Wilderness Home

Fr Richard Healey, now returned to St John’s in Campbelltown, reflects on the Gospel story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness in Mark, relating it to the Lenten season. They describe the wilderness as a place of isolation and challenge, where one confronts fear and vulnerability. The speaker draws parallels between Jesus’ experience and the listener’s journey, emphasising the importance of stripping away distractions and focusing on personal growth. They encourage listeners to let go of negative qualities, cultivate gratitude, and deepen their relationship with God and others. The episode is a call to use Lent for self-examination and spiritual renewal.

(00:00:00) – So when was the last time that you went out into the wilderness? And what does that mean? Like: where is the wilderness? I mean, coming from the beautiful South coast, in some ways it kind of feels like I’m doing the opposite of what Jesus did, of coming from the relative wilderness to coming back into the big city. But then if you talk to your friends who live in the inner city or in the North Shore, they probably think that we live in the wilderness out here in Campbelltown. So in the wilderness is kind of a relative term. It’s not so fixed and defined because the gospel that we hear tonight of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, it’s very strange because in Matthew and in Luke, you get a much more detailed description. In Mark, it’s just two lines, two sentences that tell us immediately, at once [one of the favourite words of Mark] after the baptism of Jesus. And where was that? Well, John was already taking people away from Jerusalem, away from the big smoke, down into the wilderness, into the River Jordan to do those baptisms.

(00:01:24) – And then we’re told that once the spirit drove Jesus out further into the wilderness, further out into the desert is another translation. And the thing about the true wilderness, and particularly there in Israel with the Negev and the other areas of the desert, having been there and spent a few days in the wilderness, the Judean desert, it’s pretty barren, pretty ruthless. You know, it’s almost completely barren. There’s no real trees. All you get is sandy dirt and rocks and just vast open spaces. So you can kind of see the sense of Jesus being awed, for it’s a pretty overwhelming kind of place. And who else is there in the wilderness with Jesus? The wild animals. And we’re not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. We know at that time there were still bears living in that part of the world. There were still lions living in that part of the world. They’ve since been wiped out. But to be there with their pretty ferocious kind of wild animals would have been fairly scary.

(00:02:42) – But positively, we’re told: “But the angels ministered to him” And that’s pretty much the total of what Mark tells us about this period of the 40 days that Jesus was there in the wilderness. So why did he need to do it? Why did he have to go into that experience? I think in some ways it’s just what we also do when we enter into this season of Lent, to move into that relative place of deprivation, that place where all of the ways that our lives are so bamboozled, we’re just affronted constantly with imagery, with noise, with sounds, with all kinds of just movement. There’s all that energy that we have in the big city and all that sense that the Lord wants us to be stripped free from. Why? In order that we might begin to make sense of what are the important things? What are the things that currently define me? What are the things that shaped me? What are the characteristics that I have? How do I engage with people? How do I live in that sense? And how do we recognize which of those things that we’ve just presumed are part of our life, in which of them are good and which of them are less than helpful? And after Jesus returns from that 40 days in the wilderness, what happens? He begins his ministry.

(00:04:25) – He begins his call to “come on home.” That’s essentially what that preaching of Jesus is all about. Repent and believe. It’s all about turning away from those things that aren’t helpful, those parts of our lives that make us less than we ought to be. All those things that drag us down when we, you know, engage in gossip, when we engage in negative thinking, when we are critical, when we continue just to tear people down, when all that we want to do is complain and carry on. The wilderness invites us to take stock of what do we have? What are the good things that surround us? What are those elements that are actually such a beautiful part of our lives? What are the things that we can be truly grateful for, and how do we cultivate those elements, those aspects of our lives, and let go of all of those things that really just constantly get in the way of our full flourishing, of our way of of being closer in union with the Lord during this time of Lent.

(00:05:35) – Let’s indeed take our Pope Francis’s call. Not so just to do something more, to give up something, but to recognize those parts of our lives that just really don’t help us to be like Jesus and let go of them. So let go of those qualities that are no longer helping us, to let go of those things that just keep us busy and constantly just engage in things that really don’t lead us into fruitfulness, into life. Let’s allow the God of grace during these 40 days just to lead us into that space. But we’ve got that room just to ponder, to recognize that there are parts of my life that don’t help me anymore. And those are the things that I can surrender and let go of in order that we make space for God, in order that we let love be the one thing that characterises a time of lent. So let’s indeed allow God’s love to call us and to gently lead us or drive us, in the case of Jesus, to drive us out in those wilderness spaces so that we can encounter the living God calling us into life and reminding us that we don’t need to engage in all those things that prevent us from living in freedom.

(00:06:52) – Let’s let go of those things. Let’s let go of those attitudes. Let’s let go of those criticisms of those of all those things that tear us down. And let’s allow this time of lent to be a season that really builds us up and allows us to make space, to be loved by God, and in turn, to love those around us.