First Sunday of Lent - What Jesus Wants





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."

- Mark 1:12-15
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/1?12


The very thought of our divine Lord suffering hunger, loneliness, and humiliation at the hands of his enemy—and that he did it for US — should make us ashamed at the small bits of suffering and humiliation we grudgingly suffer our own selves.
He had no sin to atone for - He was atoning for OUR sins.
He was the Son of God and his home was heaven..., but he left it for a while to assume human nature, so that he could be humiliated and suffer.

Why? To bring us to share his eternal home with him.
And what are the thanks he gets from those He so loved? Ingratitude, forgetfulness, lackluster indifference and worse: insults and disobedience.


While the Church has eased the strict fastings and penances of Lent over the years, we are still expected to do some private fasting and penance.
It need not be fasting from food, but we can all do some daily penance which will help to keep our unruly minds and bodies in check, and show our gratitude to our loving Savior for all that he suffered for us.

- How about a few extra prayers each day?
- Maybe controlling our temper, or less talk, and especially, less uncharitable talk?
- Why not a little helping hand to a neighbor?

The sincere Christian will find a hundred such ways in which to thank and honor Christ during this holy season of Lent.

But let us all keep the last verse of today's reading before our minds with great profit..
"Repent and believe in the gospel."
This is the essence, the marrow, of Christ's teaching.

Turn away from sin and give up offending that loving God who thinks so much of you... come back to God.
 



Remember: This life is only a passing shadow.

Every step we take, every breath, each brings us nearer to our earthly end and to the grave.
In Latin it is expressed as, "Memento mori" ('remember that you [have to] die') and is a reminder of the inevitability of death.

But the believing Christian knows the grave is not the end. Rather, it is the beginning of the true life—provided we properly use this passing shadow we call life.

Now is the time to take these words of Christ to heart. He is asking each one of us today, to repent and to believe the gospel, that is, to act according to its teaching. 

Christ, in his mercy, will make this appeal to men again and again, but will we hear it?
If we answer his appeal now and start living by His will, in all sincerity, we need not care when death calls us. Because it will find us ready to pass over to the future, happy, unending life.

—Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

Fun to Do:

  • Make Pease Porridge (Split Pea Soup) for supper, a traditional dish for Sundays during Lent. Add some diced ham for more flavor and substance.





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