Lent I (Year B)

The Bible can be read as an account of salvation history, beginning with the Creation of the Universe and culminating in our redemption in the Birth, Life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As such it is a series of covenants, promises between God and humanity. These begin with God’s promise to Noah after the flood, our first reading this morning. God promises not to destroy humanity. This is welcome news in a time of both pandemic and heavy rainfall. The rainbow is given as a sign of God’s love and faithfulness. This sets the tone for all the other covenants in the Bible.

Our second reading this morning, from the First Letter of Peter, draws a link between Noah and the ark as a sign of salvation, and baptism, by which humanity is saved. It is a timely connection to make since Lent is traditionally a time for preparation for Baptism at Easter. The wider account of salvation history and the life of Jesus in particular become our life as Christians in our baptism: we share in them, they become part of us, and form both who and what we are. We enter into the drama of salvation. We die to sin, and are raised to new life in our baptism. Through our new life in Christ, we follow His example, and prepare for our annual celebration of Holy Week and Easter by going into the desert with Him for the forty days of Lent, a time of fasting, prayer, and charity.

This morning’s Gospel reading takes us from Jesus’ baptism by John to the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, via forty days in the desert. There is so much packed into a few verses of Scripture, that we need to take a moment to examine what is going on, and how it can speak to us over the next few weeks.

Jesus is baptised, by John, not because needs to repent of His Sins, as He is without sin. Instead, He does so out of humility to the will of God the Father, and to show us the way to salvation: through His Suffering, Crucifixion, and Rising again to New Life. In the account of the Baptism we see and hear the Three Persons of the Trinity, present, connected, and united in Love: the voice of God the Father and the dove representing the Spirit, descending on the Son. It is a glimpse of Divine Glory, which awaits us in Heaven, the end and purpose of salvation history.

Immediately afterwards the Spirit drives Jesus out into the desert, to be alone with God. He prays and fasts in order to prepare Himself for the public ministry of the Proclamation of the Good News, the Gospel. Deserts are not places one would choose to spend six weeks. They are places that can be unbearably hot by day yet freezing cold at night, wild places, lacking water, dangerous, and on the margins. 

The symbolism of the number forty is rich in the Bible. It signifies a time of trial or testing, and recalls significant biblical events. Firstly, In Genesis 7:12, earlier in the story of Noah, God floods the earth with water for 40 days. Secondly, in the story of the Exodus, the people of Israel spend forty years in the desert before they reach the Promised Land. Thirdly, Moses spends forty days with God on Mount Sinai before giving the people of Israel the law, the Ten Commandments. And fourthly, in 1Kings 19:8, Elijah fasts for forty days on the way to Mount Horeb, before talking to God and finding Elisha. All of these examples point to Christ and foreshadow His saving work.

While Jesus is in the desert, He is tempted by Satan. Unlike Matthew’s Gospel, which lists the temptations, Mark simply states that Jesus was tempted. Because Jesus does not sin, He is able to withstand temptation, His victory in the desert points to His great victory on the Cross. Christ then preaches to ‘the spirits in prison’ (1Peter 3: 19) saving humanity from sin and death, and restoring the hope of heaven. In the desert, Jesus is with wild animals, traditionally a sign of the Evil One. However, He is not harmed by them, as the creatures recognise their Creator, who is preparing to make a new Creation in Himself.

Jesus is ministered to by angels. He is the Beloved Son, in whom the Father is well-pleased, humble and obedient. After the trial of the temptations He is tired, and hungry. Temptation is a trying business, both physically and spiritually. This reminds us of the need for care, especially self-care, in our Lenten observances. Rest and nourishment are an important part of our spiritual and physical wellbeing, now more than ever. 

After forty days, Jesus returns to Galilee and starts to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News of the Kingdom of God:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15)

This message is the same as that of John the Baptist (cf. Acts 19:4): Repent, turn away from your sins, turn back to God, and Believe the Gospel, proclaimed by Jesus Christ. As Christians, nearly two thousand years later, we believe and proclaim that same message. Jesus calls us to turn away from sin, to turn back to God, to trust Him, and to know that He longs for our healing and reconciliation.

Jesus is able to resist Satan’s temptations because He is humble, because He has faith, and because he trusts in God. It certainly isn’t easy to do the same, but it is possible. It is far easier when we do this together, as a community, which is why Lent matters for all of us. These weeks are a chance to become more obedient, and through that obedience to discover true freedom in God. It is an obedience which is made manifest on the Cross — in laying down his life Jesus can give new life to the whole world. He isn’t being spectacular — he dies like a common criminal. He has no power, he does not try to be relevant, he is loving and obedient and that is good enough.

