February 22 - First Sunday of Lent : Knitting and reconciling creation together (2nd Sermon)

 

First Reading  Genesis 9:8-15
God establishes a covenant with Noah, giving a rainbow as its sign.

Responsorial Psalm  Psalm 25:4-5,6-7,8-9
A prayer praising God for his covenant

Second Reading  1 Peter 3:18-22
In our baptism, we are saved through Christ's death and Resurrection.

Gospel Reading
Mark 1:12-15

Saint Mark gives us this magnificent icon that’s stands at the heart of our Gospel reading. How wonderful for us to listen to this at the first Sunday of Lent. Listen to this: “The spirit drove Jesus out into the desert. He was among wild beasts. And the Angels ministered to him”. It’s a way of telling that Jesus is reconciling the whole creation with God and one another, Do you see how Jesus is knitting creation together? The spiritual and the material are now linked. The angels and the beasts are connected through him. He is the one definitively who listens to God and therefore, kind of fact, the knitting together of all of creation. He is the definitive Noah’s ark. This is what happens to us when we sin and refuse to listen God’s Word. It divides us. Your public life is split from your private life. You become a mess, a jumble of contradictions.  This is what happens when you stop listening to God. Your soul, to use classical language, is set against your body. Jesus is the one who reconciles the angels and the beasts. See what I mean? Jesus is the one who brings together, the spiritual and the material. When you surrender to him, then everything in you find its proper place. This zoo of worrying animals in you becomes the unity. And this is what the desert and the Lent is all about.