Mother Church celebrates Sunday, February 18, 2024, as the First Sunday of Lent – Year B. The Entrance Antiphon of this day’s Mass says: “When he calls to me, I will answer; I will rescue him and give him honor. Long life and contentment will be his. Amen.”
In his message for this Lenten season, under the theme “Through the desert God leads us to freedom,” Pope Francis, says, among other things that “In the presence of God, we become brothers and sisters, more sensitive to one another: in place of threats and enemies, we discover companions and fellow travelers. This is God’s dream, the promised land to which we journey once we have left our slavery behind.”
As we embark on this Lenten journey, let us start by answering the question: what is Lent? The word ‘lent’ does not have any religious or Christian meaning, being an old Anglo-Saxon word for springtime, lencten. It describes the gradual lengthening of daylight after the winter solstice. So it is a word that is associated in Europe with the weather, marking the transition from winter to spring. It’s not clear how it became associated with Christianity, but it is the period coming about a month and a half after Christmas during which the whole Church goes on retreat for six weeks, that is, for 40 days, for an annual spiritual renewal. It prepares us to celebrate Christianity’s most fundamental belief, i. e. that Christ died, rose from the dead, and is alive. In the absence of this belief, there is no Christianity.
For the next six weeks, beginning on Ash Wednesday, we should, as Pope Francis recommends, intensify our prayer life, our generosity to those who are poorer than we are, those living at the peripheries of our cities, and practice fasting. Prayer, almsgiving, and fasting are not three unrelated acts, but a single movement of openness and self-emptying, in which we cast out the idols that weigh us down, the attachments that imprison us.
Why does Lent last forty days? Early in Christianity, the discipline of fasting became associated with the number 40 in imitation of Christ’s 40-day fast in the desert, of Moses’ 40 days on Mount Sinai, of Elijah’s 40-day fast on his journey to Mount Horeb and of the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert.
In today’s liturgy, the Gospel of Mark reminds us that the passion of Christ is a struggle against the forces of evil. The saving of Noah, in the first reading, begins a new human era and brings a fresh promise from God; while Saint Peter, in the second reading, shows the relationship between Noah, the Christian baptism and Christ’s resurrection.
First Reading: Genesis 9:8-15.
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."
Comment
Genesis is the first of the five books of the OT; the other four being Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Genesis deals with the origins of the world and of the Jewish people. In it, God is pre-existent to the creation of the world. He creates human beings in his image and likeness and makes them his collaborators and partners in safeguarding and developing his creation. However, man’s partnership with God was broken by sin.
In the passage selected for our meditation this day, God blesses Noah and his sons and commands them to populate the earth and take charge of all the other living things. God repeats his covenant with Noah and the rest of creation never to bring any destruction on the earth again through natural phenomena.
It is an unconditional covenant, given to man freely out of God’s boundless generosity. It does not depend on how well or how badly human beings will behave in the future. It is therefore a pure gift of God’s love that will reach perfection through the new and everlasting covenant which Christ will mediate in his blood.
There is mention of the rainbow, which is the sign of the covenant made long ago between God and the people of Israel, who were told to mark their male children by circumcising them. The rainbow symbolizes a universal covenant embracing all people and all created things.
The story of the Flood has become a leading symbol of salvation: God’s constant disposition to intervene in creation to rescue human beings and their world from the consequences of sin. The covenant made with Noah, symbolized by the rainbow, foreshadows first the covenant made with Israel at Sinai and then the “new and everlasting covenant” sealed by the blood of Christ upon the cross. Salvation is not just for Israel, it is for all humanity.
We pray to God to continue to show us his abundant mercies and to protect and guide us as we journey with his Son through his passion which he willingly accepted for our salvation. Amen.
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you--not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Comment
Church historians tell us that Peter’s letters were addressed to Christians living in a remote part of the Roman Empire, presumably with little contact with other Christian churches. As a minority, these Christians with a different way of life were cut off from normal contact with their neighbours who, very likely, viewed them with suspicion, if not hostility.
Two major themes run through the letter: first, the high dignity and boundless joy of being a Christian, and second, the necessity and tremendous honour of sharing in the sufferings of Christ. There is no other book of the New Testament that refers so often to the sufferings of Jesus, and one that is so filled with a spirit of joy. This first letter then is about Christian discipleship with both its joys and its sorrows; its teaching is that sorrow comes but is always absorbed in joy. Thus, death and joy run through the letter, but they give meaning to life, baptism, discipleship, witness, hope, indeed to human life itself. Life always wins over death.
