First Sunday of Lent

February 21, 2021

First Sunday of Lent

February 21, 2021

Deacon Anthony J. Cincotta

Saint Mary Magdalen Parish, Media, PA

 

Book of Genesis

Psalm 25:4-9

First Letter of Saint Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:12-15

 

            In our first reading Noah is given a promise and a sign.  The flood is over; God is seen as having compassion on the earth, the birds, tame and wild beasts and all of Noah’s descendants.  Once there was order, then disfigurement, and now a new relationship.  God promises never again to be angry with creation.  The sign of this promise is a rainbow spreading over the entire world.  The text says that when God sees that brilliant bow (rainbow,) God will remember the promise and never punish the earth again.   

            Today, in our world, there continues to be new forms of de-creating, disordering, and defacing this earth, ourselves, and each other.  We may bring floods of destruction upon our earth and ourselves, but the rainbow continues to be seen.

            In the Gospel narrative of Saint Mark we hear of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  Jesus is having a “little Lent” for Himself as He spends forty days in the desert and is tempted by Satan.  I find it difficult to know how Mark’s account of this incredible experience is so brief.  What we do know is that immediately after the angels ministered to our Lord He began proclaiming His Good News and that the time has come for God’s perfect love to flood the earth and Jesus Himself is the new Ark of salvation, truth and repentance.

            God “repented” in Genesis from the dis-creational judgement.  Jesus’ Gospel asks for a “repenting” on the part of humanity from its irreverent relationship with God and God’s creation.  Jesus begins proclaiming the reception of God’s love as the number one priority for living as one of God’s creation which Gods saw was “very good.”  In the first Chapter of the Book of Genesis, from verse 27 through 31, God is pictured as creating male and female and giving them all creation as a gift to be received and reverenced.  Jesus begins recalling God’s people back to their original relationship with God through creation.

            Lent is a joyful time as we spend these days taking off the bandages from our eyes and earmuffs from our ears so as to see and hear again more clearly the goodness of creation, the goodness of ourselves, and all as a revelation of the goodness of God.  We have before us forty days of repenting from disrespectfully eating, drinking, self-hating, relationship-wrecking, and gossiping, name-calling and dark thoughts.  We repent from calling this “very good” and return to seeing ourselves and everyone we meet in life as “very good” in Christ Jesus.

Question of the Day:  During Lent how will you encourage yourself, and others, to re-church, re-energize, and re-lent?

Prayer:  “Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.”  Psalm 25:4-9

Prosit