A number of years ago I had a manager who was inspirational.
I will call him Ian. He was not a religious person at all,
but he was definitely a crusader and seemed willing to go
Where - as the saying goes ‘angels fear to tread’. He
had a fearsome reputation; one colleague described
approaching his desk as going to see the Lion in his den. At
first I used to tiptoe towards him if I needed to speak to
him.However when I got to know him better I saw that he was
A defender of justice and he would overcome his fears to
take on anyone who represented injustice regardless of who
they were, how senior they were or the potential harm he may
bring upon himself in the process. And I know that he did
fly too close to the sun at times. He protected me a
Number of times over the years as he did his other staff.
Some of those occasions when he helped me I knew of but I
also suspect there were times when he protected to me that I
did not know about. I will always be grateful for the help
he gave to me. I also know that he was not without fear
himself - though he may have appeared so to the casual
observer.. He was just a courageous, good person. The lion
in his den protected his whole family from harm.
In reading today's gospel of Jesus in the wilderness being
tempted by the devil I thought of my friend. He could so
easily have taken the easy option in work. He could have
distanced himself from the needs of others and looked after
number one. He probably had many sleepless nights because of
a backlash he received from his superiors for speaking truth
to power.
Jesus in the wilderness is subject to all of the Temptations
the devil can lay before him. He preys upon Jesus human
weakness and frailty in the extreme circumstances in which
his placed. Jesus has the power to end his own suffering and
to make his life comfortable. But Jesus chooses the
difficult path instead. He does this of course because
he is on earth to save mankind from its sins and from evil.
If he gives in to temptation and looks after himself alone
then he would fail in his mission. Jesus provides hope to
the world and a protection against evil.
For us at the beginning of lent we are asked to pray to make
a new commitment to God and for the courage and strength to
do this wholeheartedly. The gospel story underlines how
difficult the task is for Jesus; if we are to to give a
wholehearted commitment to God the task is enormous, it may
take our whole strength, It may even break us.
A few Sundays ago The Gospel reading was the sermon on the
Mount those verses concerning the lilies of the field and
how they neither spin nor toil. Jesus's message to his
disciples was that they should not worry.
In order to have the strength to make that commitment to God
we need to have such faith. We need to free ourselves from
worry and from earthly needs. Worry undermines our resolve
and our courage.
How can we free ourselves from worry? The first thing we
must do is pray and this is also the constant and the last
thing we must do. It is the weave throughout the fabric of
our lives which is essential to our faith .
On a more practical level I was inspired only a few days ago
by a good friend of mine (I will call him Peter) on this
very subject - of how to free ourselves from worry. He is
not dissimilar to Ian in character. He too is a crusader
type. You might say he is cut from the same cloth and
incidentally we both used to work for Ian. My friend's
advice was this 'if you are worried about something - act
like you're not worried at all! And if you are feeling very
worried, then even more reason to act like you're not! ' And
you can take it from me but this guy makes a jolly good
effort at doing this himself.
So much of the world and how people behave in it is driven
by worry and fear. It is why things that are immoral and
wrong and evil persist without challenge. The lines between
good and evil can become blurred. We can become confused
about what is the right thing to do in life. We need to turn
away from fear and to have faith in God. We need to show no
fear especially when we do feel afraid. This could be our
Lenten discipline.
It is not just for our own lives and our own souls but for
the lives and souls of everyone. When I worked for Ian I had
little fear in the working environment because I knew I was
safe from harm at all times. If we can offer protection to
others then good will overcome evil in the world. If we can
have faith in God then we can overcome our Fear and be
liberated in the world. Let us pray for greater faith in God
and courage to live that life of faith.