FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR B.
18th February 2024.
Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15.
The message of this first Sunday of lent is understood when we juxtapose the gospel passage with Pope Francis’ letter for lent 2024. Mark’s gospel has a very brief account of the temptation of Jesus: The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. Pope Francis’ letter for lent informed by the Exodus experience of the Israelites of old, is titled: Through the Desert God Leads us to Freedom. The similarity of both are the words ‘desert’ and ‘wilderness’. Both represent our deepest fears and concerns about life.
Temptation is a way to confront our fears and concerns. God leads us through the wilderness or desert of our fears and concerns to freedom. The objects of our temptation are ‘the oppressive bondage that we are called to leave behind’. They are the self-indulgences that restricts our freedom as Christians in the modern world. Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit will lead us through the desert to face the root causes of our fears and concerns.
According to Pope Francis, lent is a season of grace in which the desert can become a place of our first love. The transformation of being led by the Holy Spirit through the desert of temptation to confront our fears and concerns, is a passage from death to life, from slavery to freedom.
Fr Anthony Ekpunobi, CM.