First Sunday of Lent

March 2, 2009

Gen 9: 8-15
1 Pt 3:18-22
Mk 1:12-15

The season of Lent begins with the Lord’s reminder to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God. To prepare means to get ready before the event. We are now given four weeks to make ready for the coming of the Kingdom.

We all have our “tidying quirks.” I start cleaning the floor, then making the bed, dusting and end up cleaning the floor all over again! The Lord offers a simpler system. First repent or clean up then believe (tidy up). The clean up part we understand (but at times ignore). It the believing part that we rarely pay attention to.

Mark’s version sees Jesus as taking up the cudgels of preaching the Good News from John who is now in prison. Jesus knew the danger of suffering the same fate as John yet could not ignore the promptings of the Spirit. He needs to preach! The people need to hear about the coming of the Kingdom. Jesus did not only confront his own demons in the desert but is now actively fighting evil at work in the world.

We see the evil we do but forget to pay attention to our failures to do good. Every time we shirk our responsibilities; pass up opportunities to help; or just be content with mediocrity; we fail to truly believe, to “tidy up” our lives! Thus in a way, Lent must be kept all throughout the year.

Fr. Reynaldo Jimenez, SVD
Divine Word College of Laoag
Laoag City