“Reforming and Renewing”
First Sunday in Lent – B
Well, like you and most everyone else I know, I too begin this season with the best of intentions. I will pray, I will give to the Poor, I will read Spiritual works, I will go to Confession, and the list goes on. I will try harder this year! This year perhaps we could take a different approach to Lent. Perhaps we could see how the season could bring us back to the living waters of baptism at the Easter Vigil, rather than how much pain we can inflict on ourselves for the next forty days. Let us look at this in a different light.
In the reading from Genesis, God reminds us of the Covenant he made with us long ago. “. . .never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood. . .” and even promises us a rainbow in the sky to remind us periodically. What we get is the living waters of baptism at Easter – a symbol of reforming and of life renewed. We go down into the waters, dying to sin, and come out rising to new life.
What we get is the two sides of baptism emphasized: what God does and what we do. God saves us through “water.” God leads us into the waters of death with Christ Jesus, only to bring us out on the other side, where there is everlasting life with Christ. God brings us through the waters of life so that we can be cleansed from all that separates us from God’s love. God transforms us through the waters of new life to recognize all that we have been given as heirs to the kingdom. With the waters of new life, God wipes the blinders from our eyes that inhibit us from seeing Christ clearly in the world. God takes our hand and gently leads us through the waters that we may be convinced that we never walk alone. God gives us salvation through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. God does all this and more! So, what must we do?
The entire purpose and climax of the Lenten season are to prepare ourselves for renewing our Baptismal Promises at the Easter Vigil. How can se do this? We can do this by simply doing a littler interior spiritual house cleaning. We do this by reflecting on what is wrong in our lives, go to Confession and make a Profession of Faith.
That sounds way too easy! But it is not easy, if we are serious about this journey. Lent forcefully reminds us that life is much more than eating and drinking, sleeping, and working, taking care of the kids, handling the everyday duties, and relaxing at the end of the day. We, like Jesus, are surrounded in the desert of life with Angels and Demons all around us. But we also have the assurance of God’s continual care within the Church which we are united in by our baptism.
Only by strong continuous prayer, by recalling the presence of Jesus within us, can we survive this terrifying experience of being in the desert. Through Jesus we see the tremendous gap between virtue and vice, good and evil. The struggle assumes heroic dimensions out there in the desert wilderness of life, but Jesus has been there all along, and he will help us through.
Reforming and Renewing our lives are never easy, however, this is our part of the Covenant with God. God gives us the living waters of Baptism at Easter and Salvation through Jesus Christ as His part.
As we contemplate how serious we will undertake the cleaning of our own Spiritual Temples, let us remember where we get the strength and nourishment for our journey through this desert wilderness of life – we get it at the Table of Christ’s Body and Blood!
So, as we journey through these next forty days, let us ask God for help in listening for those consoling words that comfort; not from Angels but from Jesus Christ himself, as he said: “the reign of God is at hand – believe in the Good News!”
God bless us, and all who live in simplicity of heart!
Gen 9:8-15
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1: 12-15