In the text selected for our meditation, Peter wants to instill perseverance in the face of persecution. To do this, he puts before his hearers the triumphant resurrection of Christ and its effects on themselves and on all creation. Christians are associated with the resurrection by passing through the water of baptism. Though they may be suffering, they are in the same situation as those rescued with Noah from the waters of the Flood. Peter assures his persecuted audience that their sufferings should not be attributed to the continuing influence of these powers. Christ’s victory is secure and, so ultimately, will be their share in it when salvation has run its full course.
Let us pray for the courage to preach Christ’s word of salvation wherever we may be this day, especially through the witness of our Christian lives. May the Holy Spirit guide us in this exacting task. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Gospel: Mark 1: 12-15.
The Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
Comment
As mentioned earlier, Lent commemorates the forty days Jesus spent in the desert in preparation for his years of preaching, which culminated in the cross and in the triumph of Easter. Forty days of prayers and penance, and at the end of them the temptations of Christ, which the liturgy recalls for us in today’s Gospel.
It is the first time the devil intervenes in the life of Jesus, and he does so openly and in a direct manner. He puts our Lord to the test; perhaps he wants to find out if the hour of the Messiah has actually arrived.
Mark’s account of the Temptation, unlike Matthews’ (4: 1-11) and Luke’s (4: 1-13), is rather sparse but contains a very great deal. Jesus has emerged from his baptism clad with the Spirit, the power of God’s love (1:11). This will be the driving force of his mission. The Spirit begins this role by “driving” him into the wilderness, the habitat of wild animals (“the beasts”) as well as evil spirits. Like Daniel in the den of lions (Dan 6:16-24), Jesus, among the beasts, rests solely upon the power and providence of God. Divine care surrounds him in the shape of the ministering angels.
Emerging victorious from his conflict with evil, Jesus announces the “good news” of the imminent displacement of Satan’s rule by the rule or “kingdom” of God.
The question is, why does Jesus allow himself to be tempted by Satan? Through this temptation, Christ gives us an example of humility, and teaches us to overcome the temptations that we undergo in the course of our lives. According to Saint John Chrysostom, “Our Lord did everything for our instructions, so he wished to be led out into the wilderness and there to enter into combat with the devil. He did this in order that the baptized should not be troubled if after Baptism they suffer still greater temptations, as though such were not to be expected.”
If we are not prepared to meet temptations, we would open the door to a great enemy, that is, discouragement and gloominess. Jesus wants to teach us by example that no one should consider himself exempt from any type of trial.
The Preface of today’s Mass reminds us that our Lord teaches us with deeds that we must overcome temptations and that we should derive benefit from all the trials that surround us. “Blessed is the man who endures trial,” says the Apostle James, “for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.”
The devil tempts us by taking advantage of the needs and weaknesses of our human nature. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, our Lord must have been very weak. Here He is in the wilderness; He feels hungry just like any other man in such circumstances. This is the moment the tempter chooses to come forward with the proposition that He should turn the stones that lie around into the bread He needs and longs for so desperately.
This passage of the Gospel teaches us too to be particularly watchful over ourselves and over those whom we have a special obligation to help in their moments of weakness and tiredness. It is such moments that the devil chooses to tempt us more fiercely, so that our lives may turn away from God’s will and follow a different path.
God is always beside us. Whenever we are confronted with temptation, He says: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). We should therefore place all our trust in him because without him we would achieve little or nothing at all by ourselves. As the Psalmist so eloquently puts it: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Ps 26:1).
How do we overcome temptations? Through prayers, of course! As Mathew says: “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptations (Mt 26: 41). If we are to overcome temptation, we must repeat with confidence the words of our Saviour himself: Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
During this Lenten season, let us pray for peace in our world, especially in our country, Cameroon. Pope Francis says that “At this moment in time, we face enormous risks; we hear the painful plea of so many people. Indeed, we are experiencing a third world war fought piecemeal. Yet let us find the courage to see our world, not as being in its death throes but in a process of giving birth, not at the end but at the beginning of a great new chapter of history.”
May this new chapter, which the Pope foresees, be the time when peace will at last return to the northwest, southwest, and northern regions of our county. We make our prayer through Christ the Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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