1st
Sunday of Lent
February
20-21, 2021
St. Mary’s in
Salem
Genesis 9:8-15
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:12-15
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
As recounted in the Book of Genesis, the
Church teaches that the rainbow given by God to Noah is God’s covenant sign to His
People that He will never destroy the earth again by the waters of a flood. The
rainbow was to remind Noah of God’s covenant promise; it is a pact with
relevance also for us. Just as the obedience of Noah assured him and his family
survival in the flood and a future in God’s new world, so we too can be assured
and confident that the Lord will carry us if we respond in obedience to His
call.
St. Peter taught that the flood prefigured our Baptism in
Christ. Just as Noah and his family, with all the animals in the ark, came
through the waters which otherwise brought death to the world around them, so
through the waters of Baptism into Christ’s death we come to eternal life, our sharing
in the glory of His resurrection.
On this First Sunday of Lent, we can say
that in our day judgment is being pronounced to punish for disobedience, as
well as to reward those who are faithful to God’s commands. Noah listened to
and obeyed God, hence he was saved, and his future destiny was forever bound up
with the Lord. From the first chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel today, we hear that after
His time of trial, those forty days He spent fasting and praying to His Heavenly
Father in the desert, Jesus came forth from the wilderness to preach in Galilee:
“This is the time of fulfillment.” He proclaimed. “The kingdom of God
is at Hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Our annual observance of Lent, 40 days for doing penance and
dedicating ourselves to prayer is to be lived after the model of Jesus in the
desert, our preparation for playing a prophetic role in the world in which we
find ourselves is grounded in our observance of Lent. Lent is after the manner
of Christ our desert experience. It is not so much that a good Lent is meant to
set us up to go around preaching like Jesus did, but that we faithful Catholics,
by word and example in our family circle, at work and in society, through a
fruitful observance of Lent, we are enabled to touch and transform the lives of
those around us. The holiness of my life, my living by the commandments,
profoundly faithful to the Lord, prepares me for the challenge of conquering
Satan and winning our world for Christ.
You may object, I have done my best and have only sadness and
failure to show for it. I am referring to the tragedy of loved ones or their offspring,
who do not practice the faith of their Baptism, who have abandoned the faith we
tried to share with them as they were growing up. This is a great heartbreak
for the Church, especially for parents and grandparents who did their best to
share the precious gift of Catholic faith with their children only to have them
walk away, showing no appreciation for our gift to them. It is with profound
sadness that we many times must endure the rejection of that faith which is so
very dear to us by those whom above all others we so wanted to rejoice in that
gift which makes all the difference in our lives.
Lots of years ago, maybe a generation or two back in time, it
was not uncommon for parents to disown adult children who no longer practiced
their faith, who were what we call “fallen away Catholics”. Why did they react so
sternly toward their children who had fallen away? For some families it was
simply a matter of pride and for others a genuine terror that a grown child or
an adult brother or sister had cut ties with the Church and therefore with the
living God. These unfortunate souls opt for life without God. Years back, it
was unthinkable that people would knowingly choose to stay outside or abandon
the ark of salvation and hence be lost in the flood. Today rather than condemn
or ostracize them, we are more apt to blame ourselves for their rejection of
Jesus Christ and His Church.
People today who abandon the faith are often simply
conforming to the godlessness, to the materialism of popular culture. They are
like the neighbors of Noah who thought he was some kind of a kook, building that
ark far from any body of water. Binding ourselves to assist at Mass on all
Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, confessing our sins with a certain
regularity, holding to the Commandments, and letting prayer fill our lives often
open us up to ridicule, because faithful Catholic behavior is indeed counter
cultural. We are a minority voice, especially here in the Western world.
Let me limit my message to you to a simple exhortation: Renew
your personal resolve this Lent to take the road less traveled, to strive to
enter by the narrow gate, as Scripture says. Let me say the same thing using
the image of the rainbow from this Sunday’s readings! In English we talk about
one who “chases rainbows” as somebody who is constantly pursuing things that
are unrealistic or unlikely to happen. I do not want you to do that. In
recommending God’s rainbow covenant to you, I wish to recall the example of
Noah’s obedience to God’s command. In doing so, I am going with the surest and
best thing in the world, namely trust in God to carry us and bring us home to Him
happy at the end of our days. I make my recommendation not only because it is
the most reasonable, but also lest you be turned over to death and destruction.
In the Old Testament, God
told His Children, Israel in the desert, to choose life and not death. Think it
over; ponder this option during your 40 days of Lent; let our loving Lord carry
you through the storms of life to safety in His Kingdom!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
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