It was enough for him, and it should be for us. As Christians we have Scripture and the teaching of the Church, filled with His Spirit, to guide us. We can use this time of prayer and fasting to deepen our faith, our trust, our understanding, and our obedience. We can use this time to become more like Jesus, to be fed by His Word and by the Sacraments to become more humble, and more loving, living lives of service of God and each other. We can use this time to support each other, so that we might grow in holiness as the people of God, and to sing the praises of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now, and forever. Amen.

Tissot Jesus tempted in the Wilderness

Ash Wednesday

Today the Church celebrates Ash Wednesday, the beginning of her Lenten journey towards the great festival of Easter. The entire Christian community is invited to live this period of forty days as a pilgrimage of repentance, conversion and renewal. In the Bible, the number forty is rich in symbolism. It recalls Israel’s journey in the desert: a time of expectation, purification and closeness to the Lord, but also a time of temptation and testing. It also evokes Jesus’ own sojourn in the desert at the beginning of His public ministry. This was a time of profound closeness to the Father in prayer, but also of confrontation with the mystery of evil. The Church’s Lenten discipline is meant to help deepen our life of faith and our imitation of Christ in his paschal mystery. In these forty days may we strive to draw nearer to the Lord by meditating on his word and example. We seek to conquer the desert of our spiritual aridity, selfishness and materialism. For the whole Church may this Lent be a time of grace in which God leads us, in union with the crucified and risen Lord, through the experience of the desert to the joy and hope brought by Easter.

Pope Benedict XVI Catechesis at the General Audience 22.ii.12: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-conquering-our-spiritual-desert

Today we go with Christ into the desert for forty days. Deserts are places of lack and isolation, something which we are all experiencing at the present time. We are all currently cut off from people, places, and things we are accustomed to do. In many ways the last year has felt like a continual Lent. Despite this, as Christians, we thoughtfully prepare to celebrate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who began his public ministry after His Baptism by going into the desert.

To go into the desert is to go to a place to be alone with God, in prayer, to face temptation, and to grow spiritually. It is something which Christians do together over the next six weeks or so, to draw closer to Jesus Christ. By imitating Him, and listening to what He says to us, we prepare ourselves to enter into and share the mystery of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, so that we may celebrate with joy Christ’s triumph over sin and death, and His victory at Easter. 

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus teaches His disciples how to fast. The point is not about making an outward show of what we are doing, but rather about how the practice affects our interior disposition. This is clear from our first reading, from the prophet Joel, who gives this advice:

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abiding in steadfast love; and relents over disaster. (Joel 2: 12-13)

Through the prophet, God is calling His people back to Himself, in love and mercy, and rather than the outward show of mourning through the tearing of one’s clothing, to instead to open our hearts to God, so that He can heal us. We can only find healing if we first recognise our need for healing, and that it is something that God can do for us, we cannot do it for ourselves.

Human beings, by nature like to show off, to engage in display, and to tell people about things. Yet in the Gospel today, Christ tells us to do the exact opposite. We are told not to show what we are doing, to keep it hidden. This is completely in line with the advice of the prophet Joel that fasting, like mourning, has an interior quality which is important.

By giving up something we love and enjoy, and regulating our diet we are not engaging in a holy weight-loss plan. What we are doing is training our bodies and our minds, becoming disciplined. Through this we express physically the radical purification and conversion which lies at the heart of the Christian life: we follow Christ.

We follow Christ into the desert, we follow Christ to the Cross, and beyond, to be united with Him, in love and in suffering. In this we should bear in mind St Paul’s words to the Church in Corinth that we are called to suffer with and for Christ, to bear witness to our faith, and to encourage people, as ‘ambassadors for Christ’. This starts with our reconciliation of each other, and God’s reconciliation and healing of us. Just as for any other role we undertake in life, it requires preparation. 

The Gospel talks of three ways to prepare ourselves: Firstly, Fasting — disciplining the body. Secondly, Prayer — drawing closer to God and deepening our relationship with Him, and listening to what He says to us. Thirdly, by Charity, or Almsgiving — being generous to those in need, as God is generous towards us, we follow Christ’s example. Matthew’s Gospel clearly states that we do not do these things in order to be seen to be doing them, in order to gain a reward in human terms, of power or prestige, but to be rewarded by God.

