First SUNDAY of LENT. 12th of March 2000

First: Gn 9:8-15 Second: 1Pet 3:18-22 Gospel: Mk 1:12-15

THEME of the READINGS

Salvation is the point of convergence among the readings of this first Sunday of Lent. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, who in the desert of temptation and prayer saves man from temptations and sin and calls him to enter the Kingdom of God through conversion and faith (Gospel). The salvation of Christ is prefigured by the rainbow in God’s saving Noah and his family (all of humanity) after the Flood. It is a sign of his salvific covenant (first reading). In the second reading Noah’s ark, the ark of salvation, prefigures baptism, through which the Christian participates in the salvation that Jesus Christ brought to all men by means of his death.

DOCTrinal MESSAGE

We need salvation. This is a constant teaching of the Bible. It is an experience inherent in the life and conscience of any human being. Whoever penetrates his inner being with sincerity, discovers in himself forces, impulses that dominate him, chains that keep him in bondage and do not allow him to breathe freely or fly to the summits that he ardently wishes to reach. Man, imprisoned inside himself and in the prison of a hostile world, seeks a friendly hand, a redeemer, a savior who will break those chains, who will allow him to fly up to the place of love, truth, life. The Bible teaches us that there is only one Savior, God, who offers us his salvation in Jesus Christ. Noah is saved from the chaotic and sinful world in the beginning by God, and with him, like a new Adam, God begins a new creation, the center of which will be the respect for life. This new Adam and this new creation are the figures and images of the truly new Adam, who is Jesus Christ, and of the truly new creation, the center of which is the new life of grace established by the death and resurrection of Christ. Man participates in this life through baptism. Indeed, "The mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’: from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ" (CCC 280).

Characteristics of salvation. The God who created all things also wishes the salvation of all. There is thus a universal call to salvation. The Flood (first reading), which is like a black cloud over the sky of salvation, stops as a result of God’s work, for he lets the rainbow shine forth as a sign of his salvific covenant with all of humankind and the cosmos itself. Jesus Christ calls us to salvation by inviting us to enter the Kingdom of God through the door of baptism (baptism of water and Spirit, baptism of blood, baptism of desire); a door that is open to all, without any exceptions, since Christ has died and come back to life for all. The descent into hell, which the second reading tells us about, is a symbolic way of expressing the universality of the salvation brought by Christ, which extends not only to the present and future, but also to the past. We cannot doubt God’s fidelity, upon which rests our certainty of salvation. With the certainty with which a rainbow appears when the sun begins to shine after the storm, with the certainty with which Christ died and has risen, with this same certainty we are offered God’s salvation. Nothing or no-one will be able to take it away from us, just like no natural law will be able to erase the rainbow from the sky and no ideology will make the historical fact of the crucified Christ disappear. 

Our response. Saint Mark summarizes in two words the response that Jesus expects from us when faced with the presence of the Kingdom and the offer of salvation: conversion and faith. "Repent, and believe the Gospel" (Mk 1:15). Conversion is not a specific moment of human and Christian life; nor is it the reaction to an ideology which with utopian force attracts and dazzles me, encouraging me to "convert myself" Christian conversion is a conversion to the person of Jesus Christ. In other words, it means leaving other ways, as attractive as they may seem, and following the way of Christ. Likewise, the faith with which we are invited to respond is not only a human faith or a purely "religious" faith, but faith in Jesus Christ; in his life and doctrine as a way to achieve salvation. A faith that does not go hand in hand with the mystery of Christ or that does not lead to him, is insufficient. It needs to be completed and enlightened by true faith in Christ Jesus. 

PASTORal SUGGESTIONS

To convert is not a sin. A man who is satisfied with himself, who feels humanly fulfilled, runs the risk of thinking that conversion is almost like a stain in his life as an upright man, something not worthy of his honor or of his self-perception. This is true especially when conversion is not just an inner phenomenon, but must become visible in family life, in professional work, in one’s relations with society. Is it a sin to recognize oneself as a sinner? Is it a sin to abandon a way that in one’s eyes and in the eyes of the others seemed upright, impeccable, praiseworthy? Perhaps we need be told that conversion is not a sin. It is an exercise in sincerity which challenges everything, including pain, at the expense of human prestige. It is not a sin to recognize oneself as a sinner and want to change, to walk down a disused path, even to start one’s life over again after many years of existence. To eradicate fear from conversion, conceived as something horrendous and sinful, is one of the objectives of Lent

To live the baptismal experience. Most of us were baptized when we were a few days or months old. At that time, our relatives organized a great party, without us realizing what was going on. After that, it may be a family tradition to celebrate the anniversary of this event, or perhaps this event was completely forgotten and is mentioned only in some particular circumstance. The Church, however, teaches us that baptism must be an experience that we live every day and that it must be the foundation of a genuine Christian spirituality. To live the experience of baptism in our daily life is like living the experience of salvation that Christ offers us day after day, it is like living our belonging to the Church and consequently, our adhesion to and love for it. It is like living the experience of grace and joyful friendship with God. It is like being aware of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit inside us. It is living a process of spiritual progress and transformation which is repeated each day and only ends when life ends. In essence, living the baptismal experience is living in holiness, whatever our state of life, age and condition, our profession or task in this world.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOB.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].