Fr. Eugene Lobo SJ –
First Sunday of Lent February 18, 2024
Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15
We are now into the great season of Lent. During the season of Lent, the church invites us to examine our lives, to repent of our sins and do penance. By means of fasting, penance and prayers, the faithful obtain strength they need to overcome the sinful tendencies. The purpose of Lent is to provide that purification by weaning human persons from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer, by creating in them the desire to do God’s will and to make his kingdom alive by making it first come into their hearts.
The real aim of Lent above all else, is to prepare Christians for the celebration of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The better the preparation for this day, the more effective the celebration will be. One can effectively relive the mystery only with purified mind and heart. The Church invites all to repent from evil ways and return to the Lord who is eagerly waiting for each one to come to him.
In the Gospel, we have the Temptation narrative. After his Baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the evil one. After his victory over the Satan, Jesus enters his public life to proclaim the message of the Kingdom of God. By this time John was arrested and Jesus commences his message of the Messiah.
The first reading of today introduces us to this Lenten theme by bringing us face to face with the concept of origin and effect of sin. Today’s passage that gives us the story of great deluge reminds us of two facts: Man’s disobedience and disloyalty to the divine benefactor who created all and presented all gifts of body and mind to humanity, and on the other the magnanimity and the infinite forgiving mercy of God.The narrative tells us about Noah and his family in gratitude to God for his protection offered a large sacrifice.
God blesses Noah in words that recall the blessing given to the first man and woman at creation: Be fertile and multiply, and fill the earth. A new element is the fear of Noah and his descendants that will come upon all animals and reflects the dignity of humanity before God. Noah would have needed such assurances and worthiness before God after the traumatic experience of the flood. God also establishes a covenant with Noah, his family and all creatures that came out of the ark. They have the promise that God will not destroy the creatures of the earth with a second flood.
In the Second Reading, Peter while speaking to the believers was comparing the sufferings of the Gentiles who had become Christians as against the sufferings of Jesus. Peter was telling them that since Jesus had triumphed, they would also triumph. Their Baptism was the pledge of their triumph for it gave them a share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.Thus we die to sin and are led to God. Just as Noah was saved by passing through the waters of the flood, so also, Christians receive their first installment towards salvation through faith in Jesus and their passage through the water of Baptism which cleanses us from sin and enables us to have a clear conscience.Peter told the Gentiles that Jesus suffered for sins once for all, and suffered for the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring them all to God. The sacrifice of Jesus was not just for a few, but for all of us, from the beginning of time until the end of time. He, who was sinless, took upon Himself the weight of our sins and allowed Himself to be crucified in our place so God the Father may be appeased.
After his baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert where he remains for forty days. The desert is the place where people felt close to God and away from the distractions of the world. It is in the desert that the people of Israel received God’s Law. It is in the desert God made his covenant with his people. It is there in the desert that God took care of Israel giving them food and water. It seems necessary then that those whom God calls including God’s own Son must be purified by spending their time in the desert.
The forty days symbolize the temptation of Israel in the wilderness for forty years, Moses’s experience in the desert, and Elijah’s flight. During that time in the desertJesuswas tested by the Evil One. Mark does not tell us how he was tested but Matthew and Luke do. These tests are really examples of the kind of tests that Jesus was to face in the course of his public life, even on Calvary. Its purpose is to help us to understand the conflicts that were in Jesus’ own life and which will also be found in ours too. Matthew and Luke tell us that the tempter asked Jesus to change stones to bread and satisfy his hunger after his long fast in the desert, asked him to jump down the pinnacle of the Temple to make a spectacular entry as Messiah, and called him to worship him and in return he would possess everything in the universe. They were the temptations to be unfaithful to God’s call. Faced with such challenges, each time Jesus said a firm ‘Yes’ to his Father.
The Gospel of today tells us that Jesus begins his public ministry in Galilee. In the Gospel of Mark Galilee is the favorite place of Jesus. His ministry was most successful there, he chose his first disciples from Galilee, and later he told the disciples that after his resurrectionhe would meet them in Galilee. However, Jesus did not begin his mission of proclaiming the Gospel until John the Baptist was arrested by Herod or he was handed over. The Greek verb used here by Mark is similar to thatword referring to the passion of Jesus as he was handed over to his enemies. The implication from the start is that the fate of Jesus somehow foreshadows in that of John. Mark presents him as a precursor to Jesus, a person who prepared his way. It was in Galilee that Jesus proclaimed his first message of the Kingdom of God and this first sentence he spoke summarizes the first ten chapters given by Mark. Jesus here announced the advent of a new time, a new situation, a call for radical change, and a commitment to faith. God’s time has finally arrived. This provides a new time frame within which everything that follows will happen.
Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming the message from God his Father. He told his audience that a new era is about to begin and a new relationship is being established between God and the people. He told them that the time has come which is the moment of fulfillment. The long awaited “Kingdom of God” wasclose at hand. That Kingdom is not a place, still less ‘heaven’, but the loving power of God, to which we are all invited to submit ourselves. It is the rule of God in the hearts of people. This Kingdom has arrived in the person of Jesus, our King and Lord. The presence of this loving power of God is evident in his teaching of the love of God, in his healing of the sick, in the liberation of people from all destructive forces in their lives, in the bringing back of the rejected and the outcast, in the forgiveness and reconciliation of sinners and finally in the supreme act of self-giving love shown in his dying for us. He invites all to enter that Kingdom through his personal call of repentance.
Today’s Word of God demands a twofold response from people. This response is summarized in the reminder given to us on Ash Wednesday. One part of the response is a profound change in opening ourselves to the Kingdom of God and to determine the direction of our life. The other part of our response should be that we believe in the gospel, that we take Jesus at his word. In Jesus there has been a new beginning. God is once again going to re-establish his sovereignty in the world. He is going to win his victory over sin and evil.Lent as a time for repentance and we are called upon to repent and change ourselves according to the ways of Jesus. It is a time to seek the face of God and to be strengthened in our belief.
We are nowentering into the great season of Lent, when we are called upon to spend six weeks preparing ourselves to celebrate the high point of our faith: the Paschal Mystery, the suffering, death and resurrection of the Incarnate God. This season is a time of penance, fasting and prayer. It is a way of purifying ourselves from our weaknesses and prepare ourselves to celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus with a renewed commitment to follow him. Even though we are no longer asked by the Church to observe the severe penances of former times, it is surely fitting that we make some of form of sacrifice as a preparation for the great event. It should be a time for personal reflection on our personal commitment as Christians.
The story is said about the Salt Doll which wanted to have a look at the Ocean and see for itself how big the ocean was. So it set on its great mission and first encountered a lake and it asked whether it is an Ocean. The lake said that the Ocean was much bigger and it was but so little before it. The Salt Doll then met the river and asked whether it is the Ocean and river said no but it would ultimately join it. Further the doll went travelling and finally came face to face with the Ocean. It asked the huge mass of water whether it was the Ocean and it got the reply that it was indeed the Ocean. Then the Doll asked the Ocean how it could believe it. The Ocean replied and said if it really wanted to know, then it should come forward and touch it. The Salt Doll went forward slowly and stepped into the ocean. Immediately noticed a change in its person. Its toes were missing. It shouted at the ocean and said that it had cheated the doll. The Ocean smiled and replied that if it really wanted to know him well it has to be one with him. The Salt Doll smiled and made a decision. It slowly entered the Ocean and soon was melted into it. Then it said, now I know what the ocean is; I am one with it. That is the reason why the Ocean is still salty in taste.