9 March 2025 - homily for 1st Sunday of Lent - Deuteronomy 26:4-10 - Luke 4:1-13

In our first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, at the end of 40 years wandering in the desert, Moses speaks to the Israelites, preparing them for their new life in the Promised Land. They undergo a ritual where they give thanks for the land they receive from God, offering God the first fruits of the land. Moses reminds the people of the good things God has done for them. God liberated them from slavery in Egypt, led them through the desert, and gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. 

The Israelites’ deliverance from their Egyptian captivity was the first stepping stone to a new life in the Promised Land. However, the trials of life in the desert caused them to waver in their loyalty to God. But in the midst of their trials and hardships in the desert, whenever they called on the name of the Lord, he saved them. In our Lenten journey, we may also encounter trials and hardships. Our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and charity will help resist our temptations as we pursue a life of Christian discipleship. 

Just as the 40 days of Lent correspond to the 40 years the Israelites spent wandering in the desert, they also correspond to Jesus’ 40 days in the desert wilderness as recorded in the Gospel of Luke. This was a time of preparation for Jesus’ upcoming mission. At the end of this time, Jesus was tempted three times by the Devil. Jesus’ 40 days in the desert takes place between his baptism in the River Jordan and the start of his public mission. Immediately after Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit led him into the wilderness for a time of prayer and fasting. During this time, Jesus reflected about his baptismal experience and his mission here on earth. We are called to reflect about our journey of faith and about how God is calling us to transformation and renewal during Lent. 

I am going to be preaching on different saints during Lent, some of them canonized saints, while others being faithful Catholics who are members of the community of saints. I learned about Gerald Manley Hopkins through his poetry. Born in 1844 in a very high Church Anglican family, he was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal John Henry Newman while a student at Oxford. His decision to convert to Catholicism estranged him from his family and from many of his friends. Two years after his conversion, he decided to become a Jesuit priest. He had been a talented poet as a student. Seeing his poetry as a distraction from his faith, he burned all his poems before joining the Jesuits.  He began his studies to become a Jesuit in 1868 at the age of 24. In 1874, he received permission from his Jesuit superior to write a poem commemorating the wreck of a ship from Germany off the coast of England, killing 57, including 5 Franciscan nuns traveling to the United States. In the poetry he would write throughout his priesthood, he explores the themes of God's presence in the world, the struggles of faith during challenging times, and the holiness of the martyrs for giving up their lives for the faith. Hopkins begins the poem “God’s Grandeur” by proclaiming “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” This powerful line states that God is not simply present in the world; but that God infuses the world with his divine presence. 

Hopkins was ordained a priest in 1877, but he failed his final exam in theology. Even though Hopkins was a brilliant student at Oxford, he was destined to have a difficult journey as a priest. He struggled in his assignments as a priest. He was thought to be an eccentric oddball by most of his fellow priests. He also struggled with mental health issues. Today, with modern medicine, it is possible that he would be diagnosed as bipolar. He died in 1889 at the age of 44 from typhoid fever while teaching in Dublin, Ireland. Yet, he always stayed true to the faith and true to his vocation as a Jesuit and as a Catholic priest. 

Here is the interesting part of the story. Although all the poets he wrote were never published during his lifetime, he sent all of his poems to his good friend Robert Bridges, a friend of his from his days at the University of Oxford. Bridges himself was an accomplished poet, having been made the poet laureate of the country of England. Bridges found the rhythm and meter of Hopkins’ poems to be very different from the other poetry of the time. Bridges published a volume of Hopkins' poems in 1918, three decades after his death. Hopkins is now considered one of the most significant poets of the Victorian era. His style and innovation are so significantly different than his contemporaries, foreshadowing many techniques and styles in the modern era of poetry. 

I mention Gerald Manley Hopkins today, a member of the community of saints, on this first Sunday in Lent, as he spent many years in the desert, suffering trials and tribulations, challenges and obstacles. Yet, out of that desert emerged beautiful poetry that was not appreciated until years after his death, poetry that would not even be known today unless his friend Robert Bridges had the poems published. God’s grace was at work in the life of Gerald Manley Hopkins. God's grace will be at work in our lives during our Lenten journey as well.