(Homily 1st Sunday of Lent, Year B)
In
this first Sunday of lent the word of God through the readings continue to
invite us to embark on a journey of rediscovery of what God has wrought for us
in and through his Son Jesus Christ, and what ought to be our corresponding
reaction to that great manifestation of God’s love and tenderness. Lent above
all, is a journey of 40 days, and as we know the number 40 is biblically
symbolic. For instance: during Noah's time the rains
came down for a period of forty days and forty nights (Gn. 7:4); Moses was
with God in the mountain for forty days and forty nights while he was receiving
the commandments (Ex. 24:18; 34:28);
The Israelites where in the wilderness for forty years before they reached the
Promised Land (Num. 14:33-34);
God gave Nineveh forty days to repent (Jon.
3:4); Jesus remained on earth forty days after resurrection (Acts 1:3). In a nutshell,
it indicates a period of intense spiritual experience. Therefore is a moment to ask ourselves: what are we to do? (cf. Acts 2:37),
upon consideration of all that God did, does and will do for us. In all, the
readings of this period are geared towards the preparation of the faithful for
an active and adequate participation in the paschal mystery, and concretely for
an authentic Christian living.
The first
reading (Gen. 9:8-15) presents the
covenant with Noah, and this of all the other Old Testament covenants stands
out, for the covenant was made not only with Israel, but with the whole of
human race. At the heart of this covenant, is God’s decision not to destroy the
earth again by a flood. The flood is
only a symbol of a devastation brought by sin. This reveals that it is the
ultimate will of God to preserve and to redeem the earth and not to destroy it.
Just as it is typical of the Bible, every covenant is accompanied by a sign,
and in the case of this, it is a God-given sign of a rainbow. God’s intervention is not
to destroy as portrayed in the story, but rather to renew and reconstruct. In all, the essence of this reading, as the message
from the epistle reading shows, revolves around the fact that Noah’s flood
could be seen as a prefiguration of Christian baptism, as St. Peter alludes in
the second reading.
The second reading (1Pt. 3:18-22) on its part, talks about the redemptive death of
Christ and its reconciliatory dimension. In particular, the first two lines
express the atoning efficacy of Christ’s death. In his words, St. Peter
affirmed that “Christ himself died for our
sins, to lead us to God” (1Pt. 3:18). However, the allusion to
Baptism connects the first and the second reading, whereby, the flood of Noah is referenced to Christian baptism. An
analogy is drawn between the waters of the flood and the water of baptism. St.
Peter underscores that baptism saves us not as a removal of dirt from our body
but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience (1Pt. 3:21), here clear or good conscience points to repentance
from ones sins and faith in Jesus Christ. St. Peter used the story of the flood to explain the
effects of baptism. The water of baptism
has the same effect as the water of the flood, it destroys the old person and
brings forth the new. Baptism marks the end of sin, of hatred and begins a new
life in the Spirit. This is made possible through the redemptive Passion of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Give or take, the existential import of this passage centers on the rediscovery of
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us, he died for our sins, and the purpose of
this was to lead us to God. And once led to God let us not turn our back on
him, for as St. Paul says “Christ set us free, so that we should remain free” (Gal. 5:1). As we journey along in this
Lenten season let us make effort to return and remain where our Redeemer has
led us to.
The Gospel
passage (Mk. 1:12-15) is a narrative
of the Markan version of the temptation of Jesus. On this event, the account of
Mark is brief, unlike the accounts of Mathew and Luke, but dense in
significance. Mark does not report the threefold temptation and the affirmation
that Jesus fasted. It is the
spirit that moved Jesus to the wilderness, where he was to satisfy his desires
for silence and prayer. He remained there for 40 days, the number 40 here is connected
to the 40 years of the Israelites towards their liberation, it indicates a
generation, that is, a life time. This first of all, entails that all his life
Jesus desired to remain in contact with the Father. All his life Jesus
combated against the one who divides, against the Adversary, the Devil. We are told that our Lord was driven (or moved) into the desert by the
Spirit; the Holy Spirit (cf. Mat.4:1).
From the passage, we understand that the movement of our Lord into the
wilderness was a response to the action of the Holy Spirit. A personal question can be formulated thus:
“what is it that really moves you?” What is it that is moving you this Lenten
season? The Spirit or our aspirations and inordinate desires? We can also
recall that during his baptism, the heavens opened and the Spirit of God
descended upon him in form of a dove. It is that same Spirit that drove him
into the desert where he stayed for forty days and forty nights. Now let us
look at the place he was driven to by the Spirit: the wilderness. In the bible,
wilderness is often described as a
wasteland, an arid region, dry land without water (Psalm 63:1; 107:4). In fact, this particular place is also called
desert in some translations. The two are simply one and the same place (Isaiah 35:1). It was into this area that
the Spirit moved our Lord Jesus Christ and he did not go there for pleasure or
sight seeing. He was there to fast and to pray for a definite period of forty
days.
