Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT - 29.2.04 Dt 26,4-10; Rom 10,8-13; Lk 4,1-13 Stark Images of Lent Ashes
to Ashes.
Each year, Lent comes with two stark symbols: ashes & desert. From the point
of view of phenomenology of religion, these two symbols give the total span of
40 days: its specific connotation, background and timeless wisdom. In its
essence, Lent is a process of ‘Sorry Time’: a time to induce sincere
repentance for the confusion, messiness and contradictions of our life. A time
to return to God in sorrow, to ask & receive forgiveness of each other; a
time to be renewed in well-being of body & soul.
“Ashes & Dust” are powerful signs: from time immemorial, in all
ancient religions, they have pointed to the fragility of our human condition. In
our Catholic Church, the ‘Blessing
of Ashes’ and the prayer-service of
Ash Wednesday is -and has been for over 1000 years- a sort of ‘sacramental’.
On this day, the ashes -obtained from palm & olive branches, that had
been blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year- are blessed & placed on
the foreheads of our people, while these words are pronounced: ‘Remember that
dust you are and to dust you return’ (Gen 3,19). For those who enter the
spirit of Lent, ashes are a silent, powerful reflection.
They fill us with humble recognition of how short & futile, transient
& obsolescent is our span of life here on earth. They urge us to be truly
wise about the time-span allotted to us: not wasting it and indeed treasuring
it, since what we have, while we have it, will not last. Saints and Wise people
invite us to repent, pray for mercy, fast ‘in sackcloth and ashes’. Ashes
stand for utter nothingness & meaningless-ness: how foolish are the people
who make a God for themselves, out of money or power or any material idol. These
people feed on ashes and dust, since what they adore is utter nothingness and
will turn into ashes & dust. At the same time ashes are a sign of
purification, integration & resurrection, to which we are restored as we
move to Easter. Desert
(Gr.Eremos).
In religious language, ‘Desert’ has many meanings, all charged with energy:
it means an isolated, far away place, but also the wilderness as lifeless waste.
It stands for a place of temptation: packed with contradictions, discontent
& grumbling. It’s a setting never to be separated from the Israelites of
old, when they rebelled & grumbled
against God & Moses. For Lent each year, we are drawn to such a ‘place of
temptation’, to fast & hunger & thirst for justice; and there spend a
period of honest, hurting soul-searching scrutiny. And today, we celebrate
against this setting ‘the temptations of Jesus in the desert’. Luke’s
advice is this: evil is powerful and for real. Jesus himself went out to
confront the power of evil, not by smashing it with his greater power as God,
but simply by relying in the Word of God. By this he tells us that when we face
evil, any evil, and are pressed by temptations of any kind, we have no chance;
the only way to be strong & faithful, is to trust in the word, power &
grace of God as Jesus did & the Saints after Jesus’ example. In the desert
of our life, we are tempted, tested, challenged, confronted to discover who
we are as human beings, and chose if & how we want to be God’s
sons in God’s sight. So we pray, fast & trust. This year as ever,
Lent will require willpower & discipline of mind & body, as well as a
longing to understand the meaning of Christ’s death & resurrection and
reflect it in our life (Collect). A
question for me: right now, where is my ‘desert’? What challenges of
mind, heart & deed are confronting me? what evils? what changes are needed?
Knowing how weak I am, let me ask
for grace & strength and with Jesus pray: ‘lead us not into temptation’. ______________________________________ |
