First Sunday of Lent /
Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The first reading, from the Book of Genesis, presents the familiar story of Noah. It is a story of contrasts and of the consequences of these contrasts. Noah was faithful to God, whereas the world almost universally was not.
God protected Noah from the doom to which the sinful world succumbed. Warned by God, Noah took his family and pairs of various animals onto a ship, traditionally called the ark, that Noah constructed. As the floodwaters ebbed, the ark settled on dry land. By God’s help, all aboard Noah’s ark survived.
God assures Noah, and all people, that he would never again allow a flood to destroy the Earth. God promises a covenant with Noah’s people. Under this covenant, or solemn agreement, the people would obey God’s law. In turn, God would protect them from peril.
It is the foundational story of all that would be revealed in the long history of salvation. Sin destroys. God gives life itself to the faithful.
The second reading is from the First Epistle of St. Peter. It states that it was composed in Babylon, likely a symbol of Rome, the mighty, magnificent-to- behold imperial capital, but also the center of paganism and of the impious culture of the time.
Roman Christians at the time needed encouragement. This epistle provided such encouragement by recalling the faithfulness of Noah. God protects and saves the faithful, who in baptism and in holiness identify themselves with Jesus.
St. Mark’s Gospel furnishes the last reading. It is very brief, only a few verses. But its brevity gives it drama and a directness to its message.
Use of the number 40 is revealing, suggesting as it does the 40 days spent by Moses in the desert before God gave him the law on Sinai. Jesus is the bearer of God’s holy word, as was Moses. Jesus is concentrated in the task of serving God as was Moses in his time.
That wild beasts were all about was no literary figment but a reality, as it is today in the Judean desert. Yet, angels protected Jesus. Mark does not lose the chance to assert that Jesus is the Son of God.
At last, indicated by John’s arrest and his removal from the role of prophet, the culmination of salvation awaits. Jesus steps forward, proclaiming that the reign of God will be seen. The Lord calls upon the people to repent. “The time of fulfillment” is at hand (Mk 1:15). God will be vindicated. Jesus has come to set everything in balance. The sinful will be laid low. The good will endure.
Reflection
The Church has begun Lent, the most intense period in its year of calling its people to union with God. While Ash Wednesday was the first day of Lent, many Catholics will begin the Lenten process with this weekend’s Mass.
The readings call people to face the facts of life as humans, of good and evil, and of the products of good and evil.
Regardless of the exact details of the flood described in Genesis, so often discussed and indeed questioned on scientific grounds, the religious message of Noah and his ark is clear. It supplies a fitting beginning to reflection for Lent. Sin, the willful rejection of God, leads necessarily and always to destruction.
The message of Christ is never, in the end, filled with woe and despair. God offers eternal life and peace. For those who fail, God is forgiving and merciful, so long as the wayward see their faults and ask for mercy.
Essential to asking for forgiveness is to acknowledge personal sin. We must delve deeply into our hearts and minds, and scrutinize what we have done.
We must focus. We must be frank with ourselves. For these purposes, we now begin our 40 days of concentration upon salvation. †