A Walk in the Wilderness

The wilderness in Judea is a desolate, dangerous place. It is waterless void, devoid of vegetation for the most part. You don't go there unless you have no alternative. Jesus didn't have any alternatives. The Spirit that landed on him at baptism compelled him, forced him, shoved him into the wilderness where he was forced to confront the demons that would tempt him to be less than he was. As baptized followers of our Lord's way, we too, walk where his baptism compelled him to walk. We walk into the wilderness of our souls to be confronted by the demons of our existence. The ones that urge us, draw us from the love of God and neighbor and to be less than we are: made by, and for, the love of God to love our neighbor.

One of the most disturbing lines, of many, in the WWII television series, Band of Brothers, comes from the mouth of Lt. Speirs when he tells a frightened soldier who has been immobilized by his fear, that the way he is able to function in the midst of the hell of combat is that he has accepted that he is already dead. And being dead, he is freed from the fear of dying and can do his job. And as disturbing as this may seem, it is the acceptance of our mortality - that no matter how cleverly we try to nourish, exercise, paint over with cosmetics, or are mindfully at peace with ourselves, the truth remains: our bodies will fail and we will die. And from there we find the freedom to walk on.

From the ashes that mark our acceptance of death, we journey forth into the wilderness like Abraham, like Moses, like Elijah, and like Jesus. With ashes on our foreheads and mortality on our minds, we begin a hazardous journey inward, a journey to learn our true names, our true identities.

+Jeff