Afterwards, he was tempted by the devil in
the wilderness. But Jesus is able to
resist the temptation because of His determination to remain faithful to the
mission entrusted to Him by His Father. After conquering the devil, he
began to call people to conversion, to a change of life, “The time is fulfilled
(the time of grace, favour), and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and
believe in the Gospel,” (v. 15). This cry of Jesus summarizes the challenge
for all Christians during this season of Lent. And so on this First Sunday
of Lent, we are invited to reflect on
the urgency of the call for repentance. And no doubt, at the heart of the
Lenten season lies the vitality and freshness of Jesus’ invitation to
conversion for the nearness of God’s Kingdom. Indeed, the clarion call by Jesus
(v. 15) contains two points. The
first is ‘to reform’ our lives. The
second is “to believe in the gospel”.
Let’s begin with the first point: the reform of our lives. To ‘reform’ is an
invitation to spiritual renewal, and to do this, we need to recognize the evil
in our lives and to turn our back to it. It
entails freeing ourselves from all that separate us from Christ, in order to be
free for all that connect us to Him. As such, the journey of lent entails a
twofold movement of freedom from and freedom for (Freedom from evil and
freedom for Christ). The second point of this instruction of Jesus is: “believe
in the gospel” This means that we have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God
who comes to us as a Man and saves us from our sinfulness. It entails seeking
out Jesus especially in the Sacrament of Penance and receiving from Him forgiveness
and spiritual healing.
In the passage, Mark’s mention of the wild
beast and the angels could be linked to Psalm
91:11-13, there the psalmist says that the righteous man will be protected
by the angels and will be immune from the attacks of the beast. And in the context of the desert we
are told that wild beasts and angels served him, what does this mean? It could be that our Evangelist intends to
posit that Jesus is inaugurating a new reality, where man lives in harmony with
other creatures, this points back to the initial state of Adam. As if to
say, that truly Jesus is the New Adam. On the other hand, the angels point to
other realities we encounter on our journey of faith that lead us to God. Be
that as it may, in the temptation account we get three features: the
devil, the wild beasts and angels. In the episode of the temptation the devil
tried once again the Son of Adam and he was subdued.
After a thorough perusal into this
passage, one could say that irrespective of its brevity, one thing remarkable
is that the Markan account of the temptation is indeed rich in meaning. Mark as a matter of fact, was not
interested in the psychological experience of Jesus, rather in proclaiming him
the righteous man of God, the New Adam, through whom the powers of evil are
defeated. The representation of the devil in form of a beast, for instance, could
be linked to the mention of the mark of the beast (Rev.13:16; 14:9). But the Good News is that there is a final
victory over the ancient serpent or dragon called devil and Satan (Rev. 20:1-3). Truly, there is
no gainsaying the fact that “everyone born of God overcomes the world” (1Jn. 5:4) Jesus did overcome, we too!
Above all else however, every first Sunday
of Lent we read the gospel passage of the temptation of Jesus, which in turn
serves as a reminder for us to always say “No” to Satan and his promises as
Jesus did. Secondly, it reminds us that
in our lives temptations must come, but we are called to resist as Jesus did.
Temptations in themselves are neutral, that is, they are neither good nor bad.
What may be categorized to be good or bad is what we make out of the
temptations (our Yes or our No to them). Jesus’ experience of temptation
evidences that we humans are not immune to temptation. The author of the letter
to the Hebrews was firm on this fact when he affirms: “we do not have a high
priest who is incapable of feeling our weakness with us, but one who has been
tempted in all things like us, but has not sinned” (Heb. 4:15). So, the devil will continue to tempt us, but God does
not, He only tests us. St. James in his letter says that “God tempts no one” (Jm. 1:13). The purpose of temptation
is to make us bad, but the purpose of test is to make us better. In all, the
Lenten season brings to our consideration the necessity to evaluate our faith.
Whether our faith is full of only words and inconsistency, or is concretized in
good works and in love. May He who was
tempted in the same way we are, and yet remained without sin continue to
strengthen us in our daily struggle to resist the devil and his promises. Amen!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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