First Sunday of Lent (Year B)
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT (YEAR B)
Gn 9:8-15;
Ps 25;
1 Pt 3:18-22;
Mk 1:12-15;
BIBLICAL-MISSIONARY COMMENTARY
The Trials-Temptations in the Missionary Journey of Christ (and of His Disciples)
With Ash Wednesday, we began the season of Lent, in which we set out with the whole Church towards the Easter of Christ’s resurrection. As Pope Francis pointed out in this year’s Lenten message, “Lent is the season of grace in which the desert can become once more – in the words of the prophet Hosea – the place of our first love (cf. Hos 2:16-17). God shapes his people, he enables us to leave our slavery behind and experience a Passover from death to life. Like a bridegroom, the Lord draws us once more to himself, whispering words of love to our hearts.” We therefore train ourselves in the art of listening to His Word, especially during these weeks, so that we may “grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects,” as we asked God in the Collect Prayer. Actually, the Word of God of this first Sunday of Lent offers us some important hints to know better Christ and his true mission, and consequently to better live our vocation as Christians, that is, as “followers of Christ,” , His missionaries-disciples today.
1. “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert.” Trials in Jesus’ Journey After Baptism
The “classical” words “at that time” that we find in the various lectionaries imply here a very important temporal context that must be noted and kept in mind: the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness take place immediately after His baptism in the Jordan. As St. Mark the Evangelist mentions, the same Spirit of God that had descended upon Jesus before, now immediately led Him, even “drove [Him] out into the desert” to make Him remain there for forty days “tempted by Satan.” The trials-temptations that Jesus faced in His life after His baptism in the Jordan River evoke the forty years the People of God spent in the desert after the Red Sea crossing. During this period, Israel had to face various difficulties and many hardships that repeatedly provoked temptations against its faith/faithfulness in God who saves. Israel’s story also becomes the image of the post-baptismal journey of every believer and his/her faith, which is exposed to continuous trials-temptations throughout life.
With this in mind, the forty days of Lent that we are living now will be a kind of metaphor (of miniature) of our journey of the life of faith towards the final victory of the resurrection. Therefore, these days must always be lived in this Paschal perspective, that is, in view of Easter; and this is true both on the liturgical and existential level.
About the temptations of Jesus, even if the evangelists Luke and Matthew only tell us about three temptations, which then only occur at the end of the forty days, it is clear that the number and the moment are rather representative. So much so that the Gospel of Mark emphasizes the essential: “[Jesus] remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan” (Mk 1:13). Thus, following the inauguration of his public activities with the baptism in the Jordan, Jesus will have to face the reality of the trials-temptations the entire journey of his mission, whose emblematic image is that period in the desert. This is the common experience of those who want to serve God, fulfilling the divine mission, as can already be seen in Abraham, father of faith, and also in Adam, the first man. It is no coincidence that the sage Sirach teaches (not without the Spirit’s inspiration): “My child, when you come to serve the Lord, / prepare yourself for trials. / Be sincere of heart and steadfast, / and do not be impetuous in time of adversity” (Sir 2:1-2). Willingly or not, in the life and mission of every disciple of God there are trials and temptations that come from the “flesh” (human nature), from the “world” (environment adverse to God), and from the Evil One (cf. 1Jn 2:16-17; 5:19). All this diverts human beings from the path traced by God for them and, ultimately, divides humanity from their God.
2. The Fundamental Role of the Spirit in Christian Life and Mission
The emphasis on the guidance of the Holy Spirit is important for the journey of every Christian, i.e. Christ’s disciple, particularly in this Lenten season. May Lent never be just a period of pious practices of penance and good ethical and/or social works, but it should also and above all be a time of life renewal in the Spirit. In other words, please do not start this Holy Season, thinking about some good intentions and works (and then get lost in them in the end) as the ultimate purpose to live fruitfully the forty days to come. Rather, please care primarily about how to renew your personal relationship with the Spirit of God, that Holy Spirit each of us has received at the moment of baptism, of confirmation, and, in the case of some, at the moment of diaconal, priestly, or even episcopal ordination. It is time to allow ourselves to be “led by the Spirit,” again and even more intensely and more intimately, just like Christ in his life and mission, especially in his forty days in the desert. It will therefore be a joyful time with Christ in the Spirit, even if one will have to face everything that happens along the way, including fatigue, hunger and thirst, and temptations. It will therefore be a time of grace, of purification, of reorganizing Christian life and mission according to the dictates and inspirations of the Spirit, following the exemplary words and deeds of Christ.
