The First Sunday of Lent (B)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
Have you
ever noticed how people react upon seeing a rainbow? For those of us who do not
often experience them, rainbows elicit a great excitement and a certain
childlike joy as we see the colors stretching across the sky, and the fuller
the rainbow, the greater our excitement.
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A rainbow over the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Moloka'i
21 February 2010 |
We know perfectly well why the
bow forms as sunlight passes through the droplets of water and yet still we pause
to look at them. There is something about a rainbow that simply captures our
attention. How often do we see through the rainbow - beyond the arc and the
colors and the natural wonder - to the covenant the Lord made with us?
After the waters of the Flood
receded, and after Noah built an altar to the Lord and offered sacrifice, God
said to him:
This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving for
all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature
with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between
me and the earth. When I bring clouds
over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I
have made between me and you and all living beings (Genesis 9:12-16).
This covenant was first made with
Noah and renewed with Abraham and then with Moses and fulfilled and perfected
in Jesus Christ. It was this covenant that we received at Baptism, the covenant
sealed in the Blood of Christ. If the Lord of heaven and earth recalls the
covenant he has made each time a rainbow appears, should we not also recall
this covenant? Too often we are forgetful of God, though he never forgets us.
Saint Peter, the Prince of the
Apostles, tells us the waters of the Flood “prefigured baptism, which saves you
now” (I Peter 3:21). Just as Noah and his family were saved through the waters
of the Flood inside the ark, so, too, Christians are saved through the waters
of Baptism in the Church, the Barque, the ship, of Peter. Baptism “is not a
removal of dirt from the body,” Saint Peter says, “but an appeal to God for a
clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into
heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers
subject to him” (I Peter 3:21-22).
When Jesus accepted John’s
baptism “of repentance for the forgiveness of sin,” the Spirit “immediately
impels him into the consequences of that decision – consequences that will
eventually lead to the cross” (Mark 1:4).
Just as Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise (cf. Genesis 3:24), so “the
Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert” to be tempted for forty days (Mark 1:12), just as Israel was tested for forty years in the desert (cf. Deuteronomy 8:2). When he allowed himself to be driven out into the desert, he accepted the
history of Israel. “Jesus relives the story of Israel, but as an obedient son
who is totally faithful in his own trial in the desert.”
When Satan tempted Jesus in the
desert he was given the same choice as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the
same choice as Israel in the desert. But unlike Adam and Eve, unlike Israel,
Jesus remained faithful and obedient and now sits at the right hand of the
Father, victorious over Satan, sin, and death, because he accepted his
Messianic ministry from the Father in full obedience, docility, and love.
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| NAF 4508, fol. 23r |
Jesus goes into the desert for
one purpose: to be “tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:12). From ancient times the
desert symbolized the realm of evil, which was represented by the beasts
dwelling there. Jesus goes to be tempted by Satan, “the prince of demons,”
whose very name means “adversary” (Mark 3:22). It is this adversary, this
enemy, who seeks to thwart Jesus’ every move throughout the gospels.
When he enters into the desert, Jesus
“enters into Satan’s territory deliberately, to begin his campaign against the
powers of evil. He is looking for a fight! Yet he will confront Satan not with
a blast of divine lightning, but in his frail human nature, empowered by the
Spirit.”
This battle with Satan that Jesus
begins today is the very reason for his coming among us at Christmas, but why
would he wish to fight the adversary in this way when he could easily fight him
with his glory and majesty? Saint Lawrence of Brindisi says:
…in
order that his victory might be the more glorious, he willed to fight Satan in
our weak flesh. It is as if an unarmed man, right hand bound, were to fight
with his left hand alone against a powerful army; if he emerged victorious, his
victory would be regarded as all the more glorious. So Christ conquered Satan
with the right hand of his divinity bound and using against him only the left
hand of his weak humanity.
He did so as an example to his
disciples, as an example to us; he showed us how to overcome Satan and
temptation by fasting, prayer, and complete trust and obedience to the Father.
It should come as no surprise,
then, that the attacks of the adversary increase all the more after Baptism as
Satan tries to steal us back. But we can be confident of victory if we follow
the example of Jesus; if we fast, if we pray with patient hope, and if we
remain attached to God in obedient trust, the victory belongs to us, or, rather
to Jesus Christ, in whose victory we will share.
This is why the liturgical color
for this season is violet. It is both the color of repentance and of royalty.
The violet vestments call us to repent of our sins and to amend our life even
as they remind us of the victory of Christ over Satan.
These, then, are the weapons that
we take up in the battle against Satan: prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. The
weapon of prayer enables “our hearts to root our secret lies and forms of
deception, and then to find the consolation God offers.” The
weapon of fasting “weakens our tendency to violence” and “revives our desire to
obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger.”
And the weapon of almsgiving “sets us free from greed” and allows us to “share
in God’s providential care for his children.”
These three weapons, these forms
of penance, we call the Lenten discipline. The word discipline comes from the
same root as the word disciple, a root that refers to a student. Discipline is
always meant to teach; the disciplines, the weapons, of prayer, fasting, and
alms-giving teach us to live more like Jesus; they teach us to be faithful to
God even as they fight off the attacks of Satan.
This fight with
the tempter is serious and one in which every Christian must engage.
Fighting against
evil, against every form of selfishness and hate, and dying to oneself to live
in God is the ascetic journey that every disciple of Jesus is called to make
with humility and patience, with generosity and perseverance.
Jesus’ example and victory in the
desert show us how to live in this way. In the desert, as on the Cross, “Christ
suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he
might lead you to God” (I Peter 3:18).
Let each of us also enter into the
desert this Lent and fight against our temptations, whether they be to pride or
greed, to lust or anger or gluttony, to envy or sloth. Let us take up our
weapons of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving and fight the good fight. As we do
so, let us recall the covenant the Lord has made with us, seeking in these days
of Lent to renew the promises we made at Baptism to be faithful disciples of
Jesus Christ in order that the glory of Easter, the joy of heaven, might be
ours. Amen.
