Today's Gospel, the First Sunday of Lent, is about the temptation of Jesus in the desert. I'm not a fan. Never have been.
He was already in the desert, for crying out loud. Talk about hitting a person when they're already weak. But isn't that just like the dark side? When we are questioning, hurting, angry, disappointed--that is when we are tempted to lash out, to doubt even more, to blame, to cheat. When we are feeling strong, good, hopeful, there seems to be a stronger instinct to be generous, to be caring, to be optimistic.
St. Ignatius has a very helpful spiritual insight about this: it's the way the movements of the "good spirit" and the "dark spirit" work. When we are feeling strong, when we are immersed in the "good spirit" stuff (the stuff of the Holy Spirit--goodness, kindness, hopefulness, etc.), then goodness comes easily and "badness" finds resistance. But when we are feeling weak, immersed in darkness (fear, anger, hopelessness, despair, etc.), then "darkness" comes easily and goodness finds resistance in us.
As we wrestle daily with questions of, "What are we to do? How are we to help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine who are being attacked? Will we as a worldwide community stand by to witness a genocide on the nightly news?" it may do us well in our prayer to notice where our starting place is. Are we starting in hope or fear? In anger or in generosity? That will give us a clue as to whether the next instincts for action are rooted in the Holy spirit or not.