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1 Lent
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First
Sunday in Lent - Cycle B - Mark 1:12-15
If this brief Gospel had a title, it would be "The
First Gunfight at the OK Corral."
Lent is the time to take risks. The monk said the
only factor preventing us from receiving the next great gift from God
is letting go of the last one. The song, The Rose, tells us, "It's the
dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance and the soul afraid
of dying that never learns to live."
The poet pictures the temptations, Philip Yancey
says, as a get acquainted meeting between Jesus and Satan. The meeting
took the form of an exam. And though Satan chose the questions, it was
he who flunked it. Yancey calls this the showdown in the desert. Tradition says the temptation mountain is situated
twenty miles from Jerusalem. It is situated in a desert so nasty that
it is called Devastation.
It was fitting that Jesus spent this time on a
mountain. In prose and poetry, mountains are the most likely place for
one to find God. Think of Mount Sinai, the Mountain of the
Beatitudes, Mount Tabor, and the Mount of Olives.
It was Felliniesque that the mountain be
situated in a desert. In literature and films, the desert is "the
devil's own playground." Remember the United State's most infamous
killer Charles Manson lived in a desert.
For centuries, sculptors and painters have
been mesmerized by this meeting between God and Satan. For them it
represented a study in ultimate polarization.
European and US cathedrals wear frescoes and
reliefs depicting this encounter. Major artists have cut their teeth on
the three temptations.
One will not find this bleak mountain featured
in the travel
section of The New York Times. You would not choose to holiday
there even were it a freebie. In a small cave dotting its face, the
Teacher spent six weeks in dead winter. This was long before flu shots
and one-a-day mega-vitamins. Thus you correctly get the impression that
Jesus had to be one tough hombre to survive.
His only companions for forty days would be
the wild beasts prowling about for their meals. Overhead He would see
eagles circling and looking for a fast food supper using their dive
bombing skills. Off in the distance, He could pick off the Jordan River
moving like a silver eel to the sea. The only human life out in the
desert He would see would be the Jesse James bad guys looking for a big
payday.
On this mountain would take place the summit
of all summits - the dialogue between our Master and Satan. Their
rendezvous would make a meeting between world leaders look like a
schoolyard fight between kindergarten kids. This is the most
famous meeting between two individuals ever.
Few believe in Satan. But, though you can't
see the wind blow, you can feel and see its effects. Though you can't
see death, you see its results. It is the same with Satan. Goethe's
Faust says, "People do not know the devil is there even when he has
them by the throat." Baudelaire writes Evil's shrewdest trick is to
convince us it does not exist. Christ took Satan seriously and handled
him with kid gloves. The premier psychiatrist Doctor Carl Jung called
him the Trickster, prince of lies and deception.
Satan is a Hebrew word. In Greek, he becomes
diabolos and so our devil. Literally he is the enemy. Who of us has not
met the enemy at some point along the road? If negative, be patient. He
will come knocking on your door or come barging right in. The devil is
notoriously rude.
Christ's temptations were three - turning
stones into bread, a leap from the temple, and the offer of the world's
kingdom. These temptations would come only to a person who was aware he
possessed extraordinary gifts.
Who of us believes we could leap from a high
rooftop and survive? We know well our friends would pick us up with a
blotter. Jesus felt He could make such a jump and still make it to work
next morning. He was aware He could turn His powers on or off at will.
In the desert, He had to decide how He would direct His gifts. Would He
employ them for His own kicks or the Father's glory? We know the answer
to that question.
This Gospel gives each of us much to reflect
on as a new
Lent begins. Hopefully it will open for all with the attention grabbing
noise of a rock concert.
"Repent.", says Christ. The target for the
next forty days is ourselves. May each of us score a bull's eye. Take
risks.
We are heading out to the OK Corral - perhaps for the last time.
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1 Lent
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First Lent: Let the Power of Christ Beat Temptation
The
First Sunday of Lent always presents the temptation of the Lord.
This makes sense because the Lord fasted for 40 days, rebuffed the
temptations of the devil and then began His public ministry. We
spend forty days fasting, in self denial, forty days doing everything
we can to come closer to God so we also can do the work of the Kingdom.
Usually on this Sunday we hear about three different temptations the
Lord endured: turn rocks into bread, demand that your Father work a
miracle to save you, and trade His love for all the power of the world.
We don’t come upon these this year because they are in the Gospels of
Matthew and Luke. Today’s reading is from the Gospel of
Mark. Mark just states that Jesus went into the desert for 40
days, was confronted with temptations, beat off the devil and then
began his mission.
Temptations are always there and are difficult to overcome. As I
often say, the day we feel that we are no longer subject to temptation,
we really should take our pulse because we will probably be
dead.
