First Sunday of Lent
Though Lent is often perceived as a sombre time of penance and discipline where we reflect on our lives and how to be better people. In the first reading, God says to Israel and to us, ‘I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live’ (Dt. 30:19). To focus only on penance, is to trivialise this season because it becomes an arithmetical balancing act as we have to repent from human failures. Lent is always a summons to live anew by opening ourselves God’s graciousness and kindness which never in isolation. We are reminded that, while capable of the worst, we are also capable of rising above ourselves, choosing what is good, and making a new start.
Recently, on Ash Wednesday, people received ashes on their foreheads to acknowledge their connectedness with one another and connection to the stardust which exploded from the Spirit at the beginning of creation. In other words, it is about reconnecting ruptured relationships, to be part of the process of healing and work to achieve unity with all living things. It includes releasing those unjustly captive, freeing those yoked, liberating the oppressed, sharing with hungry and thirsty, and providing shelter to the homeless. It is meant to bring change into our lives and lives of others. Lent is not about being negative, it not looking at the Cross but to God’s Reign and the new life of resurrection.
Lent is a time to reflect, re-examine and renew. It is a time to imagine new possibilities for the in-breaking of God’s new world and strive to make it possible. To enter into the wonder of living into God’s world of love, tenderness and compassion we need are beckoned into prayer and closeness to God. This is needed more than ever in the ugliness of our day. In spite of this ugliness, we are invited to see the goodness, the beauty, and love where there is hate and violence towards those different from us, where there is destruction from hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and wildfires, where there is poverty, suffering, war, and the destruction of creation. Can we, this season, not to just see the ugliness but beauty, goodness and life, and share it with people around us? Can we allow our gaze see the ugliness and the ashes of this world transformed?
John O’Donohue, in Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, says, ‘If our style of looking becomes beautiful, then beauty will become visible and shine forth for us…. When we beautify our gaze, the grace of hidden beauty becomes our joy and our sanctuary.’ (p. 19) He continues, ‘When beauty touches our lives, the moment becomes luminous. Theses grace-moments are gifts that surprise us. When we look beyond the moment to our life journey, perhaps we can choose a new rhythm of journeying which would be more conscious of beauty and more open to inviting her to disclose herself to us in all the situations we travel through.’ (p. 23)
In Laudato si’, Pope Francis calls us, to approach Mother Earth (including all living things) with an attitude of awe and wonder or ‘contemplative gaze’ rather than acting like masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters who cannot set limits on immediate needs, we feel intimate connections with all that exists, and care can well up spontaneously. Francis ‘knows that something invariably stirs in us when we stop to look around us with eyes of wonder; what he calls ‘the contemplative gaze’ or loving look where we begin to see more deeply into the beauty of ‘ordinary things’. Noticing our surroundings, God’s creation, people, and all other living things provides an opportunity to see the beauty, the goodness and love. This leads to compassion and care for all living things which is extended towards others, even strangers. Lent, like Laudato si’, reminds us that we all share one common home and need to recognise the inherent sacredness, goodness, and value of the material world; that we share a small, interconnected planet which is realised in ‘relationship’ with all creation and the Creator.
There are always forces, or spirits, working to mitigate any connectedness or reconciliation. In the gospel, Jesus expresses a firm ‘no’ to all that would disengage his life and ministry from God’s life and love. The call at creation is ‘be human’ and in the gospel we see how that is challenged by the temptation to abuse power, to close ourselves off from the hungers of the human family.
In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis also draws attention to the forces impacting toward isolationism and populist ideologies. At present more countries are viewing with international agreements with suspicion or ignoring them with regard to treaty obligations related to migration, criminal matter with the International Criminal Court, climate targets, or the rights of the child. Isolationism and individualism betray the common good.
Pope Francis repeatedly underscores pervasive ideological threats to our social instincts, as well, convincingly indicating how self-absorption fuels both apathy and hardened insulation or group preservation. It leads to what Francis calls global indifference. His attention to the anesthetizing effects of indifference urges a recognition of our fundamental relatedness in light of the harm that borders wreak. Hence Fratelli Tutti’s charge to develop “antibodies” of social friendship remains vital, given the infectious forces that serve to exclude, exploit, and isolate.
Pope Francis’ own gestures of solidarity with migrants have been central to his papacy. He has thereby confronted walls “in the heart” as well as “on the land.”
The temptations of Jesus raise two questions for us: ‘Who are we?’ and ‘What are we to do?’ It questions an individualistic view of God who through Jesus directs our attention to seek beyond just our needs and towards the world. Jesus’ passion was reflecting the extravagant love of God to those who were desperate to receive it. Jesus clearly states in the gospel he has come from God for others; to serve humanity and not his own physical, privilege, and powerful self. It is a strong message for the church that builds ‘within itself’ and ‘beyond itself.’ It cannot ultimately insulate itself from the world.
Can we put boundaries on our desires for power, wealth, or privilege? Will we serve ourselves or define ourselves by our relationship to people who have no bread and only stones available to them. Can we imagine how they might long for a ‘miracle’ of generosity in the hearts of God’s people?
Jesus saw the everyday face of temptation and the pull of illusion. As for us, they were real and powerful. These temptations hounded him throughout his life but continued to live the goal of his clearly defined ministry: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor’ (Luke 4:18-19).
We must be prepared to be misunderstood if we are to be at the service of those who captives, poor, oppressed. This is precisely the challenge before the churches at this time of our history in this nation. Will they stand with those who are oppressed and captives or look away? The world’s definition of success and security cannot influence our actions and decisions. God’s reign of justice does not come about by us alone but with God present with us.
Lent then is not so much the giving up of things but remembering God is with us and calls us to focus once on others, including our real or perceived enemies, and try to see the beauty and goodness in them. The focus is on God’s care, protection and provision for God’s people and Jesus embraces different values – not issues of entitlement, security, power, and consumption.
In Laudato si’ (#207), Pope Francis challenges us, ‘As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning… Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.’ Francis continues, ‘We are always capable of going out of ourselves towards the other. Unless we do this, other creatures will not be recognized for their true worth; we are unconcerned about caring for things for the sake of others; we fail to set limits on ourselves in order to avoid the suffering of others or the deterioration of our surroundings. Disinterested concern for others, and the rejection of every form of self-centeredness and self-absorption, are essential if we truly wish to care for our brothers and sisters and for the natural environment.’(LS #208)
So, may we contemplate and learn from Jesus how to be faithful to our God, our sisters and brothers and all Creation.
Holy Companion of our wilderness wandering,
draw near to us and give us strength.
Remind us of the ways in which you have always
been a God of liberation for the alienated and lost.
Lead us to embrace our vocation
to authentically serve you and one another,
reaching beyond ourselves to empower the powerless. Amen.
from Out in Scripture