In this regard, it is worth noting Pope Francis’ important reminder of the role of the Spirit in the mission of Christ’s disciples-missionaries:
All Christ’s missionary disciples are called to recognize the essential importance of the Spirit’s work, to dwell in his presence daily and to receive his unfailing strength and guidance. Indeed, it is precisely when we feel tired, unmotivated or confused that we should remember to have recourse to the Holy Spirit in prayer. Let me emphasize once again that prayer plays a fundamental role in the missionary life, for it allows us to be refreshed and strengthened by the Spirit as the inexhaustible divine source of renewed energy and joy in sharing Christ’s life with others. (Message for World Mission [Sun]day 2022)
As it was for Christ, the Spirit will also be the guide and strength for us, his disciples, in the journey of these forty days, helping us especially to understand and consequently to achieve the true Christian and missionary conversion that God wants for each one of us in our concrete life situation and mission.
3. “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Jesus’ Call to True Evangelical Conversion, Old But Always New
A few weeks ago (Third Sunday of Ordinary Time) we meditated on this very first and therefore fundamental announcement and invitation of Jesus at the beginning of His public ministry. By God’s grace, these words still resonate today at the beginning of Lent and thus become a programmatic call for our entire Lenten journey and for our existential journey in general. It is, then, Jesus’ constant appeal to everyone for true evangelical conversion. A very old call, but always new, always relevant. Let us recall, then, the main points of our reflection on these words.
Firstly, as seen in the first proclamation of Jesus mentioned above, being converted is inseparable from believing in the gospel, that is, fully embracing the good news of salvation offered by God in Jesus. It is no longer the usual human effort to turn away from a morally sinful life, but a courageous going beyond habitual patterns of thought to welcome the new life of grace with and in Jesus. This is suggested by the etymology of the Greek word for conversion, “meta-noia”: meta means after, beyond (for the ancient Greeks, physics was the systematic reflection on nature, and metaphysics was the reflection on reality that goes beyond nature), and noia means thinking: metanoia means thinking beyond. This is the crucial dimension of the conversion that Jesus demands.
Secondly, the invitation to believe the Gospel implies, on the one hand, an adherence to the messages of God proclaimed and fulfilled by Jesus, and on the other hand, it also means, and above all, a belief in Jesus who is the Christ, the Son of God. Although this clarification may seem a little difficult for some to follow, it is necessary because it is fundamental to missionary proclamation even today. The essence of Christian proclamation remains Jesus’ concise and urgent invitation to all to believe, that is, to adhere with a renewed heart and mind to the Gospel. This is identifiable, not so much with the set of divinely inspired principles, as with the very person of Jesus, the proclaimer, preacher, and implementer of the Gospel of God.
Tale conversione collegata all’adesione al Vangelo di Gesù è ora il ritorno, anzi un andare oltre i soliti schemi di pensiero, un “andare oltre” graditissimo a Dio. Essa è stata al centro della missione di Gesù e poi dei suoi primi discepoli, e così rimarrà al centro della missione dei suoi fedeli seguaci che sono chiamati a operare sempre per la conversione di tutti a Dio, a partire da loro stessi.
Therefore, it is no accident that the Evangelist Mark, immediately after Jesus’ analyzed inaugural discourse, recounts the vocation of the first Apostles, Peter, Andrew, James and John. Such a context suggests seeing in these four the first positive responses to the invitation of conversion to the Gospel. For such a conversion, they too had to go beyond their patterns of thought, for it is written that they left everything and everyone, including “the father,” to follow Jesus. Normally, in the Jewish tradition, children are advised to take care of their father and mother, especially in their old age, according to the spirit of the commandment, “Honor your father and mother.” The first apostles, on the other hand, left their whole world behind to follow Jesus in His mission. It is, however, a journey to come to the full conversion of the way of thinking and seeing, even for those who have so much faith in Christ, so much love for Christ, like Peter. The latter received, then, during his following of Jesus, a stern warning from the Lord calling him again to conversion, that is, to change [again] the mindset: “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mk 8:33). It seems to me that this warning still applies to all of us, followers of Christ, at this time. Beware: Repent, and believe in the gospel!
Let us pray, then, at the beginning of Lent, for our own true conversion and that of everyone else, in response to the heartfelt and urgent call of Jesus:
O Lord, make us feel still and ever more in us Your heart all taken up for the Kingdom of God as well as Your cordial invitation to conversion to Your Gospel of peace and love. Help us to constantly live out this conversion in our lives, so that we may become ourselves, with You and in You, the living invitation, in word and deed, to conversion to the Kingdom for those who do not know You. And in this our mission to be witnesses of You and Your Kingdom, help, Your disciples, to be more and more united in Your love, overcoming the divisions that exist in our churches and communities. Let Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved and resplendent with Your Light for all the world. Mary, mother of Christ and mother of His disciples, pray for us! Amen!
