St. Mark begins his Gospel with a flurry of witnesses to the truth of Jesus and His mission among us. In his account there are no details of the individual temptations Jesus undergoes. There is a sense of urgency and power. The Spirit, who has descended on Him in the form of a dove at His baptism, immediately drives Him into the wilderness. This desert is not just a place of individual testing. It is where the battle takes place between the powers of good and evil. Throughout His public life of preaching and healing, Jesus will appear as a strong and active person, very much in charge of His destiny. As He begins His public career, we gain a hint of this possibility, as He begins His proclamation at the very point His precursor John, another witness, has been arrested. Jesus now becomes his own witness. The time has come for all the prophecies to be fulfilled.
We live out the battle between good and evil against the wider landscape of our world and society. We also fight the same battle within ourselves. In solitude we learn to identify the true sources of evil both in ourselves and in our world. As we become more significant we become more free to focus directly on what needs changing, again either in ourselves or in our outer world. The journey into the wilderness with its experience of solitude begins our Lenten journey. It equips us to repent and believe the Good News and to proclaim the kingdom of God in our own lives. Fasting, almsgiving and prayer are the three practices we are advised to use as we attempt this mixture of purification and growth in ourselves. They are not ends in themselves but the means whereby we become more open to the life of the Spirit working in and through us.