First Sunday of Lent Yr B. Feb 18, 2024.
Readings
1st: Genesis 9:8-15
2nd: I Peter 3:18-22
Gospel: Mark 1:12-15
Theme: Pray, Fast and Love/Share
My dear people of God, today is 1st Sunday of Lent. Lent, a 40-day intensive spiritual pilgrimage. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday with the Lord's Supper. With the signing of ashes on our forehead we show our outward preparedness to repent and amend our ways with God and the neighbor. The ashes also remind us of our nothingness. We are aware that the dry palm branches which were burnt into ashes were fresh leaves sometime last year. On Palm Sunday they were cut off from the tree, they got dried up and were burnt into ashes this year. "...From dust and into dust". Another way of saying that life here on earth is just a brief stop over and to continue (soon) to our heavenly home. So, we can imagine a message from those ashes as follows: "We were once (fresh) like you, and you would one day be (dry and nothing) like us." Many a Christian want to go to Heaven but dread the mere thought of that inevitable reality - Death. Our reflections would focus on the Theme, a fine summary of our Gospel. Jesus is led into the "Desert" to Pray and Fast, after which he would share His life with all, indiscriminately.
Pray: We are familiar with Jesus' unique method of teaching. He would not ask his followers to do what he himslf has not already done. Though God, through whom all things were created and who owns all things, temporal and spiritual, Jesus humbled himself in prayer. With the eye of the mind we can picture him kneeling with his blessed Mother Mary and St. Joseph at family prayer at Nazareth, a God-given duty (family prayer) that has been abandoned by most Christian parents; he spent forty days and nights in prayer in the desert, according to today's gospel; he frequently went to the temple to pray with his disciples; he habitually withdrew into the hillside either during the (whole) night or at dawn when nature is at its best to spend quiet time with the Father. He prayed twice in the desert over the five loaves and fish, at the death of Lazarus, at the Last Supper, in the Garden, on the Cross etc. Suffice to say that Prayer was His second nature. You and I, for different reasons, may not be able to follow the same meticulous routine but, at least, we can personally resolve during this solemn season, to do one of the following as a way of intensifying our prayer: Attend Holy Mass daily and receive Holy Communion if possible, read the Passion Narratives at convenient times, visit the Blessed Sacrament at regular intervals, prayerfully participate in the Way of the Cross, read and meditate on the text of the stations of Cross at the Great Hour of Mercy (3:00 pm), pray the Holy Rosary daily with the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc
Fast: The purpose of every true religion is to protect and promote the quality of human life. That is why the Church, in her wisdom, does not compel everybody to fast. Those who can do it safely and conveniently are encouraged to do so for personal motification and general sanctification of the Church and humanity at large. For different reasons, therefore, certain categories of people are dispensed from fasting: Nursing and/or expecting (pregnant) mothers, people with underlying health issues (chronic and terminal cases), people who are on drugs (temporarily or perpetually), people reasonably advanced in age, children who are relatively under age, people embarking on journeys that are foreseen to last beyond 5 hrs etc. The Church is also aware and conscious of particular occasions/events among some cultures which are usually characterize with communal socialization (eating and drinking). Occasions such as enskinment/enstoolment, funerals, marriages, naming ceremonies, etc. On Ash Wednesday, the gospel admonished us not to display our fasting as the Phirasees do with the prime aim to attract public attention. This display is sometimes done by different people in different ways and forms. The idea of not cooking or brewing pito in the name of fasting, for me, doesn't make fasting sincere, honest and genuine. Yes, it is prudent and makes a lot of sense to run the devil before he launches an attack but we also know that the absence of temptation does not make a holy person. In the desert, and later in Gethsemane, Jesus did not ask the Father to take away Satan or the Cross. He asked for superior strength (grace) to face them squarely. Food should be prepared and served in its rightful quantity and quality, pito should be made available in its best quality for people to see and decide on their own to deny themselves. We cannot describe the absence of food and pito as a time of fasting.
Share: Charity, another word for love, is the greatest of the three theological virtues (according to St. Paul). What we consciously deny ourselves during this season of grace should serve/go as reliefs to those who, for no faults of theirs, cannot get what we can conveniently throw away. It must be noted, however, that it constitutes an insult to divine providence to give out what we ourself do not want in the name of charity. The true test of charity is not what is given, but what is left after the giving. It is also worth noting that the Church's understanding of charity goes beyond the offer of only corporeal/material needs to the poor and needy. In fact, the greatest charity that pleases the Heart of God is praying for the neighbor including the enemy. May God give us grace to prayerfully look courageously into the self, do honest penance and in our own limited way, reach out sincerely to the poor and needy. I pray God to bless your every good intention during this great season of grace, if those intensions would work for your good and to the glory of his Holy Name. I know you know that this is a season to make extra time to recite the Holy Rosary daily. God richly bless you and your family.
Rev. Fr. Thomas L. Debuo, Catholic Diocese of Damongo, Ghana. (0244511306/0243711926)