A Commentary and Reflection on the Readings for the First Sunday in Lent – Year B. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: Genesis 9:8-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 12:1-5.
The Liturgy of the Mass Teaches Us How to Rejoice in the Love of God
In today’s First Reading from Genesis 9:8-15 for the First Sunday of Lent – Year B, we hear about a covenant God established with Noah after the waters of the flood gave the earth a baptism of cleansing and rebirth, which the Apostle Paul in today’s Second Reading from 1 Peter 3:18-22 says prefigured the baptism of Christ Jesus which now saves us, writing, “It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Then, in today’s Gospel Reading from Mark 1:12-15, we hear about what happened after Jesus was baptized by John the Waymaker in the Jordan River and the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Him. The text reads, “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.” Following that test in the desert and after “John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
With the culmination of the Lenten season being the Easter message of our rebirth through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and us being baptized into His death (Cf. Romans 6:3-11), it may seem odd that the first week of Lent begins by calling us to attend to what came after the flood and after Jesus’ baptism. Would not the first week of Easter be a more fitting time to discern how God has prepared us to live according to the grace we received through our Baptism? Indeed, after Easter, we will journey through the Book of Acts and be inspired by how our first brothers and sisters in the faith rejoiced and triumphed through their new life in the Holy Spirit.
However, the calling for this first day of Lent is to be ready for the tests and remember that God is with us through them all. Imagine how difficult it was for Noah and his family to restart and recover their lives in a region that is still restarting and recovering from a flood. Nevertheless, there must have also been moments of joy whenever they looked up and witnessed that the sign of God’s promise to them, a rainbow, had been set in the sky. Jesus had to be tested in the desert for forty days as a demonstration of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that He is Israel’s Suffering Servant (Cf. Isa 52:13-53:12) and to show us the way to resist temptation through self-denial and dependence on God. Yet, there must have been moments of our Lord rejoicing in His Father’s love through the ministering of the angels sent to Him.
Our 40 days of fasting and prayer leading up to Easter are going to pale in comparison to the suffering of Noah and his family, having to endure 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rain. Our 40 days of denying ourselves so that we might learn to rely deeply on our Heavenly Father for everything will be nothing like Jesus being tempted in the desert for 40 days. Nevertheless, what portions of suffering, trials, and temptations you will have during this Lent, know that Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit are with you and they love you, that you have not been forsaken, and that because you are made in the image and likeness of God, you have the capacity and power always to say no to sin and yes to virtue.
Moreover, not only does the Divine Symphony of the Mass teach us how to resist temptation, but equally as important, it teaches us how to rejoice through our suffering and temptations. The reminders that we were created for happiness flow constantly into our ears at the hearing of the sacred Scriptures, in which God comforts us in our condition, admonishes us in love, leads us home, and inspires us to imitate Christ Jesus through the Beatitudes. Through His parousia in the person of the priest and His parousia in the Holy Eucharist, we are reminded to rejoice in His closeness to us and His identification with us. Through our petitions asking for forgiveness, the intercessory prayers of the priest, and the non-sacramental absolution of our sins, through the liturgy of the Mass, we rejoice in the fact that we are the adopted children of God who are being raised to holiness through the sacrifice and death of the Only Begotten One, Jesus the Christ.
This is just one way the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us in how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
