February 21st 2021. First Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL: Mark: 1, 12-15

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

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

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GOSPEL: Mark: 1, 12-15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,

and he remained in the desert for forty days,

tempted by Satan.

He was among wild beasts,

and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,

Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:

"This is the time of fulfilment.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the gospel."

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORTER HOMILY . . . The first Sunday of Lent presents us with Jesus’ time in the desert before he begins his ministry. Mark’s version is very dense and concise compared to the other Gospels. In fact, he mentions just four elements of these forty days: it is the Holy Spirit who drives Christ into the desert; he is tempted by Satan; he is in the company of the wild animals; and he is ministered to by the angels. The reference to the wild animals recalls the fact that the harmony between humanity and the animals was disrupted by the Fall. The mention of the angels serving him is also interesting because service is the sign of the new life of the redemption. After the time in the desert, John is arrested and Jesus begins to preach the Good News of the Kingdom. The first reading recounts the covenant between God and Noah which comes after the purification of the flood. Similarly, before we can arrive at the proclamation of the Good News, it is necessary to go through purification. We recall also that Jesus has just spent thirty years in silence before he begins preaching! In our culture of touch-button ordering and mindless channel-switching, we expect everything to happen immediately. But if something is to be authentic, then it needs a foundation! The preaching of the Gospel requires that the preacher be someone who has lived that same Gospel in his life. He must have gone through a period of purification in which that very word of God has formed him. Just as the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert, so the Holy Spirit brings us to these bitter and difficult trials. Salvation must be deep, not superficial. We need Lent! We need to pass through the desert in order to arrive at Easter. Using the weapons of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we can be transported to things that are more important, more significant, more beautiful. If our life is simply gratification and security, then we will never learn to love truly. We need the defects of those around us to challenge us to move out of ourselves, to purify us and thus become children of God by grace. We need Lent! We cannot do without it. The Good News is not to be understood in an intellectual sense; rather it must be lived and experienced. It must challenge us. This time of Lent is a time of simplicity and truth, a blessed and sacred opportunity for each one of us.

LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

In life we all need signs like the rainbow, signs that show that our struggles have meaning

As always, the first Sunday of Lent presents the account of the time spent by Jesus in the desert. We are called to begin the period of interior struggle that is necessary if we are to arrive at Easter. The phase in the desert is a very important part of our journey. The first reading recounts the end of the Flood. In a sense the Flood is a negation of creation. The Genesis account tells of the separation of the waters on the second day of creation. In the Flood, these waters reunite and bring an end to much of life, apart from that saved by Noah who follows the indications of the Lord. After the tragic event of purification a sign appears in the sky, a rainbow, which marks the end of the time of destruction. Humanity needs this sign! Apart from the beauty of this phenomenon of the refraction of light - a beauty that appeals to everyone especially children - there is a sense of rebirth with the appearance of a rainbow. We all need signs like the rainbow to indicate that our problems have meaning, that they lead us to somewhere better, that there is something other than destruction, that there is a solution to the mysteries of life.

Lent, like the desert, is a place of passage. The human condition is incomplete and in need of the transformation that requires passage through the desert

The fact is that humanity finds itself in this desert, and this point is underlined by the season of Lent. The people of Israel had to spend forty years in the desert before entering the Promised Land and experiencing the new condition of freedom. When Jesus spends forty days in the desert, it is an image of the condition of humanity. All of us are in a place that is incomplete and inhospitable. The typical characteristic of the biblical conception of desert is that it is a place of passage, a place of trial. Mark is the oldest of the Gospels and he recounts the events in his usual succinct fashion, keeping his account to the essentials. In other years, we read the versions of Matthew and Luke in which various details of the events of the temptations are given. These profound passages, rooted in Scripture, are interesting and inspirational, but Mark summarises it all in a few simple words. Every element of these words is precious. Jesus has just been baptised, and this might seem to indicate that he is ready to begin his mission. But no, there is a passage that he cannot avoid. The Spirit drives him into the desert. The desert is a category all of itself. Scripturally speaking, it is the place of formation, the place where the people of Israel were formed over the course of forty years. And that is why the number forty appears again in the account of Jesus’ time in the desert. During those forty years of evolution, a people of slaves is transformed into a people who are ready to settle down and govern the Promised Land. From being a disordered conglomerate of people, they are formed into a unified and ordered people. The desert has this positive role, but yet it remains a place of passage, a place where one cannot live or settle down. It is a place where issues are confronted in order to arrive at maturity.

Jesus enters the desert in order to be with us because humanity is in the desert

St Augustine asked why Jesus would need to go into the desert? Because humanity finds itself in the desert! Humanity has lost the Garden of Eden and finds itself in this problematic state of incompletion. The Hebrew word for desert is midbar, a term that means “where the word is absent”. When we think of desert we tend to think of a sandy place like the Sahara. The deserts of Sinai or Judea are not like this. They are rocky with a lot of shrubbery. There is life in the desert, but it is an inhospitable and ungovernable place, not organised by humanity. In contrast to the presentable and orderly dimension of human life, there is the desert where the wild animals, spiders and insects hold sway. These animals represents what is unresolved in man. It is there that Christ must go. It is there that Christ must bring these wild beasts into contact with the angels. To be “with the beasts” is to affront the place within ourselves that is the desert. The Greek for desert is eremos, the place that is isolated from everything else. Jesus does not begin with abstract theology, he begins with the problem of humanity, his solitude, his interior beasts, the issues within him that are unresolved. Lent is a wonderful time to enter into these unresolved issues of our lives and discover that here, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can find angels. Christ is truly human and he wants to bring humanity to salvation. He does not want man to throw away a part of his life, nor exist with his life divided into different sections. Christ wants to redeem that part of man which is bestial, ugly, fearful, unresolved, alone and separated. Lent is a time for humanity to discover peace by confronting himself. Christ did not come to save the presentable aspect of humanity, but to save humanity in its entirety, especially its side that is filthy and neglected.