First Sunday of Lent Cycle B
02/18/2021
The story of the destruction of mankind through the flood, which was God attempting to purify world of the sinful human race.
Noah, after the flood, offers the sacrifice of Thanksgiving to God for having spared him and his family.
God accepts the sacrifice of Noah and promises him that He would never again punish the earth because of man's sins.
This story shows that, in spite of human sin, God would never again completely wipe us off the face of the earth.
God is always willing to give a second chance to each of us when we see our sins, our failures.
Obviously God does not want us, his creation,to die but to repent and to accept His great compassion and mercy.
Because of our baptism we are to show that same compassion and mercy of God to others, even to the enemy.
During this season of Lent we are called to look at our own failures, our sins and to embrace God's great mercy and love.
When Noah was instructed by God to build the ark he listened and followed his directions so that he and his family could be saved from the destruction that was to come through the flood.
During this season we too are called to look deeply at ourselves. For God's mercy to comes to us we have to see our failures, our sins. There is such a temptation to not want to do this and to think that we are not so bad compared to others and so we failure to take Lent seriously.
Some of the early Christian writers saw the ark as the church, the place where one could find safety from sin, the flood waters which were a symbol of sin.
That should give each of us courage, knowing that the church is the place where we can find safety, the forgiveness of sin, the flood water of sin, through Jesus Christ.
Peter writes his letter to newly converted and persecuted Christians and to remind them that Christ died for them, that Jesus excepted suffering and death for forgiveness of our sins.
He encouraged them to not be afraid of the struggles, rejections, persecutions that each of them were facing.
That same message is given to each of us.
In the face of our struggles, our difficulties, our sufferings, we too, because of our baptism, are called to be the presence of Christ, and that each of us too will be faced with struggles and difficulties. Lent is a time when we can look at ourselves and see if we are willing to be the presence of Christ especially when the going gets rough.
Video Clip on Gospel...Fr. Greg Fiedman
The opening lines of this Gospel tell us that Jesus went into the wilderness, his Lent for 40 days and was tempted.
Each of us during this period of Lent of forty days are led into the desert of our lives, hopefully to reflect on our failures, our sinfulness.
That can be very difficult because it is so easy to think that because we are faithful by going to church on Sunday we do not sin or that others sin much more than we do.
Hopefully the practice of Lent is a time when we discover more deeply our own failures, our own sinfulness.
We are called during Lent to fast, to pray, and to give alms.
These practices, especially during Lent, can help each of us to see our own failures and to ask for forgiveness and for conversion.
It is so easy in a world today to think that we have given up enough, that we have fasted already and that we do not need to give up or fast from anything at this point in our lives. What a deception.
We might also think that we pray enough; that we go to church enough, and so we believe there is no necessity to pray anymore or any differently.
We might even be tempted to listen to a world that says, "charity begins at home", and so we may refuse, or think it's not necessary to give something away, especially to the poor, through our alms giving.
Let's pray that this Lent will bring each of us to greater conversion and a closer relationship to God, experiencing, once again His great compassion, mercy, and love.
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