it’s only now the light has switched on.
I was set to wax lyrical about my developing deep love of the desert but that’s not what God has put on my heart to write about.
I’m sure I was not alone with my profound disappointment at the news of Jean Vaniers “other life”. Someone who’s writing and life had inspired so many of us and bore much fruit was, it turns out a flawed and sinful human being. Who knew ? Just like King David the work was all Gods, but the front man was as broken as the rest of us.
Jesus, in the face of temptation spoke right into this sad situation for me today.
Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God…..
When we are hungry, spiritually hungry we can seek all manner of places to feed, and while there are many who write with such inspiration and elegance, these are the fruits of the word. They are not to be confused with the real food, the source. All human work is merely an appetiser for the banquet of God himself in scripture. When all we consume is appetisers we are never left satisfied. In fact we become unnourished and sickly and our appetite can become ruined for the real thing. If I write of Him it’s because I have met Him in scripture and in the Eucharist first, but I will always be passing over something second hand, something far less than the original.
You must not put the Lord your GOD to the test …… Do not dwell on what man does in the name of God but in what God has done in the name of man. God has nothing to prove. In so many of these situations we can find ourselves wondering, How can God let this happen? It shakes our faith and we grope around for some assurance and proof. If we have sought to know God, really, know Him as well as we are humanly able, to our core we understand this would not be His will. That He would fight for each soul to repent and turn back. This Mercy is what God has done for man, The horrors that have been done by man in Gods name must make our saviour weep.
You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone…..
A pedestal is a dangerous place to dwell, for those on it and those who placed you there. No one but God is God, and anyone but Him will leave you thirsty and wanting. We live in an age of celebrity, we give flawed and imperfect people Gods position in our hearts and minds. When our “human” gods fall, what we thought was faith in God crashes. Even Priests and Bishops, though anointed servants, are as susceptible to pride, greed and general falleness as the rest of us. As it happens so many times in scripture, when the faithful don’t speak to God themselves and rely on others to commune with Him on their behalf it is the start of trouble. No one alive has more access to God than you. The Holy Spirit will speak through others, but your discernment of the message has to be based on your own personal experience of our creator. Let the Holy Spirit affirm Through others what you already know to be true. Anything not built on the rock will come down in the first storm.
My prayers are with L’arche today, mindful that the community was always Gods work, it was not Vanier’s work. Nothing we do for God is our work, we are just privileged for the invite to be a part of it and must pray for the grace to remain humble and faithful in it.