Temptations are difficult to overcome. It is so easy for us to
say to others, “Just say no,” but it is difficult when we are the ones
who are tempted. The complex aspect of temptations is that they
all contain an element of attractiveness, an element of good. All
of God’s creation contains beauty. We human beings pervert that
beauty and turn something that is good into bad. For example, the human
body is beautiful; pornography is a perversion of the beauty.
Another, example, there are wonderful medications to help people who
suffer from anxiety attacks, depression, etc. The same
medications is used by addicts to destroy their lives and the lives of
those around them. In the 17th chapter of the Book of
Revelation, the visionary John is shown the great harlot of Babylon who
was drunk with the blood of saints and the martyrs of Jesus. When
the visionary saw her he marveled. She was amazing to
behold. The harlot was pagan Rome with all its splendor and
glory. It was marvelous, but it was still evil. By the time
of the Lord, Rome was a moral cess pool, the center of all that was
wrong in the worship of the world.
All
sin is attractive, if it weren’t attractive we wouldn’t be tempted by
it. When someone says, “If it feels good, do it,” what they are
saying is that sin is acceptable as long as you are getting selfish
pleasure from it. That is the way of the world. That is not the
way of Jesus. Nor can it be our way.
Jesus is the conqueror of sin. But the battle was not a simple
task. Jesus was tempted to save His own life and to give up and
not go along with the Father’s plan. But His love for the Father
and His love for us were more powerful than anything the devil or the
world could must up.
He
beat off temptation, and then told us: “entrust your pain, your
temptation and even your sin to me. I have conquered and will
continue to conquer evil.” When we choose Christ, the devil
really doesn’t stand a chance. In the Battle for the Kingdom,
Jesus fights with us, finding a way for us to win, even though we are
weak and often sinful.
God
refuses to give up on us. Even when evil makes inroads into our
lives. “See I have set my bow in the skies as a sign that I will
never destroy my people.” That was the promise made to seal the
covenant with Noah after the flood. The bow, by the way, is the
rainbow. For people of faith, the rainbow is not just a beautiful
natural occurrence. It is a sign of our hope in God. When we are
overwhelmed with our own human weakness, our own continual sinfulness,
the rainbow reminds us: God refuses to give up on us. We can’t
give up on ourselves. Look at the rainbow. God is the
Compassionate, the Merciful One.
The
40 days of Lent are really about loving Jesus. We spend this time
looking for ways to grow in our love for our Savior. We fight off
temptation with Him. We give Him our sins in confession. We
unite ourselves to Him through the Eucharist and all forms of
prayer. We do everything possible to allow His grace into our
lives. And we recognize, as the praise and worship song goes,
“His grace is enough for us.”
On
this First Sunday of Lent we pray that for the courage to live
Christocentric lives, lives which are Christ centered. With Him
in the center of our lives, nothing that the world throws at us will
defeat us. He is the conqueror of temptation. He is the
Victor over sin.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
1 Lent
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Knee
Mail
(March 1, 2009)
Bottom line: Less e-mail, more knee-mail
You may have heard about a way of communicating even better than
e-mail. It is called "knee-mail." It involves getting down on one's
knees and speaking directly to God. You can send messages like this:
"God, help my friend who has this terrible problem...Jesus, give that
young person peace and hope...Guide our leaders...Help me. I don't know
what to do."
Knee mail, of course, is another name for prayer. On this First Sunday
of Lent we see the greatest example. Before uttering one word in his
public ministry, Jesus spent forty days in silent prayer - focused on
the Father. This Sunday I ask you to follow Jesus' example. Put God the
Father first in your life.
As I explained on Ash Wednesday, we have Stewardship of Time pledge
cards to help you in your spiritual, family and community life. Be sure
to check the basics - Sunday Mass, daily personal prayer and prayer
with one's family, especially before meals. Then consider what else you
might do: a retreat, a novena, an adult education class.
This Sunday we will have a testimony on the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. Next Sunday on a program to read the Bible (and
Catechism) in one year. And on the Third Sunday, Eucharistic Adoration.
I know what some of you are thinking: Sounds good, but where could I
find time for those things? That's where fasting comes in. I asked our
middle school students to give examples of fasting. They of course
suggested things like giving up ice cream, chocolates and desert, but
they other things: video games, chat rooms, television and the
Internet. Less e-mail, more knee-mail. Lent is a time to re-order our
lives - by praying, fasting and giving - to put God first.
Consider Jesus' words, his first public words after forty days of
prayer and fasting: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel."
**********
Intercessions for First Sunday of Lent (from Priests for Life)
Spanish Version
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1 Lent
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1 Lent
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Gospel
Summary Return to All Homilies
Mar, 01, 2009
Mark 1: 12-15
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.
First Sunday of Lent
Gospel Summary
The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by
Satan. We should recall that this event in Mark's gospel comes
immediately after Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. As the heavens are torn
open, the Spirit descends upon him, and a voice comes from heaven: "You
are my beloved Son." After the stark, matter-of-fact statement that
Jesus was tempted by Satan, Mark tells us that after John's arrest,
Jesus begins his mission: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and
believe in the gospel."
