BIBLE STUDY #78
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
February 26, 2012

READING 1
GENESIS 9:8-15

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth,
and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings,
so that the waters shall never again become a flood
to destroy all mortal beings."

The Word of the Lord

READING 2
1 PETER 3:18-22

Beloved:
Christ suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah
during the building of the ark,
in which a few persons, eight in all,
were saved through water.
This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God,
with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

The Word of the Lord

GOSPEL
MARK 1:12-15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflection

Mark’s Gospel begins with the preaching of John the Baptist which we heard in Advent (prepare the way of the Lord); then there is the Baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan (God tells us Jesus is his beloved Son and he is pleased with him); today’s Gospel is contains the next two sections, the Temptation of Jesus and the beginning of his Galilean ministry.

Jesus’ temptation is only two verses long and contains none of the details of his temptation as do Matthew and Luke’s Gospels. Jesus is driven out into the desert for forty days by the same Spirit that appeared at his baptism.

While Jesus is in the desert, he meets up with Satan who tries to frustrate God’s plan by tempting Jesus away from his God given mission. While the temptations are not described here, they are in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. Jesus remains true to his mission and refuses Satan’s temptation. It’s the same all the way through the gospel: Jesus cannot be swayed or diverted from his mission.

The appearance of wild beasts in the desert may indicate that the desert is a dangerous place since the desert was regards as the abode of demons. In today’s spirituality, we talk about a desert experience as a time to confront our own demons, our own faults and failings, which can seem as scary and as hurtful as any wild animal. When we go through the desert, we can be tested, but we are called to be single minded in God’s service and he will give us what we need to resist evil and temptation and to grow in our faith and to be the best disciples possible. Jesus faces evil and temptation in the desert and shows us the way.

The presence of ministering angels recalls the angel who led Israel in the desert after the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 14:19) and the angel who gave food to Elijah in the wilderness (1Kings 19:5-7). This reminds us that our Christian faith is rooted in the Jewish scriptures

Jesus doesn’t begin his own ministry until John the Baptist’s is over. Jesus doesn’t go too proclaim the gospel until John is arrested. In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus picks up where John left off, except he doesn’t baptize. Although in John’s gospel, it indicates that Jesus does baptize (see John 3:22).

The next verse (15) is considered a summary statement. These statements (and there are several in the gospel) give an overview, or summary, or certain events in Jesus ministry, and can be a bridge between one section and another, as in this case, it is a bridge between the prologue (the beginning) of the gospel and Jesus ministry.

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee where the major part of his ministry happens before his arrest.

Jesus comes to preach the gospel, or good news, of God; not only the good news from God, but also about God at work in Jesus Christ.

The time of fulfillment; all of God’s promises to Israel concerning a savior come true in Jesus. He is the one they have been waiting for, the messiah promised by God.

The Kingdom of God is hard to define. In Matthew’s gospel, it is known as the Kingdom of Heaven, since devout Jews avoided using the name “God”. It means God’s rule over the people. In the fullness of the Kingdom there is human obedience to God’s Word, and the triumph of God over physical evils, especially death. In Jewish apocalyptic theology, the Kingdom is ushered in by a judgment in which sinners would be condemned and die, which was shared by John the Baptist. In Christian theology, the kingdom is established in stages, culminating with Jesus second coming, or parousia, where the whole universe will be transformed. We talk about living in the kingdom, about feeling God’s grace, peace, and love as brought to us by the resurrected Jesus; we have one foot in heaven and one on earth until Jesus comes again. We feel the Kingdom partially, but not fully.

It’s interesting that the first action Jesus asks us to do is to repent. To repent means that we acknowledge that we are sinners, ask God’s forgiveness, and have a change of heart and conduct. We are to turn our lives from rebellion to obedience towards the will of God. It’s not enough to be sorry and to be forgiven; we must work earnestly to change our lives.

It’s always amazing to me that few people think they need to be forgiven. If I asked a group of 100 people if they were perfect, most, if not all, would say that they’re imperfect. But if I asked these same people when was the last time they went to confession, many haven’t gone in years, and many don’t see the need, either. If I asked them if the other 99 people in this group were sinners and needed confession, they would all probably say yes. This is mind boggling to me.

It’s easy to point out the faults and sins of others and, therefore, the need for others to be forgiven, but it’s hard to point the finger at ourselves. To recognize our need to repent is to recognize our need to change, and both are very hard to do. There is no shortcut to a life of sanctity. The road to heaven begins at repentance.

We all need to go to confession from time to time. This sacrament requires us to look at our lives and specifically name the sins we have committed, and then to tell them to a priest. This is a little different than just asking God to forgive my sins, and is more humbling if we are honest with ourselves. If we are honest, we know that we have several ways in which we need to change, and we know specifically what they are. God’s grace and our efforts will pay off in helping us truly repent.

The Gospel, or Good News, is not only about what God tells us through Jesus, but is about the person of Jesus and who he really is. Believing in the good news is believing in what Jesus taught, such as being a prayerful person, and always forgiving, being generous, sacrificing, caring, and loving others (being a person of virtue). It is also believing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God who came to lay down his life to conquer sin and death

Another facet of this gospel that I find interesting is that Jesus ties in repentance with believing in the gospel. To me, it indicates that repentance is required to believe in the good news. Or, to put it another way, if we believe in the good news, we believe in the need to repent. Repenting and believing go hand in hand.

Today’s first reading from the book of Genesis is part of the story of Noah and the great flood (chapters 6-9). This story also appears in the religious traditions of several cultures in the Mesopotamia area that predate Israel. Scholars believe that there was a flood which each culture interpreted to fit its own needs.

The Israelites came to the conclusion that God used the flood to punish sinful humanity. It was a way to purify the human race. Unfortunately, humans continued to sin after the flood. Hope for the future cannot depend on humanity, but on God. God promised, as evidenced in the rainbow, that he wouldn’t destroy the earth by flood, and is committed to the human race. Despite our weakness, God will sustain the world. God made a covenant with Noah and man’s sin would not break that covenant.

The second reading is from the first book of Peter which was written around the year 100 in Peter’s name, perhaps Sylvanus. This letter was probably intended for the believers in Asia Minor who were undergoing a persecution, not from Rome, but from local hostility to Christians who spoke badly of Jesus’ followers (2:12), defamed their conduct (3:16) and vilified and insulted them for their beliefs (4:4).

To bolster their faith, this letter reminds its readers of the sufferings of Christ and to join their sufferings with his. They were reminded of their baptism in Christ that would strengthen them. Since they died with Christ in baptism, they will surely rise with him. They are encouraged to live out their faith every day to protect what was given in baptism. Frequent self examination of conscience and repentance are necessary.

All three reading seem appropriate and a propos as we begin the season of Lent.


Fr. Phil