First Sunday of Lent

The readings of the Lectionary for Sundays of Lent have a slightly different purpose than those of the Sundays of Ordinary Time.  During Ordinary Time the first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures tends to “pair up” with the Gospel reading while the readings from the Christian Scriptures are so-called “continuous” readings which take us through the various Books of the New Testament.

During Lent each of the three readings has a different purpose.  The first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures presents us with an event in Salvation History which prefigures or prepares us for the passion and death of Jesus.  The second reading from the Christian Scriptures reveals how we Christians participate in that redemptive active of Jesus by focusing our attention on the cross or on the Sacrament of Baptism.  In each cycle of the Lectionary, the first two Sundays tell us the stories of the temptations Jesus encountered in the desert and of the Transfiguration.  The next three Sundays usually tell us of the various “predictions” Jesus made about his death.  The final Sunday of Lent always includes one of the passion narratives.

Today’s first reading tells us of God’s promise after the flood.  In it we hear God make the first of what can be called covenants.  This first covenant is different than any subsequent covenant because it is made with the whole created universe, humankind and all of the beasts and other created creatures.  Later covenants will be made with the children of Israel, but in this covenant God promises never to destroy creation.  This covenant prefigures the covenant of Jesus in that very fact.  Jesus died for all of humankind, not just one race of people.  Later Franciscan scholastic philosophers and theologians also teach that the entire created universe, which so eloquently speaks of God’s creative ingenuity, was also saved by Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. 

St. Peter leads us through a meditation on the flood which teaches us that the Church has come to see the flood as a symbolic type for Baptism.  Just as the eight human beings in the ark were saved through the flood, we too are saved by going down into the waters of baptism and rising through those waters to new life.  That new life is symbolized by the eight people in the ark, the eighth day being the beginning of a new creation.

The very short Gospel passage for today’s liturgy is different in that it does not speak of the specific temptations that Jesus encountered in the Gospel.  St. Mark does not say that Jesus was fasting in the desert!  These details were added by St. Matthew and St. Luke.  So St. Mark’s purpose in this passage is obviously different.  One detail that he includes that we do not find in the other two synoptic Gospels is that the angels ministered to Jesus while he was in the desert.  Indeed, this could be construed to mean that Jesus was fed by the angels as the Greek verb used at this point is the same as the verb used to indicate people ministering at table. 

The time in the desert comes immediately after the Gospel tells us about the voice from heaven which proclaimed that Jesus was God’s Beloved.  Middle Eastern culture would have demanded some sort of proof that Jesus was in fact worthy of such an honor.  Spending time in the desert where angels ministered to him would be one way of affirming the veracity of the voice’s message.  God’s beloved acquits himself honorably by resisting the temptations of Satan and is rewarded by heavenly food, a food which reminds us of how God fed the Israelites in the desert and the prophet Elijah during his sojourn in the desert.

So these readings focus our attention on our own forty days, our Lenten observance, which is meant to prepare us for our celebration of the Resurrection at which time we will renew our own commitment to our Baptism.  We, like Jesus, prepare for that day by resisting temptation and by dwelling in the “desert” of Lent for forty days allowing God’s angels to minister to us, feeding upon the Word of God and remembering that the desert is God’s “trysting” place, a place to renew our covenant of love with our Creator.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator