Saturday 20 February 2021

1 Sunday of Lent, February 21, 2021

    Lenten Season is the period we prepare for the great feast of Easter. May the good Lord grant us all the necessary graces to prepare for a fruitful celebration of Easter. May we also allow ourselves to be remoulded and refashioned by God through genuine conversion and by following faithfully his directives in this Lenten Season.

                                 Happy Sunday!

  

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Genesis 9,8-15; 1 Peter 3,18-22; Mark 1,12-15: 1 Sunday of Lent, February  21, 2021)

On this first Sunday of Lent the readings speak of temptation, conversion, the Good News and baptism. The first reading tells us about God's promise and covenant after the flood, therefore, the good news that comes after an immense disaster. In the second reading, Peter speaks of Jesus who, after his death, goes to preach to the spirits, and remembers the days of Noah, that is, the flood and salvation, thereby noting that they were like figures that announced Christian baptism, in which there are conversion and salvation. Today's Gospel is short, but very dense, and recalls the themes of temptation, conversion and the Good News.

Jesus remained in the desert forty days, tempted by satan. Mark does not tell us about the temptations of Jesus, but only tells us that he was tempted. Driven by the Holy Spirit, Jesus goes into the desert to prepare himself for his ministry. He does not need conversion, but, as a man, he needs intense preparation for a ministry of decisive importance. It is a preparation for a spiritual battle against the forces of evil. Every great mission requires a preparation of this type. It is not possible to carry out an important mission without adequate spiritual preparation.

For us, Lent is a time of spiritual preparation for our mission. We must - and the Church insists that we- personally face the forces of evil in prayer, with the help of God, in order to be strengthened by God's grace and become capable of facing these same forces in our world, and daily life. In fact, these forces of evil are active in our existence, as well as in the world around us, where there are still so many wars, violence and injustices. Jesus submits to this need. The Letter to the Hebrews says that in order to become a merciful high priest, [Jesus] had to make himself like his brothers in all things (Hebrew 2,17) and, in particular, he had to face temptations and overcome them. Mark tells us that in the desert Jesus is with the beasts and, on the other hand, is served by angels. In Jesus’ spiritual battle God is close to him and sends his angels to help him.

Immediately after the temptations, Jesus begins to preach the Gospel of God or the Good News (Gospel is a Greek word meaning Good News), which requires conversion and faith from man. He announcesThe time is complete and the kingdom of God is near then he appeals: Get converted and believe this Good News. We always need conversion and faith in our life; the Church makes us pray for a continuous conversion. This means that we are never sufficiently orientated towards God and that we must always address ourselves  towards him. Conversion consists of leaving all secondary things and orienting ourselves with decision and love towards God, trusting in his goodness and in his plan of love for us. Only the kingdom of God can give us true happiness; we cannot look for it elsewhere. The kingdom of God is the fulfilment of all our deepest aspirations. It is, at the same time, man's salvation and God's glory. We must with joy listen attentively to Jesus’ call to convert and believe in the Gospel. We must begin the journey of Lent with commitment, and always welcome the grace of God better, who wants to transform the world into a kingdom of justice, peace and love. God's plan, which manifested itself in the Old Testament with the flood and salvation of Noah, his family and all living beings, consists of eliminating evil from the world and allowing man to live a good and beautiful life. For this reason, the story of the flood ends with a marvellous promise that God makes to every man and every living thing (birds, beasts, and all the animals that are in the ark): I establish my covenant with you: No living thing will ever be destroyed by the waters of the flood, nor will the flood devastate the earth any more. The flood happened once, to eliminate evil from the world, but now God affirms that there will no longer be a second flood, because we are in a time of salvation. God’s sign of this intention to offer the earth, men and all nature his covenant and peace is the rainbow. The Lord says: When the clouds gather on the earth and the arch appear on the clouds, I will remember my covenant. The clouds will no longer be recognised as a threat of a flood, but only as God’s instrument to make the earth fruitful.

In the second reading, Peter teaches us that this extraordinary event of salvation after the flood was a prefiguration of the Christian salvation that is implemented in baptism. The passage begins in a rather obscure way: it speaks of a journey of the dead Christ to the underworld. With his crucifixion, Jesus died from the bodily point of view, but he is alive from the spiritual point of view, indeed fully alive, precisely, by his death. And with this spiritual life he descends into hell, as we say in the Creed. I am also announcing salvation to the spirits who were waiting in prison, and especially, to those people who were incredulous  at the time of Noah (probably the term spirits designates here, as in other passages of the New Testament, the souls of the dead). Christ demonstrates his victory over the forces of evil with his descent into hell. Obviously, the term hell here is not intended as hell, but designates the sojourn of the dead, according to the Old Testament concept. The Jews spoke of sheol, the Greeks of Hades; but everyone was convinced that after death the soul of man went to an underground, mysterious region, where life was no longer a human life, but a kind of shadowy existence. Christ also brings salvation to this living room of the dead. The most important affirmation of this passage from Peter is that the flood and Noah's salvation serve as a prefiguration of Christian baptism. Baptism is not removal of body dirt; it has the appearance of an ablution, but in reality, it is a sacrament. The external ablution then becomes a sign of an interior transformation, which means salvation. Baptism, as Peter says, is invocation of salvation addressed to God [...] by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It requires conversion and faith: Get converted and believe! - and it brings salvation. We should feel intimate joy for haven received the baptism that truly put us in communion with the risen Christ and, through him, with God. We have been radically liberated from evil. However, this does not mean that every temptation has now become impossible for us. We are still in trial time, a time in which we have to fight to keep the white garment we received at baptism immaculate and which symbolises the interior purity obtained in it. Therefore, we are in a time when continuous conversion is needed. We are truly saved, in the sense that our souls have been purified and the Holy Spirit has come within us to communicate a new life to us: a life of union with Christ and God, a life lived in the new covenant, which is much more beautiful than the alliance promised to Noah and his descendants. In this Lent we must live life of acknowledging God, because everything is his gift; with great loyalty to his Word; and with an insistent prayer, as Jesus did in the desert. We must therefore, live with the desire to fully welcome the love that comes from God and wants to transform our life and the whole world. +John I. Okoye

 (graphics  by Charles O Chukwubike)

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