We should always remember that as Christians we cannot earn our forgiveness through our works. God forgives us in Christ, who died and rose again for us. We plead His Cross as our only hope, through which we are saved and set free. 

Being humble, and conscious of our total reliance upon God, allows us to be transformed by God, into what God wants us to be. God’s grace transforms our nature, and we come to know and live life in all its fulness, the joy of the Kingdom, and a foretaste of Heaven. Through this we are united with God, know and experience His love and forgiveness, and are transformed by Him, into His likeness, sharing His life and His love. 

Let us use this Lent, where we are in an imposed wilderness, to draw ever closer to God and to each other, (spiritually, if not physically). Through our fasting, prayer, and charity, may we be built up in love, and faith, and hope, and prepare to celebrate with joy the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom, with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now, and forever. Amen.

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Homily for Quinquagesima

Sometimes when we read the Bible, passages can seem strange and harsh, and completely opposed to how we live nowadays. This morning’s first reading from Leviticus is one such example. It refers to how people with leprosy and other skin conditions are to be treated. They are forced to endure a living death, public humiliation and disgrace, to be excluded from society, cut off and shunned. This is made most clear in the final verse:

‘He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.’ (Lev 13:46)

This verse is interesting insofar as it is used by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews at the climax of the letter to describe Christ’s crucifixion and death:

‘So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.’ (Heb 13:12-14)

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to follow Christ’s example and to become outcasts, unclean in terms of Jewish ritual purity, to share in Christ’s suffering and to be united with Him. Something shameful has now become glorious: a demonstration of God’s love and healing, where once there was condemnation there is now reconciliation. We learn by copying, and so St Paul writes at the end of this morning’s second reading:

‘Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ’ (1Cor 11:1)

Paul encourages the Corinthian church to imitate him, as he imitates Christ, so that they all might live out the love of God in their lives, for the glory of God, and to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to the world. This is our calling as Christians, to follow the same example and live out the same faith, to proclaim the same truth in our lives. 

Our gospel reading this morning continues the accounts of miraculous healings which we have encountered over the past few weeks. This morning Jesus is met by a man suffering from leprosy, who begs to be healed. Given the purity code in our first reading this morning, we can understand why the leper longs to be healed, and restored to his place in the community. The leper kneels before Jesus, performing an act of submission, putting himself entirely at Jesus’ mercy, and says:

“If you will, you can make me clean.” (Mk 1:40)

Jesus is filled with emotion and touches him. Rather than simply saying, ‘Be healed’, or ‘Be clean’, Jesus stretches out His hand and touches the man with leprosy. In Jewish ritual terms Jesus makes Himself unclean. He breaks the rules. He does what no-one would do. Instead of casting the man out, or ignoring him, Jesus touches the man and heals him. Here we see God’s healing love in action, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, is the proclamation of love and healing, to restore humanity. Then having broken the rules, Jesus says to the healed leper:

“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” (Mk 1:44)

Jesus tells the man to comply with the Law, to show himself to a priest. This is so that he can undergo a ritual bath, and be restored to his rightful place in society. It is also as a proof to the religious authorities that a miraculous healing has taken place. God is announcing His Kingdom and the fulfilment of messianic prophecy. God is healing His people. 

Despite the fact that Jesus has told the man not to tell anyone other than the priest, the healed man does the exact opposite, and tells everyone he meets about what has happened. He has, after all, been miraculously healed, and experienced the wonderful reality of the Kingdom of God. So he feels he simply has to tell everyone he meets how wonderful God is, and what miraculous healing has taken place in his life. He cannot not tell people. It is just too wonderful, and he does proclaims the reality of the Kingdom of God to all and sundry. His life has changed, and he is filled with joy and gratitude. At one level this is a metaphor for the Christian life. Each and every one of us has been touched by Jesus, and so we can follow this man’s example and proclaim the wonders of the Kingdom in all that we do and all that we are.

The joyful proclamation of the Kingdom does, however, pose a practical difficulty – Jesus cannot go anywhere without being mobbed: 

so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter (Mk 1:45)

Clearly this makes life very difficult for Jesus. It speaks of the deep and widespread need for healing in Galilee. As it was there then, so it is here, now. We long for God to heal us, to take away our fears, and fill us with His love. At a practical level this is bound to be exhausting for Our Lord, so He goes out to desolate deserted places, in other words, the desert. Jesus goes to be alone with God, to rest and to pray. This reminds us that in the Church’s calendar we are about to enter the season of Lent. We prepare for Easter by going out into the desert with Jesus to be close to God, through prayer, fasting, and deeds of charity. We follow Jesus’ example, we imitate Him, so that we may draw closer to Him and experience His healing love. We go with Him, so that we can prepare to enter into the mystery of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, so that we may rise with Him at Easter. To Him with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, be ascribed as is most right and just, all glory, might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now, and forever. Amen.

