Homily for the First Sunday in Lent, Year B

                               

     

                                    LENT IS A 40-DAY PERIOD OF SPIRITUAL RENEWAL

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Readings: Genesis 9:8-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:12-15

 

With the Ash Wednesday, we began the Season of Lent, a 40-day journey of penitence, prayer, rebirth, reparation and preparation. Renewal is one of the elements that characterizes the season of Lent. Lent is a time of renewal of faith. From ashes and fasting to almsgiving and prayer, the spiritual deepening and awareness offered by the Lenten Season invite us to a place of renewal. It is therefore no coincidence that the three readings of this first Sunday in Lent speak about the fact of spiritual renewal.

In the first reading, we read that after forty days and forty nights of continuous rainfall during which the world was destroyed with the flood, the Lord established a new covenant with Noah, his descendants after him and with every living creature with him (Genesis 9:8-11). After the flood, there was the emergence of new life. In the second reading, St. Peter takes up the theme of the flood and applies it to baptism, the sacrament which regenerates life. In the gospel reading, we read that immediately after the baptism of Jesus, he was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days and afterwards, was tempted by the devil (Mark 1:12-13).

In the Bible, numbers have symbolic meanings. Forty is the number used to signify enough or ample time. Number forty also represents a period of sanctification, preparation, encounter and renewal. The forty years of wandering by the Israelites in the wilderness and the forty-day fast of Jesus in the desert before he started his public ministry (Matt. 4:2, Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2) are the most likely inspirations for the forty days of Lent. All these periods of forty are moments of renewal.

The temptation of Jesus in the gospel reading is a reminder to us that temptation is a fact of life. It is said that no man is matriculated into the art of life till he has been well tempted. However, it is one thing to be tempted and another thing to fall to temptations. Each time we choose the voice of God over the voice of Satan (the tempter), or when we follow the will of the Father instead of the pleasure and enticements of the world, our faith is renewed and made stronger.

Another invitation which the gospel reading offers us is to find our own desert places. Desert may not be a physical location. In biblical context, desert is any situation where a person can be in solitude. Let us make these forty days of Lent our own desert. During Lent, let us like Jesus, be led by the Spirit, to remember the vows we made at baptism in which we promised to reject Satan and to follow Jesus. Just as Jesus was ministered to by angels, God also supports us in the moments of our struggles against sins and temptations. The victory of Jesus over sin and death is our hope each time we face temptation and to realize God’s presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation.

Prayer: We pray for ourselves and more especially for all who have turned away from God or who have grown careless in their faith that this season of Lent may be their time of new beginnings, awakened faith, renewed friendship with God and neighbor. Amen.