Friday, March 03, 2006
1ST SUNDAY OF LENT
MARCH 5, 2006
1ST SUNDAY OF LENT - B
GENESIS 9:8-15
God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "See, I am now
establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and
with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the
various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the
ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall
all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there
shall not be another flood to devastate the earth." God added: "This
is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant
between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow
in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the
earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in
the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and
you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again
become a flood to destroy all mortal beings."
1 PETER 3:18-22
Beloved: Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake
of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in
the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit. In it he also went
to preach to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building
of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through
water. This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. 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, who has gone
into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels,
authorities, and powers subject to him.
MARK 1:12-15
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. 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."
REFLECTION
Where do we find sources of information that provide us with fresh
visions of life without making us feel that we'll never fully
measure up to it? It is embodied in a simple message from Jesus
that we hear today, "Believe in the good news."
What is this good news? We know that it is ultimately the fact that
Jesus himself, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity has come to
be one of us to redeem all of God's creation. It is God's ultimate
promise that has already been fulfilled in Jesus' death and
resurrection. It presents us with an ideal of happiness, which is
both true and attainable. It does so by presenting us with who we
really are, and ought to become. It is available to all who are
ready to partake in his community of discipleship.
And what is the image of who we truly are to become? It is really
becoming like Jesus himself. Jesus is the word of God. He himself
is the way to the Father - the way, the truth, and the life. So,
how do we partake in his life, his way? Today's Gospel gives us
some hints.
Jesus was announced by his cousin John. John's sole purpose was to
prepare the way for Jesus; John rejected any glory for himself. He
preached a conversion in preparation for Jesus. And he preached
humility; of him it could be said, "Like a bridegroom's friend, who
wants all eyes focused on the bridegroom." As disciples, we fix our
attention on Jesus.
But after his baptism by John, Jesus had to face temptations. The
longer accounts in Luke and Matthew tell us that he was tempted in
three ways. First, to ignore spiritual longing by feeding only his
bodily hunger. Second, to take on the power for its own sake, to be
independent from God and honored by others. Third, to be freed from
all vulnerability, symbolized by having the angels support him as he
fell from the parapet of the temple.
In refusing to give in to these temptations, Jesus reveals what our
true humanity is. We are to look beyond the present need to act for
the greater good.
The call to resist temptation goes hand in hand with our Lenten call
to penance. On Ash Wednesday we heard Jesus' instruction on the
penitential practices of prayer and fasting. But in some ways it's
not clear why we should do penance. Why would we want to deny
ourselves good things that contribute to our well-being? Things
that we rightfully enjoy without going to excess?
Our meditation on Jesus' temptations can help us to see that penance
is not denial for denial's sake, but a kind of discipline. Penance
makes us more open to God's word. By disciplining our bodies and
spirits, we can draw in God's power to transform us in new ways
beyond the ordinary.
The purpose of Lenten practices, ultimately, is to deepen our belief
in the good news. It often seems that the command to "believe in
the good news" is easy to follow. Anyone can simply believe in
something. It is often thought that the "good works" part of our
faith is more difficult. But in many ways, belief is the more
difficult challenge.
What concretely do we have to believe in order to believe in the
good news? St. Augustine tells us that our God can bring good out
of any evil we might face. He can bring good even out of the
most "ordinary forms of evil," such as our tendency to give up on
our spiritual goals, to strive only for wealth and worldly success,
or to despair that God is not with us as we feel the bodily and
spiritual weakness of aging or sickness. To believe in the good news
is to believe that God is Father to every person - and that he
created each person in his image and likeness. To believe in the
good news is to believe that we have an eternal destiny.
But we must always realize that this radical capacity to believe is
itself a gift. We can pray for it, but ultimately, it is God's
gift. We can rejoice in it, because as God's gift it reveals much
of who he is. And it reveals his love for us. We share in God's
life, then, when we share in the many grace-filled gifts he bestows
upon us: our life, our commitments, our marriages, our families, our
jobs, and our friendships. All of these small communities of human
love mirror God's love for us.
This Lent we take up the penance by which we can both appreciate and
deepen the good news even more. And we can begin or continue that
transformation of ourselves and of others that has Jesus as its
model.
PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray -
- for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
- for the eternal repose of the soul of Agripina Franco Marcelino.
Eternal rest grant unto her and may perpetual light shine upon her.
May she and all the souls of the dearly departed rest in peace.
- for the personal intentions of Mike Torres.
- for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Luisa Ng Tiu
- In Memoriam (+): Simplicia Visbal Lim
- for world peace and reconciliation.
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our
prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
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� 2006 Daily-Homily
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