First Sunday Of Lent

Gen 9.8-15;  
I Pet 3.18.22;  
Mt 1.12-15

 RAISE YOUR MINDS TOWARD THE GLORY OF EASTER! RISE TO ACTION

Our gaze in Lent is toward the glory of the Resurrection of Christ. In Lent, we are called to rise, to stay awake, to prepare, and to hope in the victory of Christ over every weakness, sin, or death. Today’s Gospel reading is so short(4 verses), almost terse, yet with a big story that you may have missed what it is about.  On every first Sunday of Lent every year, we are taken to the wilderness where Christ was tempted for forty days by the Devil.

However, Saint Mark gives us no details of this period of testing, especially the temptations.  It is worth quoting again the words from the passage:   “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan.  He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.”  (Mark 1.12-13).  That is all Saint Mark has to say.  Then, equally briefly, he states that Jesus has begun his preaching ministry in Galilee.

The evangelist does not intend us to linger for long over the details.  This year we are slightly invited to reflect on the nature of the Lord’s temptations, or his heroic resistance, or the deprivation of the desert.  Theologians believe that Saint Mark has an agenda of his own – he wishes the identity of Our Lord to be revealed only in the context of His saving death and resurrection.  

So Saint Mark plays down the miraculous healings and wonderful teachings of the Lord, which to Matthew and Luke are signs of Christ’s divinity cooperating with His humanity.  He emphasizes instead those words and actions of Our Lord which focus people’s minds on choosing God.  The signs of Christ’s divinity are concealed (theologians call this the “messianic secret”) so that in due course the fact that Jesus is God made man can be revealed.

 It is for this reason that Mark does not include an account of the birth of Christ.  His Gospel is like a dramatic and rather minimalist play.  John the Baptist gives a prologue.  And then on to the stage, into the spotlight steps the figure of Jesus of Nazareth, not wrapped in any of the images with which we are familiar, but standing, looking us in the eye, just as he challenged those who met him in His own time.

For Our Lord in the wilderness, the reality at times must have seemed equally bleak.  Saint Mark simply wishes us to know that when, in his true humanity, Our Lord was tempted in various ways, he placed his total reliance on His Heavenly Father.

In the first reading today, from the Book of Genesis, Noah and his family, together with the animals they gathered, were invited to take refuge in the ark, trusting in God’s promise to preserve them.  In today’s passage, God offers them a sign of the covenant, the binding commitment that he is making with them.  

This is dependable and trustworthy.  But imagine Noah and his family emerging from their ark after the flood.  They look out on a world completely changed.  All that is familiar has been washed away.  The only sign they have before them is the rainbow, the representation of God’s covenant with them.  The degree of trust required from them is awesome, but it is the only way.

Many theological scholars believe that the second reading at Mass today may have been a sermon preached at an early celebration of what we now call the Paschal Vigil.  The theme is certainly Baptism.  Saint Peter refers to the story of Noah and links it with the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, beginning a long and venerable tradition among the Fathers and great preachers of the Church.  

He states that the water of the Flood is a type of Baptism.  This means that the washing of the world in the Flood is a foreshadowing, an anticipation, and for Noah and his family a participation by faith in the later saving work of Christ.

 The effects of Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection – the defeat of evil, the triumph of God over the devil, the opening up of heaven – all these, the Church has believed since the earliest time, are given to Christians at Baptism when water is poured in the name of the Trinity.  The rainbow was a sign of God’s past deeds and future promises.  In the Church, Baptism is also an effective sign of God’s saving actions in Christ and a pledge of future glory in heaven.  But the key point is that, as Saint Peter says, “Baptism saves you now.”

 Those of us who are baptized Christians have this blessing.  We have the power of Christ to remain faithful, resist evil, and overcome temptation.  Saint Paul expressed this in a short phrase when he said that we were “in Christ”.  Whatever we face, we face it in the knowledge that Christ is with us and that His victory over evil is already won.  We are included.

To Noah, the rainbow was the sign of God’s covenant.  To us, the victory over temptation in the desert, the Cross, and the Resurrection of Jesus are our assurance.  This leaving behind of worldly attachments feels intensely dangerous.  Yet it is the only safe course.  Baptism guarantees victory over sin and death, now and forever.  Our Lord’s cross and resurrection are our only paths to salvation.

Therefore, we are challenged to step into that strange world in which there are no familiar supports, no comforting friends, no material possessions, no emotional props, no excuses, no delaying tactics, but simply God.  This may unnerve or terrify us.  But the fundamental truth is that we need to let go of everything and everyone we usually rely on in order fully to appreciate and enter into what Christ has achieved for us.
 
During Lent, God calls us to make time and space for this desert experience.  Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and charitable works are help along the way.  So are times of prayer, retreat, and study.  They must, however, serve the fundamental goal of leading us to reach the moment when we step out in total dependence upon and trust in God, and at the end, He will to us the glory of Easter.

PRAYER

Merciful Father, you do not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to endure. Grant courage and trust to all who doubt and waver, and bring us save into Heaven. Amen.

Fr Joseph Osho