Often times, I think, when we imagine Christ heading out into the desert to begin his 40 days of fasting, we romanticize the desert experience. We may think of all things quiet and peaceful, maybe even first envisioning the coolness of the night, a clear sky filled with the brilliance of stars, a light wind rippling along the rock and sandy ground. Can we imagine the Son of God among the harshness of the noonday sun; ground littered with small cacti and other barbed vegetation that make it nearly impossible to pass through; snakes, scorpions and other dangerous critters potentially lurking around every rock?
The wildness of the desert and the beasts can be frightening, daunting and even paralyzing. This is the world that the Son of God entered into. He was not born into a royal family that was pampered and secluded from the harshness of poverty and daily life. He did not seclude himself in schools of high learning and renowned teachers. Nor did he stay in the safe and comfortable courtyard with finely manicured trees and gardens. He came into the world, to be in the world, and it is a world of beasts.
We are reminded of dangerous and frightening things in the world, and other things that are simply harsh and make life difficult. Plumbing pipes burst, rent and food prices increase; we lose jobs and often have jobs that leave us exhausted or stressed beyond compare; we develop heart disease or fall and break an ankle; our children face lockdowns at school and we even have what we just experienced with the shooting at the Super Bowl Victory Celebration. The world is full of beasts, but The angels ministered to him.
We enter Lent in imitation of Christ. We go into the desert because he went into the desert and fast because he fasted. He did this, not to prove that he was the Son of God and could survive what others could not, but because he knew who his Father was and that He would bid His angels to tend to him. That is, Jesus walked into the desert knowing that there were both beasts and angels. The angels do not drive the beasts away. The hardships of the world do not disappear because Christ once came into the world. Rather, we receive peace and place our confidence that the angels minister to us so that we are able to follow Christ.
This is what Christianity is about: to be among the wild beasts, unafraid and unmoved so that we may also give testimony to the angels and our Fathers love. That if we can walk the path that Christ walked and imitate him, then this may give others that same hope that God does not abandon a world in need, but came to be in it and show us the way that leads to Him.