Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent, 2024

Today’s Gospel (Mark 1:12-15) takes us, at the beginning of Lent, right to the edge of the desert. The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert…where He was tempted by the devil. He was with the wild beasts…. No preamble, no hint of what was to come. Just, the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert, where He would find wild beasts, and the devil.

When we are driven, we are moved by some outside force or something deep within us, and we have no choice but to respond. This can be positive, or it can mean difficulty or even danger. For Jesus it was all three. There is great mystery here as there often is in the life of Jesus. Why would the H0ly Spirit force Jesus into the desert, to be plagued by wild beasts and the devil, at the very outset of His public life of preaching the love of God? One wonders.

Yet, that so often happens to us. It seems to be part of the human condition. We set out to do something good, and we find ourselves assailed on all sides by controversy, conflict or lack of funds, misunderstanding and even threats. Jesus was like us in all things except sin (Hebrews 2:17). God certainly took on our humanity in all its beauty and all its vulnerability in Jesus.  He wanted to experience it all, from start to finish and everything in between. We can never say, as we might be tempted to in our worst moments, ‘God You just don’t understand what I’m going through!’ without hearing His answer, Oh, but I do, and I am right here with you!

Being in the desert means, as we saw last week, thirst, hunger, scorching heat by day, freezing temperatures by night, loneliness and fear of the unpredictability of the unknown. We have experienced all these and more in one form or another on our Christian journey. During Lent we meet Jesus in the desert of our human frailty and vulnerability as we try to allow ourselves to be transformed by Grace according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It seems that the more intensely we seek to meet Jesus in His 40-day desert sojourn, the more we come face to face with the sting of stealthy vipers and the plague of the wild beasts of our own sinfulness. But isn’t that part of the transforming Grace of our own Lenten desert, after all?

Yes, there is Grace, both costly and tender as it comes from the hand of God on the heels of our repentance after our Lenten falls. In Mark’s Gospel, the first word Jesus speaks is repent (Mark 1:15). In St. Luke’s Gospel, nearly the last word Jesus speaks is Father, forgive them. Thus, in the wilderness of Lent we are called to repent of our sinfulness and then to allow the forgiveness of the Father to embrace us.

So I ask myself, how can I be afraid of Lent? How could I ever hesitate to step out onto the sand and follow Jesus even to the place where the beasts and demons of my own existence lurk, because I know He protects me. Surrendering to the loving attention of the Holy Spirit, I will come to the end of this transforming desert and rise with Jesus to new life.

Let us join hands, you who read this and I, and make this sojourn with love, for we owe it to Jesus never to be afraid of anything.

God bless you.