Matthew and Luke in their narratives of the temptations include Jesus'
triumph over Satan in a dramatic verbal exchange between them. Mark
does not present the temptations in this way because his entire gospel
is a narrative of the trials that Jesus undergoes. Satan tempts him to
doubt that he is God's beloved Son, and likewise tempts him to betray
his mission on behalf of God's kingdom. Satan will use every means to
tempt Jesus in order to save his own kingdom that has dominance in the
world.
Jesus is tempted by his own disciples. "Get behind me, Satan. You are
thinking not as God does, but as humans do," Jesus said to Peter (Mk
8:33). He is tested frequently by enemies from among his own people and
by the Romans. His own relatives say that he is out of his mind (Mk
3:21). The most severe temptation comes when he appears to have failed
in his mission; he is misunderstood, betrayed and abandoned by his
disciples; he is arrested, undergoes the humiliation and torture
associated with a criminal's public execution; and finally he
apparently has the experience of being forsaken by God while dying on a
cross. Yet, his dying prayer in this dark night of the soul is also a
cry of unconquered hope and trust (Mk 15:34, Psalm 22).
The Letter to the Hebrews reveals the good news that the triumph of
Jesus over the most severe temptations imaginable can be a source of
hope and trust in the trials that we undergo. "For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who
was tempted in every way that we are, yet never sinned" (4:15).
"Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help
those who are being tested" (2:18).
Life Implications
No one with the consciousness of freedom escapes the testing that
reveals where the heart's true treasure lies. Only the accidentals of
the testing differ for each of us. The heroes of faith down to the
present day triumph over their trials because they share the
single-minded, childlike faith of Jesus. Jesus in his human
consciousness and freedom loved God with all his heart, and with all
his soul, and with all his strength (Dt 6:5). A person with a divided
heart, on the other hand, easily fails in a test of faith, and
particularly in a trial of suffering constantly asks God, Why? Further,
the double-minded person demands some evidence of God's presence and
care.
The life-implication of Mark's gospel is that we must pray as Jesus
prayed if we hope to love God as he did with an undivided heart when
our time of trial is upon us. Like Jesus before his great trial in the
garden of Gethsemane, we may pray that if possible the hour of trial
might pass by us. Nevertheless, with the power of his Spirit we must
also pray: "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup
away from me, but not what I will but what you will" (Mk 14:36). Jesus
then said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep" (Mk 14:37)? Shortly after
Jesus was arrested. Peter, standing among the crowd, was tested by the
high priest's maid. Unprepared by prayer and fearful for his life, with
a curse Peter denied that he even knew Jesus.
At the Eucharist for the first Sunday of Lent a good prayer would be to
ask the Spirit to heal the illusions, desires, and the doubts that
divide our hearts. Only with this grace can we say the Lord's prayer
with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength.
And with Christ's Spirit we can live without fear because we trust that
God's will for us can only be love.
Campion P. Gavaler, OSB
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
1 Lent
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First
Sunday
Genesis 9:8-15; Psalm 25; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was
with the wild beasts..." (Mk 1:13)
"The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert
immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the
desert, Jesus remains there for forty days without eating; he lives
among wild beasts, and angels minister to him. (Cf. Mk. 1:12-13) At the
end of this time Satan tempts him three times, seeking to compromise
his filial attitude toward God. Jesus rebuffs these attacks, which
recapitulate the temptations of Adam in Paradise and of Israel in the
desert, and the devil leaves him 'until an opportune time.' (Lk 4:13)"
(CCC 438)
"The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this mysterious
event: Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the first
Adam had given in to temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel's vocation
perfectly: in contrast to those who had once provoked God during forty
years in the desert, Christ reveals himself as God's Servant, totally
obedient to the divine will. In this, Jesus is the devil's conqueror:
he 'binds the strong man' to take back his plunder. (Cf. Ps 95:10; Mk
3:27) Jesus' victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory
at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the
Father." (CCC 539)
"Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah,
contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to
attribute to him. (Cf. Mt 16:21-25) This is why Christ vanquished the
Tempter for us: 'For we have not a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been
tested as we are, yet without sinning.' (Heb 4:15) By the solemn forty
days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of
Jesus in the desert.' (CCC 540)
We fast as he fasted; we pray as he prayed. We detach ourselves more
fully from anything that might "compromise our filial attitude toward
God" our true Father. We join ourselves more closely to Him who died
with us that we might rise with him.
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick (Publish with permission.)
www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
1 Lent
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Sermon
by Father Alex McAllister
SDS
First Sunday of Lent of Year
B Homily
Today we have the story of the flood and Noah’s ark. It is a wonderful
story. And every time we look at a rainbow we are reminded of God’s
promise.
