Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR B FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT - 9.3.03 Gen 9,8-15; 1 Pet 3,18-22; Mk 1,12-15 Dust and Ashes Desert Experience. Bush-fires: no one -better than we Australians- understands the horrendous devastation brought by bush-fires: absolutely nothing is left on the trail of exploding trees and melting surfaces; entire regions are turned into wasteland and every form of life is turned into ashes. For us in Australia -and lately, even in our backyards-, the threat of bush-fires brings people together: instantly thousands of fire-fighters gather; nationally all other issues are set aside, State-wide the latest equipment is brought in; and locally every facility is made available, in an effort to contain the destructive path across thousands of hectares, & in the hope that lives may be saved & properties spared. We know that over the millennia, much of Australia’s wasteland -from the wilderness of ‘Nullabor’, to the vast deserts of our ‘Red Centre’- is the result of relentless droughts, fires & devastation. However, the sobering concept of ‘Desert’ has played -from time immemorial- a significant role in all religions -including Christianity-, in the struggle for survival. It’s natural for spiritual people to sense that life is like living in a desert, as life itself starts from dust and ends into dust. The awareness of being ‘dust and ash’ has its own peculiar logic, mind-set and world-view. Inaccessible as it is, the desert is a hostile environment, where survival is difficult, and at the same time, where our human heart withdraw in search of aloneness away from the world’s ‘rat-race’ (The Greek for desert is ‘heremos’ = hermitage). So for Lent each year, we -like Jesus & the Baptist- are called to the desert experience in search of inner peace & harmony; but also to engage in combat with the relentless forces of evil. Here, we are confronted with the awareness, that evil (like a bush-fire) creates destruction, decay, desolation; leaving behind a trail of death, obsolescence and futility; and at the same time we are invited to come to terms with the contradictions, discontent and God-forsakenness of life. Ash Wednesday’s motto sums it up : "Remember Man (‘Man’-in Latin ‘Homo’-, comes from ‘Humus’ meaning dirt, dust, soil) remember ‘man’, that you are dust and into dust you shall return". Fast, sackcloth & ashes. Each year we start the discipline of Lent with an appeal for asceticism, in the form of prayer & fast, self-denial & almsgiving. Jesus himself had his 40 days of fasting before starting his ministry of preaching & healing. The desert experience has its own wisdom, urgency and awakening. In religious language, the desert -with its connotation of waste & vastness- is the place where all forces hostile to life (& death itself!) abide. The very word ‘waste’ (Wuste in German, Vastus in Latin, Guasto in Italian...) resonates vibes of decay & death. Lent then, is a special time for scrutiny, when everyone is urged to live with earnestness, conviction & humility. We are invited to trust in God, pray unceasingly and condemn the evil which is in us. The prophet Joel (2,16+) sums it up: ‘call people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even infants... Between vestibule and altar let priests & ministers of the Lord, lament. Let them say: spare your people o Lord’. And the Prophet Isaiah (58,7+) gives asceticism its deepest motivation: only with discipline & self-denial, people survive in the desert. And rather than being a matter of personal survival; it is essential for the survival of all, it’s the reason why we proclaim justice for all: Real ‘fasting, sackcloth & ashes’ must break unjust fetters - let the oppressed go free - share bread with the hungry - shelter with the homeless - clothe the naked - & never turn away from the poor’. ______________________________________ |
