February 22^nd 2015.  First Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL Mark 1:12-15

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL Mark 1:12-15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days,
and was tempted by Satan.
He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.

After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee.
There he proclaimed the Good News from God.
‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand.
Repent, and believe the Good News.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . God makes a covenant with Noah after the flood. Jesus goes into the desert and then announces the Kingdom of God. Both of these episodes reveal that communion with God comes after the time of purification. The desert is an essential part of Christian life! Woe to us if we think we can enter the Kingdom, taking all of our illusions, fixations and self-deceptions with us! We need to be purified before we can enter the pure house of God’s love. Woe to us if we confuse the door that leads to our own limited goals with the door to the Kingdom of Heaven! There are many things we need to be rid of before we can make a real alliance with God. The experience of the desert rids us of these things. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is at arm’s reach, but we must repent and be converted if we are to enter it. The word “convert” means to turn and face a new destination; the term in Hebrew means to return to the original state of goodness; in Greek it means to go beyond our habitual scheme of thinking. Lent is the season of the desert when we do all of these things! God wishes to make an intimate alliance with us, but he cannot make an alliance with our self-deceptions! Let us embrace this happy time of Lent and all that it brings: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, emptying of self. This purification is an essential part of orienting ourselves to the Kingdom that Jesus brings.

After the flood, God makes an alliance with Noah. After the time in the desert, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom. Purification is a prelude to communion with God!

In contrast to the First Sunday of Lent in other years (which present us with an account of the temptations of Jesus in the desert), this year we have the succinct account of St Mark. After the temptations in the desert, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven. The first reading recounts the covenant God makes with Noah and with all living flesh. This comes in the aftermath of the flood when God vows that he will never again destroy life with a flood. The alliance with God comes after the time of tribulation. Similarly, when Jesus emerges from the desert, he proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven and asks that people repent and believe the Good News. This is a wonderful key for approaching the season of Lent. The time in the desert is an essential prelude to new life and communion with God.

The desert is an essential part of Christian life. To arrive at the freedom God wishes for us, we must be stripped of those things that limit our freedom

In Mark’s Gospel we are told that Jesus goes into the desert after he is baptized. Why could he not begin his mission immediately after his baptism? The text tells us that the Spirit drives Jesus into the desert. The original Greek terms is particularly violent, as if Jesus was dragged into the desert. This emphasizes that his sojourn there is no accident. The Spirit takes him to this place of desolation and temptation because Jesus must follow the same path that every human being follows. Every human being must reach the stage of forming an alliance with God. And it is not possible to arrive at the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven if we do not first make this journey that Jesus makes on our behalf. The Season of Lent every year is the happy time when we make this journey in a special way. We must go to the place where we can confront our temptations and be purified. We must face down the wild beasts and the dangers in a sacred space where we do not have our domestic comforts. Our need for purification is an essential need, a need that if often overlooked today. The journey to freedom, beauty and joy is not a victorious journey. It involves being stripped bare of those things that obstruct our entry into the Kingdom.

Do we really think we can enter the Kingdom whilst holding on to our disordered habits and behaviour? There are many things in our life that cannot enter the Kingdom, and we need the desert to rid us of these

Jesus, having taken on our flesh, confronts the desert. The desert is a fundamental element of the Christian life. Before Noah can make the alliance with God, he must pass through the period of desolation. Woe to us if we think we can enter the Kingdom, taking all our fixations with us! Woe to us is we think that we can cling on to our disordered behaviour and still enter the pure house of freedom, the splendid and joyful house of love! There are many things in our lives that must remain outside. It is simply not true that everything in life can be “canonised” or made acceptable. A cultural tendency in our time is to sanctify and regularize those problems that we are unable to face. We have certain internal or moral difficulties, but instead of confronting them, we convince ourselves that everything is fine as it is. But the human being needs purification; he needs to enter into combat with these aspects of himself; he needs the biblical flood to prepare him for entry into the Kingdom.

Lent is the season of reorienting ourselves to the Kingdom of God. But we must repent and be converted before we can enter the Kingdom. “Convert” means different things in different languages: to return to the original state of goodness; to turn towards a new destination; to go beyond our usual ways of thinking

Lent is a season when we reorient ourselves to the Kingdom of God. Jesus says in the Gospel, “The time has come”. In other words, this moment is a beautiful one, full of possibilities and good things. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. We can be saved wherever we are and in whatever condition we are in. However, the next words of Jesus are important: “Repent and believe in the Gospel!” Believing in the Gospel is fairly easy because it is a beautiful thing, but the business of conversion is not so simple. It involves a definite choice on my part. The term “convert” literally means to turn towards a new destination. The old Hebrew word for conversion signified “to repent and go back to the original good state”. The Greek word that appears in the original version of the Gospel means “to go beyond my habitual way of thinking”. All of us need to return to the original state of goodness! All of us need to direct ourselves to the right destination! All of us need to go beyond our habitual schemes! We need to orient ourselves to that which is truly worthy of us.

God wishes to make an alliance with us, but he cannot make an alliance with our self-deceptions! We need the desert to eliminate these.

This Lent we need to enter into this time of purification, enter into this flood, establish a new alliance with the Lord. God will not make a covenant with my self-deceptions! The gate to the Kingdom of Heaven is not to be confused with the ambiguous gate that leads to my limited and self-referential goals. God gives us signs of purity and of freedom. The rainbow reveals the secret of light and of colour. It normally appears when the rain is over and the sun is breaking through. It comes after the tribulation, after we have rid ourselves of the unessential. In impoverished words, we are called during the season of Lent to enter into combat with our self-delusions, with the demon, with Satan. Who among us can face this combat by himself? We need Jesus to lead us and guide us. We need to enter into that space which has none of our domestic comforts. If we remain in our comfort zone, refusing to be challenged by other ways of thinking and living, then we will fail to make the leap to the most noble part of ourselves. We need the desert, an experience away from the banality of ordinary life. This experience makes possible the leap beyond our schemes of thinking. The fact is that the Kingdom of Heaven is beyond our normal convictions and comfort zone. It comes after the desert. Let us embrace this desert, this time of Lent, with all that it brings, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, sobriety, self-emptying! We need purification if we are to be oriented towards the Kingdom of Heaven.