FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT, CYCLE B
First Reading: Genesis 9:8-15. God establishes a covenant with Noah and his descendants after the flood, and establishes the rainbow as a sign of his faithfulness and of his promise not to destroy the earth again with water.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24. It is a psalm of trust in the Lord, who is the guide, the savior and the forgiver of his people. The psalmist asks him to teach him his ways and make him faithful to his covenant.
Second reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22. The apostle Peter reminds us that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our salvation. He is the model of our faith and of our baptism, which unites us to him and makes us sharers in his victory over evil.
Gospel: Mark 1, 12-15. The evangelist Mark tells us how Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert, where he was tempted by Satan, but also assisted by the angels. After the imprisonment of John the Baptist, Jesus began to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, calling to conversion and faith.
A new day begins and we wake up at dawn to listen and contemplate, both attitudes are fundamental to approach God and his will. Listening implies being attentive, receptive and willing to obey. Contemplating implies admiring, thanking and praising. Both attitudes help us to enter into communion with God and with others.
Listen
We read in the Gospel «After this the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert» (Mk 1:12), «There he lived for forty days among the wild beasts, and was tested by Satan; and the angels ministered to him» (Mk 1:13). «After John was put in prison, Jesus went to Galilee to preach the good news from God» (Mk 1:14). He said, «The time has come, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Turn to God and accept in faith his good news» (Mk 1:15).
Contemplate
As we cross the threshold of Ash Wednesday, we enter into the midst of the Lenten season. Today’s Gospel is brief but profound in meaning. The opening sentence tells us, «The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert, and he stayed in the desert forty days.» This is Lent: 40 days in the desert. The word «Lent» comes from the Latin «quadragésima», which means precisely «forty». This time evokes ancient biblical events loaded with spiritual symbolism.
- 40 years of pilgrimage of the people of Israel through the desert towards the Promised Land.
- 40 days of Moses’ stay on Mount Sinai, where God renewed the covenant with his people and gave him the Tablets of the Law.
- 40 days that Elijah traveled through the wilderness until he met the Lord on Mount Horeb.
- 40 days that our Lord Jesus Christ spent in the desert praying and fasting, before beginning his public life that would culminate on Calvary, where he would bring our redemption to completion.
In this passage (Mk 1:12-15), we contemplate two fundamental aspects: the desert, where Jesus prepares himself for his mission, and the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, which demands conversion and faith.
The desert, in biblical literature, is not only a physical place, but also a spiritual symbol. It seems that God chooses this setting to carry out his works of salvation. The desert is arid and inhospitable, but it is also a place of encounter with the divine. It is a symbolic and profound place. It is the place where God’s people suffer, are tested and purified, but it is also the place where God reveals himself to his people and saves them.
It is a place of solitude, but also of encounter with God’s love. It is a place of desolation and also of Hope. It is the place where I want to go because «God will speak to my heart and win me back» (Hos 2:14). In the desert we see God as He is and He looks at us as we are. It is the place where I allow myself to experience weakness and recognize that «Mercy is the name of God» (Pope Francis).
Welcoming the call of the Spirit to the desert and conversion begins with accepting the call to holiness and to live the Gospel as St. Francis once expressed it: «This is what I want; this is what I seek; this is what I desire with all my heart to do» (cf. 1Cel 22). It is not an idea, it is the firm will to take the step to experience in order to configure one’s own feelings to those of Christ in such a way that prayer and one’s own life go from superficial foundations to the point of saying «it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me» (Gal 2:20).
Conversion is a demanding path, which implies renouncing and fighting against everything that distances us from God. But it is also a path of mercy, which brings us closer to Jesus and to following him. During these days, the Church invites us to practice the spiritual works of mercy (Teach those who do not know, Give good advice to those who need it, Correct those who are in error, Forgive injuries, Comfort the sad, Suffer with patience the faults of others, Pray to God for the living and the dead, and pray to God for those who are alive, To pray to God for the living and the dead) and corporal (To feed the hungry, To give drink to the thirsty, To give lodging to the needy, To clothe the naked, To visit the sick, To help those in prison, To bury the dead) as signs of our conversion.
Invitation.
We ask ourselves:
Are asceticism, almsgiving, fasting, prayer, penance and confession means that help you to deepen and live meaningfully Lent, which is a time of grace and gift? What is my purpose at the beginning of Lent? What does it mean for you to live in an attitude of permanent conversion?
What do you think of this phrase of Pope Francis? «Without recognition of your own sin you cannot receive Mercy».
Intention.
Let us contemplate today’s liturgy from the desire to be with Jesus, to know his heart, to love him and to follow him. Let us ask the Lord to impel us with his Spirit into the desert.
S. Mariulis Grehan, tc