Walking with Jesus: First Sunday of Lent

For Sunday, February 18, 2024

Genesis 9:8-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:12-15

We know that the season of Lent lasts 40 days. So when does it begin? When we start counting back from Easter, we have all sorts of difficulties. In Seminary days, as I remember, we were told that the Lenten season begins with the first Sunday of Lent. Today the “experts” respond this way: “Depending on when you observe the first day of Lent, the Lenten season will either last through Holy Thursday if you begin on Ash Wednesday, or will end on March 30, Holy Saturday, if you begin counting on the first Sunday of Lent today, February 18, according to Christianity.”   

More importantly, the Lenten cycle of weekday readings falls into two parts:

Part one is from Ash Wednesday until the Saturday of the third week. The readings are taken from the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke), and the ones from the Old Testament are chosen accordingly. The message is a call to a life of Gospel conversion. How does one do this? Beginning a time of fasting and prayer, conversion, mutual forgiveness, love of enemies, justice, and love over ritual and cult: It’s the call to holiness. This is a good way to break up the Lenten season — perhaps taking two of these “calls” per week.

In part two, gospel readings are taken from John. On the Monday of the fourth week it's John 4:43 and going through to Holy Week, omitting passages read on Sundays. The passages do not constitute a “crash course” on Jesus; rather, a  presentation of the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John says that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. Christ is  presented as the healer and life-giver. Jesus does this through His willingness to accept death, which shows God’s love and completes God’s plan of salvation for all. We — you and I and all creation — are called from the demands of discipleship (in part one) to the person of Jesus (part two). John presents Jesus as our Savior, but Jesus can only save those who know their need for salvation. Here's a powerful approach during part two: Confronted with our sickness and powerlessness, we pray for our salvation. We humbly pray for the Spirit to make each of us aware of our need for God.

So is Lent a time for giving up or a time of being present to where the Holy Spirit is leading along with what Jesus is telling me about God’s love? If so, how can I be a part of this process? Am I asking for God’s help in this? If not, why not?

If I asked you what makes you stop and take notice … and wonder … and witness God’s love and care, how would you respond? God already gives us the answer to Noah in the first reading: the rainbow. The most beautiful rainbow I've witnessed was a double one extending over the steeple of St. Paul’s Church in Rome, New York. It stopped me in it’s total beauty …in the significance of its arc over the Church … the place of worship where God gathers His people together … and my home, where I was living … so many reflections were filling me with God’s love. Share your stories of rainbows;all of them are from God.  

Peter’s letter captures the image of water’s destructive force in Noah’s time which  was followed by God’s renewed and life-giving covenant with all creation. It also anticipates the baptism at the Easter Vigil, when the catechumens join with Jesus in His death — a kind of drowning to an old way of life that is followed by their rising in a different way. It gloriously reminds us that Jesus shares in our suffering so that ultimately we will share, in some mysterious way, the life with God that has been promised to each of us if we believe, trust, and live Jesus.

In cycle A, B and C, the Gospel recounts Jesus’ 40 days in the desert … which hints strongly at the 40 years of the desert journey of the Israelites. God was always with them … they kinda believed, when they wanted ... when they felt forced … or when they wanted to impress God. They never reflected on what it meant for God to be totally present to them. Why not? Mark’s account implies that Adam and Eve’s failure in the face of Satan’s temptations resulted in their not believing God — they followed their own feelings, which they felt was better. God’s plan for all creation — even amid our own perilous desert journeys, among our own wild beasts — Jesus has travelled first. He is with us on our journey. Why do we want to lead, and not let the God of love, forgiveness, mercy and kindness show us the way? Reflect on this!

So I reflect on:

• Who is the angel who kept you on track today — from saying something unkind or hurtful — to one who texted you right back — who thanked you for being you — who is with you while you cry? Who are your angels?
• Is giving up something actually a distraction from the real desert journey, with all its wild beasts, and not noticing the angels in our own lives and in the lives of others? Can I see others’ sufferings in life’s deserts and how I might be an angel for them?

Sacred Space 2024 states:

“Immediately after Jesus’ baptism and the affirmation of His mission ‘the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.’ It was seen as a place of testing, but it was also where God could be found. Lord, give us the Spirit to help us to recognize the challenging aspects of living out our baptism so that we are not complacent.”