I recently read a quote by Pope Benedict
about his hope for all of the faithful during this holy season that we are now
entering: “May Lent for every Christian be a renewal experience of God’s love
given to us by Christ.” Those are very
good words for us to hear on the first Sunday in Lent.
Lent is a season that has a very distinct
identity. At the beginning of mass this
morning, we did not hear one of our traditional hymns proclaiming Christ as the
Light of the World, or as our Savior and Redeemer. In fact, we did not start mass with any
processional music at all. Instead, we
started the procession on our knees and in silence. That’s a big contrast to how we normally
start mass, so right from the very beginning we know we are in a very special
time of the year in our Church. We
Catholics use a lot of movements and body gestures during mass, don’t we? Kneeling is very profound body posture for us
in which we acknowledge that we are in the presence of the sacred and the
divine, that we are involved in an act that is so very different than anything
else we do in life. People in the
ancient world would kneel before kings and princes, so we today kneel before
the king of kings.
Yet if Lent is supposed to be a period of
renewal and an experience of God’s love for us, what does it mean to be thrust
into a desert, to accompany Jesus during these forty days of his journey in the
wilderness? Verse 10 in the first
chapter of Mark’s Gospel tells us that the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus like
a dove when John the Baptist baptized him in the Jordan River. In today’s Gospel reading, just a few verse
ahead of that, it is very curious that we hear about this same Spirit of God
driving Jesus into the desert wilderness where Satan tempts him. Jesus was not surrounded by friends or family
members in the wilderness, but rather amongst Satan, wild animals, and
chaos. Yet, amongst all of that, God is
still with Jesus. God sends the angels
to minister to him, to be with him, to support him, to help him through this
journey.
We kneel today out of humility and
penance during this penitential season of Lent, emulating the humility and
resource shown by the many men and women who fell to their knees in this same
way in the Old and New Testaments. We
kneel putting God at the center of our lives.
We kneel, knowing that we have an intimate relationship with God, or
knowing that we want such a relationship.
I was with Father Mike O’Brien, Father
Brian Carroll, and some friends from Jackson last week for dinner, when one of
them was asking me how I survived all of the malaria and the other tropical
diseases I had as a missionary. They
asked me why I stuck with it and why I didn’t just return home. And the Father Mike joked how while I was once
surviving in the jungles of South America, and now I am surviving up in Yazoo
City.
Lent is a really good time for all of us
to go through each year. It doesn’t
matter if we’re young or old, if this is the first Lent we’ve gone through
faithfully, or if we’ve done this for decades.
It doesn’t matter if we’re in Yazoo City or the jungle, or what is going
on in our personal lives. Lent is 40
days accompanying Jesus in the desert wilderness – 40 days accompanying him on
his way to the cross. We need this opportunity each year to examine our
consciences, to look at what is going on in our lives, to see where our faith
is at this very moment, to go through a conversion of heart and to be
re-directed to God. And just as Jesus
had the angels ministering to him on this journey, we have God’s grace and our
faith community accompanying us along our journey during Lent.
If you have ever been to a desert
wilderness, it might seem very stark and desolate, but there is a lot of life
going on as well that might not be so obvious on the surface. One of the most beautiful places I have visited
in California is Joshua Tree National Park, a massive area east of Palm Springs
located in both the high and low desert region of that state. It is certainly a desert ecosystem, but there
are all kinds of birds, insects, and lizards there, and I’ve even seen jack
rabbits, big horn sheep, and coyotes there as well. In the desert there is all kind of life and
activity going on, just like there will be a lot of movement, nudges, and
activity going on in our own lives if we take our Lenten disciplines seriously
and if we really try to get a lot out of our own desert experience during Lent.
So, welcome to our 40-day journey in the
desert as we recognize the first Sunday of Lent. May this be a very meaningful time for all of
us.
No comments:
Post a Comment