"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he hungered. And the Tempter came to try him."
Mark 4:1-2
"And whenever you may stand to prayer, forgive, if you hold anything against any one, so that your Father in the heavens may also forgive you."
Mark 11:25
It is a passage so familiar, the 'temptation in the desert', that we hear it, but we may not really think about it, and its implications.
'Then Jesus was led, by the Spirit, into the wilderness.'So our Lord was tempted, by the devil himself of course, but with the seeming complicity of the God the Holy Spirit, who led Him into it.
This also recalls another passage so familiar that we also do not think of its implications.
'And lead us not into temptation...'Doesn't it seem odd and out of place that God would lead His own people into harm's way? Isn't temptation a very negative thing that we are told to avoid at all costs?
Temptation is certainly not something we should seek out, given the risks in taking that proposition as our own choice. But if we think instead of temptation as a 'trial' or a preparation for our calling, as in the case of our Lord whose time in the wilderness preceded his public ministry, it is something that can strengthen us, make us stronger in our faith through that trial, that testing, in the practical applications of what we believe.
If the words we have received are at all accurate, it is not intended that spiritually we remain an untested bunch of cream puffs, riding to heaven on feather beds, with God attending to all our needs like the staff on a cruise ship.
Like an athlete, we must train for the contests, but it is in the contest itself that we do most of our learning and growing and extending ourselves to the limits. Such exercises are always marked by pain, in the muscles, and in the core of our being.
To varying degrees we are preparing and are called upon to be God's hands, and feet, and the living manifestation of His word here on earth, in a life long journey through the peaks and valleys of both good and evil, success and failure. We are 'the Church militant' here and only later, one would hope, triumphant at long last.
Or as J. H. Newman put it:
"Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come. He can turn all things to our eternal good. Easter day is preceded by the forty days of Lent, to show us that they only who sow in tears shall reap in joy."
The power of love and forgiveness is unfathomable and bewildering to the principalities and powers of this world, and the spiritual darkness that rules them. And this then is to be their failure and their demise.
Gold and silver were being hit today, for several reasons. The yields on Treasuries were rising because of the record high issuance of notes and bills his week in the neighborhood of a quarter trillion dollars. That drove the US dollar higher in the short term, and helped drive down the metals.
And of course we will be having an option expiration for precious metals on the Comex this week, and so all the pick pockets, cut purses and dips will be taking their usual cuts by managing prices in their desired directions. This has become so regular an occasion that you might tell the time by it.
We may also see some action around the release of the FOMC minutes tomorrow at 2 PM. They like to talk bearishly between crises.
Stocks were weak because the higher rates will make it less convenient for companies to buy back their own stocks through debt issuance, which as I am given to understand is the major source of stock buying at these lofty valuations.
The US financial system and the elite establishment are morally and intellectually exhausted. They produce little, for the most part, are draining the nation of its resources in endless wars and financial control frauds, while they allow its systems and infrastructure to decay.
And having been soundly rejected in the last election, they are looking for some scapegoats to blame. Since they are perfection itself, they could have not possibly lost fairly, being so deserving of the win.
They rule not by merit and faithfulness, but through fraud and force. And as the fraud fails, the force must inevitably increase.
How are the mighty fallen, and their instruments of oppression, broken.
Have a pleasant evening.
