Far From Alone
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Reflection by Fr. Earl Valdez for the First Sunday of Lent
You have to make it on your own. More often, this becomes the slogan that we bear on this world in which individualism reigns supreme. We’re supposed to be the ones who are responsible for actions, and our successes depend on how much we have worked hard for it. As a result, we believe that in the end, our successes and failures only depend on ourselves.
But as such, we remain blind to the fact that most of the things in life are in relation to others. In the beginning stages of our lives, we are nourished by our parents. In our growing years, either our families and friends have always been with us. And for us who believe, we trust in the Lord’s presence, with our faith reminding us that even in the hardest of times, we are not alone.
Yet that is something we forget, and that is when our tendency toward sinfulness kicks in, and we are led more easily toward self-centered choices. In fact, if we reflect on our gospel readings today, they tell us that sin is (or, if we are going to be quite mild about it, begins) when we think that our choices are ours alone, for we believe that we are alone in this world.
Our first ancestors believed that they can decide on what is good and what is evil for them, and that they did not need to even ask God one question, not even to believe that God’s orders would keep them safe and will not abandon them. For many times, I have thought and prayed over this Jewish myth that has become iconic enough to part of our collective memory as believers, and I was led to the conclusion that perhaps, it was a very ancient insight that we need to be reminded of: once we think that we can make it alone in the world, that will be our exact downfall.
It was this same temptation that the devil offered the Lord, expressed in three statements. First, he can produce bread to nourish Himself, so he can give in to his impulses. Second, he is the Messiah, so he can call the angels to His aid in order to be recognized by everyone as the Lord and God, without recognition over the Father’s will for Him. And third, He can own the earth to be His own Kingdom, never mind the one that His Father wanted Him to preach, where He ought to lead everybody. The Devil’s temptation is to subtly put the false belief that Our Lord is alone, and should therefore make it on His own and believe it as such.
However, we see that this is far from the truth, for Our Lord responds to the Devil that one needs the Word of the Lord as a guide and companion, that one does not challenge the Lord’s love and brush it aside as if one doesn’t need it, and that the Kingdom where love of God and other, far from power and fame, is what we need. St. Paul is well aware of this insight, and reminds us that what made us truly ourselves is the salvation brought by the Lord, and what makes us truly ourselves is not our confident belief that we’re doing good and we’re avoiding evil, but on a profound trust in how Our Lord lived and loved us until the end, enough to offer our lives until the end; this in turn becomes our guide toward living.
As we begin the season of Lent, maybe that’s something that we ought to remember, that we live with others, and that we are loved and guided until the end. This is Our Lord’s message that resounds for those who think they are alone, for those who close themselves toward genuine relationships with others, and for those who find it difficult to see that they are not alone in this world because of trauma, sickness, and isolation. May this be a season that reminds us of each other’s presence, and of the love of the Lord that we ought to see and experience for ourselves, that we may also share Him and His love in our own ways, and within our own experiences.
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