The rainbow-this most beautiful and transient of all things is-as we
have heard, a reminder of God’s covenant; the close bond he established
with us after the great flood.
He makes his promise not only to mankind but also to every living
creature. Respect for creation is not something new; the creator
himself respects the whole of creation more than we ever could.
The rainbow is a wonderful sign of God’s love because of all its
wonderful colours. How does it go? Richard of York Gained Battle In
Vain: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. All the colours
are there and all the grades in between. And there are even colours we
can’t see. This shows the breadth of God’s love. His love covers the
whole range of existence and even things we are totally unaware of.
In some ancient cultures the rainbow is a sign of a weapon as in a bow
and arrow; they say the rainbow is God’s bow and the lightning is his
arrow. The rainbow for them is a sign of anger, but for us it is a sign
of God’s love.
We do enough things to provoke God’s anger, but in this great covenant
God says that he will be merciful to us. Although we have sinned he
will hold back his anger; instead he will love us all the more.
St Paul sees in this water of the flood a prefigurement of baptism. In
baptism we are washed free from our sins. Our baptism becomes a special
sign of God’s love for us individually. By baptism he singles us out
and unites us to himself by a special bond.
We are now in Lent and we think about fasting and doing penance. We
read in the Gospel about Jesus spending time in the desert--he went
there to be tested, and he experienced all kinds of temptations there.
He emerged victorious, just as he was to emerge victorious after the
greatest test of all--his passion and death on the Cross.
The account of the temptation we are given in the Gospel of Mark reads
almost like a telegram-it is sounds staccato. There are just two verses
compared to the more lengthy and fuller eleven verses of Matthew and
thirteen of Luke.
Typically the language of Mark is also a lot stronger. In both Matthew
and Luke we read that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. But
that’s not strong enough for Mark-no, the Spirit drove Jesus out into
the desert. We shouldn’t think of this as Jesus not wanting to go and
so having to be driven, but rather as underlining the closeness between
Jesus and the Spirit.
Mark doesn’t bother about the content of the various temptations, he
simply states the fact bluntly he remained forty days, and was tempted
by Satan. The wild beasts are traditional symbols of evil and like
Satan they prowl around looking for any signs of weakness.
Surprisingly there is no actual mention of fasting in this desert. But
then it is probably not necessary to mention it because that’s what you
would have to do anyway in a desert, unless you took along a lot of
supplies which is most unlikely. There’s no 4x4 available to bring in
any luxuries.
This is a testing. And by enduring it successfully Jesus demonstrates
that he is the Messiah. Both Moses and Elijah before him endured such
periods of fasting and here in the desert Jesus proves that he is their
true heir.
The forty days is also a symbolic allusion to the forty years the
Chosen People spent in the wilderness being tested by God. They spent
those years of wandering in the desert in great adversity but through
them learned some very hard lessons.
All testing involves privation and suffering. It involves doing without
the comforts we are used to whether this be health, little luxuries or
emotional supports.
If all testing involves suffering then in spiritual terms we can also
say that all suffering is a testing. And this is indeed so. In physical
suffering we find all sorts of things removed from us that we normally
consider essential for our daily life. And not only our health, but
also all the comfortable routines and things we have around us. The
test is what we put in their place-let us hope that it will be
increased faith and trust in God.
We can also undergo spiritual suffering when we experience times of
doubt and darkness; these are also a testing. God seems so far away. We
find it hard to place ourselves in his presence. We feel uncomfortable
when the conversation turns to matters of faith. We sit in Church and
wonder if all this isn’t a complete waste of time.
This is a real testing. The wild beasts are prowling looking for our
weaknesses. But as with Jesus the Angels are not far away. They guard
us even though we are not conscious of their presence.
Any realistic person dreads being put to the test, but it is something
we all have to endure. It is an essential element of our pilgrimage of
faith. But you notice that even for Jesus it was for a fixed time-forty
days. There is always an end.
The Church gives us the liturgical season of Lent to help us to endure
the time of testing whenever it comes. In Lent we are invited to
undergo some small hardship as a spiritual exercise, as a strengthening
and a preparation for that real time of testing that awaits us.
However, we don’t need to go into an actual desert for in a sense we
are already in a desert. The world is a desert for it lacks the most
essential thing of all-knowledge of God.
In the desert we can place ourselves in God’s hands relying trustfully
upon him. When we are tested we remember those hidden Angels who are
not so far away. When we experience these trials we unite ourselves
with Christ and ask him to endure the Temptation with us.
We then recognise that all these sufferings and difficulties we must
endure are part and parcel of the life of a Christian and we know that
they are only a sign of the victory that is to come.
When we emerge from the desert we enter more fully into the presence of
God and it will have all the beauty and more of the rainbow.
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
1 Lent |
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homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
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