Spirituality: Gerald May “Grace: Qualities of Mercy” Addiction and Grace Part 3 of 8

Let us not forget that deserts are gardens of courtship as well as fields of battle… The battle of the desert is waged, the courtship engaged, for no less a prize than where our true treasure will be stored up, and therefore where our hearts will be. .. For all, however, the desert of the heart remains unchanged. It is not comfortable.

The three temptations Satan offers Jesus consist of the consequences of attachment. First, Satan suggests that Jesus satisfy his hunger by turning stones into bread. This invitation is remarkably similar to the one the serpent gave to Eve: to play god by using autonomous personal power, and to seek satisfaction through something other than God. Failing at this, Satan next tempts Jesus to manipulate God’s power for the sake of his own self-indulgence, by jumping off the temple parapet. The invitation is to test rather than trust God, to use God superstitiously, as a puppet. Failing once more, Satan proposes the last temptation: he offers Jesus the entire world if he will make Satan his god. This is the ultimate invitation to idolatry.

Throughout these temptations, Satan was hoping Jesus would fall prey to attachment: attachment to meeting his own needs, attachment to his own power, or attachment to the material riches of the world. Satan was trying to lure Jesus into the “I can handle it” trap, and he could have. But instead of giving in to the massive power of temptations to attachment, Jesus stood firm in his own freedom and in his faith and in grace.

It is easy to see Jesus’ success in the desert ascribed to such magnificence as God incarnate, but it makes it difficult for us to identify with him. If we think of Jesus as truly human, as a real man who was truly vulnerable to attachment, then the way he responded to Satan’s temptations reveals some things that are critically important. Jesus’ actions in the desert reveal the way through all our deserts, the way home. (1) He stood firm. He met the adversary, faced the temptation, and did not run away or rationalize. (2) He acted with strength: he claimed and used his free will with dignity. (3) He did not use his freedom willfully. None of his responses to Satan was his own autonomous creation. Instead, he relied upon the Law: his words to Satan were quotations from Scripture, the Torah.

The power of grace flows most fully when human will chooses to act in harmony with the divine will. This means staying in a situation, being willing to confront it as it is, remaining responsible for the choices one makes in response to it, but at the same time turning to God’s grace, protection, and guidance as the ground for one’s choices and behavior. It is the difference between testing God by avoiding ones’ own responsibilities and trusting God as one acts responsibly. Responsible human freedom thus becomes authentic spiritual surrender, and authentic spiritual surrender is nothing other than responsible human freedom.