Over the centuries men and women of holiness have gone out into the desert and have lived faithful and ascetic lives as they try to live with themselves and various temptations. We do not have to go our into the desert though to try to put up with the brokenness of ourselves and others. From the very beginning of Mark's Gospel Jesus places the cross before us. The faithful life of a disciple necessarily includes dying on the cross. The desert image magnifies the challenges of standing against Sin and temptation, and learning to rely on God.
John's Gospel makes it clear that Jesus is not present to us on his own accord. But Jesus will muse that the works and words are not about him, but rather they are to direct us to God the Father. At one point Jesus unfolds a theology of how the Father and he are one, and then much later Jesus will pray for the apostles, and the world, that all would have the same unity and communion as exists in the Father and Son. The desert experience teaches us about our dependence upon God.
I have from time to time told the story of a small parish community in which the leadership commented that the annual parish dinner was the center of their parish life. We would like to believe that they really meant to reply that Mass on Sunday was the focus of parish life and vitality. The desert motif recalls for us our need to hunger and thirst for the holiness of God. As a Church it is easy to become distracted by the things we do in the name of religion, which should be responses to the love of God. Our ministries are our way of saying 'Amen' to God who loves and cares for us.
Our trek through this desert needs to be guided by God's abiding presence in everything we do and say. Jesus models for us how we can thwart Evil by attaching ourselves to what is good. Jesus must be the oasis who loves and cares for us, to whom we can rely on for help. By experiencing dryness we can now yearn for the one who gives us whatever is good and true.
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