In the second reading of this 29th Sunday in ordinary times, we read: “Brothers and sisters: Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin (Heb 4:14-15). This is a powerful statement.
My friends, Christianity is not the worship of another human being who is ridden with faults and sins like us, nor is it the worship of a lifeless object carved or molded by man. At the center of our worship is God-made-man (Emmanuel), not born buy human conjugal relations, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, without the break of virginity, who lived and walked among us, experienced human pain and suffering, tempted in every way we are without caving or falling into sin, not so that He may become a just judge against us before God, rather, that He may become our intercessor, advocate, and counselor before the judgement seat of God.
You know, “Been there done that” is a phrase we commonly used when we believe that we have experience about something and therefore, can speak to and about it. But our experiences are on the human level and so we cannot say, we’ve been there done that in reference to God, because, as Jesus declared, “No one has seen the Father except the one whom He sent”. There is only one person who has been there done that, both at the human level and at the divine realm—Jesus Christ. No wonder Scripture say, “So let us confidently approach His throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” (Hebrews 4:16).
As human beings, we never get to know temptation at its fiercest, because we fall long before that stage is reached. It is like pain. There are agonies of pain we cannot know, degree of pain that the human frame cannot stand, and so, when we come close to that threshold, a person loses consciousness. That is how it is with temptation. The fact that Jesus was without sin means that he went through our limits of temptation; depths, tensions, and assaults of temptation that we will never be able to experience, and still did not fall. So, there is no part of our human experience that Jesus cannot say: "I understand”!
So, in times of trials and temptations, when trouble abounds everywhere, when we are tired and confused with no relieve in sight, when grief overwhelms us with no comfort around, when loneliness besets us with no one to lean on, when we are out of work and nowhere to turn, when our marriage is being torn apart, when friends betray our trust, when drug and alcohol is messing up our life, there is a person to turn to—Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He is not one who is incapable of understanding what is going on, rather, he is the one most qualified and willing to bear all our sins and griefs, understand our struggles and weaknesses, is compassionate, merciful, and able to forgive all our failings, is slow to anger and abounding in love. As Scripture says, “Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many” (Isaiah 53:11). The best person to give advice and help through a trail is someone who has traveled the road before. Christ is the one who brought God to us and is the only one who can also bring us to God.
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