FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT (C)
Dear Brothers and Sisters, as we just heard in today’s Gospel
“Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards was
hungry!” Food is mentioned in two of today’‘s readings. The
Old Testament priests offered plantsand animals faithfully to God .
The New Testament priests in faith offer to God the flesh
and blood of the Son of God, the very Bread of Heaven! Both
offerings were and are thanksgiving, ‘eucharistic’ offerings and
a confession of faith.
An early monastic writer (Evagrius) declared that monasticism
was built on the three answers of Christ to Satan, during that
temptation in the desert. While the monastic life can be seen as
a refusal to all compromise, to all conformity, to all cooperation
with Satan, the same may be said of all Christian life, for all Christians are called, in one degree or other, to the evangelical life.
It is the purpose of LENT to remind us of this: to remind us of the Christ of the desert – and of our need toshare in the mystery of his suffering and death. This purpose of Lent
is spelled out beautifully in an old prayer for the beginning of Lent:
“Father, through the observance of Lent, help us to understand the
meaning of your Son’s Death and Resurrection and teach us to
reflect it in our lives”.
It is vital to understand the meaning of the death and resurrection, because through our Baptism – we have become members of Christ and sharers in his death and
resurrection, and we are thereby to be continually committed to
suffer with him that we also be glorified with him.
Lent is a special season for the strengthening of this Baptismal commitment to the
Lord. It would be good to remember this in our Profession of Faith that we will make in just a few minutes..
Now is the acceptable time, to establish, or re-establish ourselves
with faith; in an attitude of humility and openness to the Spirit of God (the same
Spirit that drove Jesus out into the desert). Thereby, may we,
throughout this holy season – and the remainder of our lives –
continually grow in our response to God, becoming more
prayerful, more continually disposed to do the good work the Lord
in his mercy and love wants us to participate in – and so build up his
body – the Church.
We might pray today – for ourselves and one another, that our
reception of ashes last Wednesday was no mere ritual, but an effective symbol of our desire to enter this season of penance and conversion – whole-heartedly – and that flowing from the desire for inner conversion, for purity of heart, we may become, in the words of the Lenten Preface: “More fervent in prayer, more generous ingood works, more eager in celebrating the mysteries by which we are reborn.”
Every Lent I’m reminded of Dom James Fox (of happy
memory), Abbot of Gethsemani years ago. In the Chapter room at
the beginning of each Lent he would say to the Community – “This
may be the last Lent for some of you here.” Abbot for 19 years, he
was right 25 times!
At every Mass we Christians pray for the Lord’s Second Coming.
Whenever that time comes, the Lent of that year will be the last for all humanity.
“That Day and hour is known only to the Father!”
Time is Lent to us . One day at a time.
( Deut: 26:4-10, Rom 10:8-13, Luke: 1-13)
– Fr Alan