Jesus in public life

The Lenten season begins with the story of Jesus being tempted as he moves from living quietly in his home in Nazareth to living a public life in Galilee and then in Judea and Jerusalem itself (Lk 4:1-13). In temptation, one’s life is on the line: the choice is between doing good or doing evil, serving God or the devil. The right choice leads to life; the wrong choice leads to death. In temptation, one’s complete dependence on God becomes clear, because we cannot fight the devil alone. Alone, we’ll lose. Only by calling on the Lord when tempted can we come out of temptation united with him.

In the Gospel, Jesus was tempted to do something evil, to cooperate with the devil, for a good cause, to bring his message successfully to the whole world. The devil is clever, and telling good people they can do good things if they’ll just cut corners is an old devilish ploy. It didn’t work with Jesus. He came out of his temptation with his sense of his Father’s will for him intact. He took up his mission, preached, performed miracles, formed a community of disciples, went to his death on Calvary and rose from the dead, all according to the Father’s will and for our salvation.

Lent is a season when we deliberately put our lives on the line in order to strengthen ourselves against the devil and his temptations. When we fast, we put our life on the line by sacrificing some of the food we need to live. When we pray, we put our life on the line by spending time with God that we might otherwise use for our own purposes. When we give alms, we put our life on the line by giving to the poor some of the wealth we have earned with our labor. Food, time, money are stand-ins for ourselves; when we sacrifice them, we are, in some sense, putting ourselves into some danger, making ourselves vulnerable, trusting that God will give us what we need in this life and the next.

When tempted, Jesus didn’t play games with the devil. He recognized evil, named it and banished it. Sometimes, when people ask what Jesus would do, they con themselves into thinking that he would accept evil out of compassion for people who are tempted or feel themselves victims. Jesus was certainly compassionate, with a love beyond our understanding. But he didn’t cooperate with evil; he died to save us from it.

Like Jesus, the church which is his Body has both a private life and a public life. The church lives quietly when her members understand their faith, practice it together by worshiping God and working to transform the world according to God’s designs, while they wait to meet the Lord at death and when he returns in glory. Since those who live in Christ also live in the world, the church is a partner with others in the public life of every society in which she is free to be herself.

The church never fits perfectly into any society, anymore than Jesus fit perfectly into his own. Her teaching often challenges what is evil even as it points the way to what is good. Some Catholics want the church to conform to society perfectly; other Catholics want the church to withdraw from society in order to preserve her integrity. She does neither. The church does what Jesus did: publicly preach the truth about God and our relationship to him; invite everyone to follow him in his church; and enter into the public discussions that establish the common good in every society. Like the public life of Jesus, the public life of the church is often contentious. Some not only reject her teaching, they resent it. Others not only reject her teachers, they would isolate them or find ways to punish them.

One of the challenges to living as Catholics in a pluralistic society is to find allies with whom to cooperate in the transformation of society so that it is a little bit more like the kingdom of God preached by Jesus. Allies on one issue are not necessarily allies on another. Those with whom we can work to obtain aid for the parents of Catholic school children might not be the same people we can work with on pro-life issues. Those who want to address the injustices of our present immigration system might not be convinced that marriage can only be between a man and woman.

Given the ill-tempered state of public discourse and of public life right now, it’s easier to find enemies than it is to find allies. Some enemies resort to hate mongering, even within the church. Others are beginning to sponsor fascist tactics, taking to the streets and stirring up hatred of the church in the name of tolerance. The church has seen it all before, but we haven’t seen it so clearly in this country in the last 50 years. The challenge is always to speak the truth with love, in both private and public.

The fundamental truth of the Gospel is that self-righteousness is the one sin that cannot be forgiven. Jesus died and rose to make us righteous, rightly related to his Father and ours. Self-righteous people don’t need Jesus because they don’t need a savior. They live on their own terms. Lent is not for them.

For those of us who recognize that we are sinners and need the salvation Christ won for us, Lent is a time of temptation. We enter it willingly and joyfully, because in temptation we meet the grace of Christ. Those who stay with the discipline of Lent in the weeks to come will learn to trust Christ more profoundly as they address private needs and public issues. They will grow in love of Christ and of all those he died to save.