On the first Sunday of Lent, the Church has been inviting us for many centuries to meditate on the temptations of Jesus. And here is the account of the temptations according to Mark’s version, the shortest of all the Gospels. But the theme of today’s readings is neither the temptations of Jesus nor our own temptations. Rather, the central idea is that of God’s Covenant with humanity.
The first reading reminds us of the story of Noah. The flood has opened the doors for a beginning of the new world. And God wants to begin it with the signing of a Covenant between God and humanity. We are not talking about any particular people. It is humanity that meets God directly. No distinction is made between races or peoples, no language or borders. God approaches and makes the offer of a definitive and eternal covenant with surviving population and with their descendants. We could almost say that it is a Covenant with all creation, since the reading expressly says that it is a Covenant with all living beings.
The Covenant has a clear content: “no living being shall be exterminated again by the waters of the flood”. In other words, God is committed to life and in favor of life. There will be a sign of that Covenant. It will be the rainbow that we can see from time to time in the sky after the storms. The rainbow is but a sign of the beauty of creation. All creation, all life, now becomes a sign of the Covenant, because all creation is cared for and loved by God.
The Covenant is renewed in the Gospel where Jesus announces the presence of the Kingdom of God. It is coming. It is already near. The Kingdom is the new Covenant, the fullness of that first Covenant signed by Moses; it is the fullness of all Covenants. The new sign will be the same Jesus, the Son, who died to give us life and inaugurated with his resurrection the new life for all; a life in fullness.
At the beginning of Lent, we meet God as the one who makes a Covenant with us. He invites us to participate in life. He invites us to abandon the ways of death. He invites us to be converted, to believe in the Gospel, because only there will we find the happiness, the well-being, the freedom and the life to which we so much aspire. Now it is up to each one of us to enter into that new Covenant. God’s hand is extended to us. We have 50 days to think about what our response will be.
For your reflection
Lent has just begun and it is time to convert and sign again the Covenant with our God. Do I really believe that the Covenant is a better option for my life, for our life? Am I willing to renounce my ways of death to enter the Covenant?
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Abridged by Father Alberto Rossa CMF
