1st
Sunday of Lent Year B – Feb. 18, 2024
Genesis 9:
8-15; 1 Peter 3: 18-22; Mark 1: 12-15
Theme: Forty
Days of Lent: Time to Resist Satan’s Temptations
This past Wednesday, we celebrated
Ash Wednesday’s Mass which marked the beginning of a forty-day penitential time called the Lenten season. Our Holy Mother
Church gives us these forty days of Lent so that we might prepare ourselves to
celebrate the Paschal mystery of our Lord Jesus (his Passion, Death,
Resurrection, and Ascension). At Ash Wednesday Mass, we received ashes
on our foreheads symbolizing our firm decision to spend this penitential season
in Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. By receiving ashes on our foreheads, we
expressed our willingness to repent and believe in the Gospel now, not to ignore
or postpone it. We were reminded that we are dust, and unto dust, we shall
return. Thus, with the Ash Wednesday
Mass, we have begun our forty-day penitential journey toward Jesus’s
resurrection, which is also our resurrection, in Easter.
Then, today
is the first Sunday of Lent. The liturgy of this Mass prepares us to know that Satan
who tempted Jesus in the desert continues to tempt us today, especially during
this Lenten season. Therefore, we should resist him with all of his temptations
and so remain members of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish (see our
Gospel). Repentance is a good start to resist Satan. Note, the way God
patiently waited for Noah to build the ark which saved him and all the remnants
from the flooding water (see the context of our first reading. God is also
patiently waiting for us to turn to him in the baptismal water with which the
catechumen will be baptized and the rest of us will renew our baptismal
promises in Easter (see our second reading).
Indeed, in our Gospel, the evangelist
Mark does not focus on the parameters of the temptations. He does not tell us
about how many times Jesus was tempted, neither does he specify each type of
temptation as Matthew and Luke do. He rather mentions some important elements
in his account. First, he informs us that Jesus was driven into the desert by
the Spirit. The verses that immediately precede our passage recount the baptism
of Jesus by John the Baptist. During his baptism, Mark reports that on coming
out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Spirit, like a dove,
descending upon him (Mark 1: 9-11). This Spirit who descended on Jesus in his
baptism is the same Spirit who drove him into the desert. As we too have joined
Jesus in the desert throughout our forty days of Lent, the Spirit of God is
with us and sustains us.
Second, Mark says that in the desert,
Jesus was among wild beasts and the angels ministered to him. The presence of
the wild beast and the ministering angels describe the kingdom of God that
Jesus came to inaugurate. It is the kingdom of a new creation where humans and
wild beasts live together in perfect harmony, alluding to the time of Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned and were expelled. This is the kingdom
of the resurrection in which we, like the angels, will minister to the resurrected
Jesus and praise him in Easter.
Third, Mark says that Satan tempted
Jesus in the desert. This is the main point in this first Sunday of Lent. The
way Satan tempted Jesus in the desert is the same way he temps us today. His
purpose in tempting Jesus was to prevent him from starting his ministry because
he was fearful of losing people. He knew that the mission of Jesus for which he
went to the desert to prepare himself consisted of calling the people to be
part of the kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish. The same Satan
continues to tempt us today because he knows that the Lenten season prepares us
for the Paschal Mystery. Through the baptism (for the catechumens) and the renewal
of our baptismal promises in Easter, we will resurrect with Christ and so start
a new life in a new creation. Therefore, we are called to resist Satan with all
his temptations.
After completing his forty-day
preparation in the desert, Mark says that Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the
Gospel of God. Here Mark does not just mean the Good News from God but the Good
News about God at work in Jesus Christ. This proclamation of the Gospel of God
is Jesus’ first-ever homily in the Marcan Gospel. Then, let us pay attention to
the first words of his preaching: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom
of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” (v. 15, NABRE).
To be members of the new creation of the
kingdom of God, which we will celebrate on Easter, Jesus asks us to do two
things during these forty days of Lent. The first thing is to repent and the
second is to believe in the Gospel. To repent means to abandon all our wrong
deeds, confess our sins, and decide to start a new life with the Resurrected
Jesus in Easter. To believe in the Gospel means to accept Jesus as the
fulfillment of all God’s promises. That is why Jesus tells us that his ministry
time is the time of fulfillment. Here he means that all the covenants of the
Old Testament between God and his chosen people, including the covenant that
God established with Noah that we heard in our first reading, are fulfilled
with him. The kingdom of God that the prophets of the Old Testament foretold is
now at hand with Jesus. The new life in a new creation is now at hand. Our resurrection
with Christ is now at hand in Easter. Therefore, we need to repent all of our
sins and believe in the Gospel of Jesus to start a new life in a new creation as
Noah and all the remnants did in our first reading.
The sacred author of our second
reading says that the flooding at the time of Noah is the prefiguration of our baptism.
His interpretation is that as Noah and all the remnants first needed to pass
through the water of flooding in the ark before they enjoyed the new life in a
new creation, we too need to pass through the water of baptism before we start
a new life in a new creation of the resurrection of Jesus in Easter. Saint Peter,
in this reading, teaches us that the way God patiently waited for Noah to build
the ark, which saved him and all the remnants, is the same way he is patiently
waiting for us to turn to Baptism to receive forgiveness of sins and be saved. He
reports to us that only “eight in all” were saved through this flooding water. The
number “8” is a symbol of the new creation that God established after the flood.
This means that those baptized in Christ (including all of us in Easter, we
will renew our baptismal promises and the Catechumen will receive Baptism) are
resurrected into eternal life and start a new life in a new creation of the
resurrection with Christ.
As we have commenced this forty-day
journey of repentance which prepares us to celebrate a new life in a new
creation in Easter, the liturgy of this first Sunday calls us to resist Satan who
every day tries to prevent us from fulfilling our Lenten observances. May this
Mass enable us to stay strong spiritually throughout this Lenten Season. Amen.
Rev. Leon
Ngandu, SVD
Thank you!
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