Homily for Sexagesima

It is hard for us nowadays to imagine our country without the National Health Service. Since 1948 we have been blessed with medical care funded through general taxation. For most of human history medical care was only available to those who could afford it, and only a limited amount of ailments could be treated. It is hard to imagine how precarious life was, and how great was the desire for healing. 

Our Gospel reading this week focuses on Jesus’ pastoral ministry. It has three distinct elements: healing, prayer, and preaching. As soon as Jesus and the four disciples leave the synagogue in Capernaum, they go to Simon and Andrew’s house, where they find Simon Peter’s mother-in-law sick with a fever. It is serious, and life-threatening. Jesus takes her by the hand, lifts her up, and she is immediately restored to full health. In fact, she gets up and looks after them! Mark’s account is simple and straightforward, and goes along at a tremendous breathless pace. The healing is miraculous and instantaneous — it takes your breath away. It is a powerful demonstration of the reality of God’s love for us: if we let God be at work in our lives then wonderful things are possible, but we have to trust Him.

Suddenly all the sick of Capernaum are at the door. These are people who long for healing, and in their midst is the one who heals. It is wonderful. Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God by His deeds, as a place of healing, where humanity is restored by God. It must have been quite busy, as St Mark states that,

‘the whole city was gathered together at the door.’ (Mk 1:33)

As wonderful as it is, to see an entire community transformed, it should be recognised that it comes at a cost: physical, emotional, and spiritual. We think of the great emotional, physical, and spiritual cost to those working in the NHS and as carers (both paid and unpaid), many struggling to cope and becoming overwhelmed. Many of whom desperately need some time out to recharge their batteries and find the strength to carry on. They need our prayers. This is why we learn:

‘And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.’ (Mk 1:35)

Jesus gets up early to pray to God, to spend time with Him. Prayer is not an optional extra, it is absolutely necessary. Jesus is only able to heal because he spends time with God in prayer, deepening His relationship, and finding strength, the strength to heal and to preach the Good news of the Kingdom. It reminds us of the need for prayer and quiet in our own lives — we need time to be with God, to talk to Him, and to listen to what He has to say to us. Even during lockdown we can be distracted by the business of life. If we want to be close to God and let His power be at work in us we need to find time to be silent and find our own deserted place, if only for a few minutes, to let a healing encounter take place. God meets us when we are alone, when we are silent, when we are vulnerable, when we no longer rely on our own strength but hand ourselves over completely to Him. This is not an easy thing to do, but it is the only way for God to be at work in us: we need to make space for Him. Just as often happens in our own lives, Jesus does not have long to be close to God, as people come looking for Him:

‘And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”.’ (Mk 1:36-7)

Jesus is the person everyone is looking for. So many people are longing for healing, for the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and for Jesus. There is a deep-seated emptiness which only God can fill. The healing which Christ offers is the fullness of life, how life should be lived. 

‘And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.’ (Mk 1:38-9)

Jesus moves His disciples on. They need to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God in word and deed, by preaching and healing, to the people in the other towns. This is Jesus’ mission: ‘for that is what I came for.’ (Mk 1:38). Jesus came to announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to make His words real by healing the sick, fulfilling the messianic prophecies of Isaiah 61. His message is clear: 

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15)

Repent and believe the Good news: turn from sin, love God and your neighbour, and experience the healing which God longs to give you. Which of us can say that we don’t need Christ’s healing in our lives? I know that I do. The truth is that we ALL do. If we are close to Him in prayer, if we listen to Him, if we have the humility which says, ‘I need God’s help’, then we can be open to the transforming power of His Love: so that the healing work begun in Galilee might be continued here, now, among us.

Let us listen to His words. Let us be close to Him in prayer. Let us come to Him, to the One who loves us, who heals us, who gives Himself upon the Cross to die for us. To the One who rises again to give us the promise of eternal life in Him. Let us come to be healed, and restored, so that we might have life, and life to the full in and through Christ. Let us live out our faith, and proclaim Him, so that the world may believe, and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed, as is most right and just all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now, and forever. Amen. 

Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law