A Homily - The First Sunday of Lent (Year B)

First Reading – Genesis 9:8-15 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 24(25):4-6, 7b-9 ©

Second Reading – 1 Peter 3:18-22 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 4:4

The Gospel According to Mark 1:12 – 15 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Today’s reading from Genesis is an etiological myth pointing to the origin, purpose and meaning of the rainbow. The narrative is wholly metaphorical and cannot be taken literally.

 When you are contemplating this myth it should be understood that God did not destroy the world with a flood. The authors of this myth were trading on a mythological trope that was told throughout the Mediterranean region and the Ancient near east, which recalled a major regional disaster, perhaps conflating more than one “flood story,” while at the same time expressing the hope that such an event will not occur again.

 Know this.

 The flood that Genesis recalls, whatever it was, whenever it occurred, wherever it happened, was not a super natural event; it was an act of nature.

 Remember.

 God has made the entire universe free from divine coercion. God does not intervene in the affairs of the world, or in the lives of human beings.

 Therefore, do not expect God to take sides with you in any conflict, and always bear in mind that God loves all of God’s children equally.

 God does not discriminate.

 God does not pick favorites.

 If you ask God to punish the faithless, you must know that you are asking God to punish you—yourself, because we have all been faithless.

Pray for wisdom and guidance, knowing that God desires that you be well. Lift up your spirit, give your life to God, the creator of the universe, to God who has given everything to you.

 When you contemplate God’s judgement and divine justice, remember that God is merciful. God allowed for your existence even knowing all your crimes; from the beginning of time God has known you, and God foresaw the fruits of all your actions in this life. Even though your crimes may be great, God still loves you.

 Be mindful.

 All the ways of God are kindness and mercy.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle:

 Peter is wrong when he links salvation to baptism or any pledge we might make to the church, or God who is parent to us all. We are not saved by pledges, or any outward acts that we might make. We are saved by grace, which we receive because God loves us.

 Know this.

 Jesus did not die for us; neither did God desire the death of Jesus. Animal sacrifices and blood rituals have no efficacy, they never did. Any theology built on that foundation, even those that treat it as merely symbolic, are false. Human sacrifice is a great crime and a tragedy. We cannot curry favor with God by shedding the blood of innocents. The blood of innocent people and unblemished animals is not a form of currency that we can use to pay back the debts of others.

 Jesus’ death was a political murder. We killed him out of spite.

 Upon Jesus’ death he did not summon an army of angels, and go to war with demons, with Dominions and Powers, in some kind of celestial combat that allowed him to wrest control of the heavenly gates from an opposing army.

 These mythologies are pure fantasy reflecting the world view of those who wrote them, they are not a declaration of reality.

 God is the only power, there are no other powers in the universe.

 We are saved because God loves us; God loves all of us, and every single one of us is saved.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today:

 If we live merely to eat we are no different than the beasts of field and forest, merely following our noses and the hunger in our bellies, ruled by thirst and subject to the vicissitudes of desire.

 It is the teaching of the Church that we can be more than this, that we were made to be more. We were made to look beyond ourselves, to be drawn outside of ourselves, to be able to see in our neighbors another-self, equally beloved by God, and to see in them the divine spark, the seed of the word, that unites us all spiritually.

 It is the hope of God that we may understand this, and that in understanding this we may be transcendent, following Jesus in the way.

 

First Reading – Genesis 9:8-15 ©

'There Shall be No Flood to Destroy the Earth Again'

God spoke to Noah and his sons, ‘See, I establish my Covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; also with every living creature to be found with you, birds, cattle and every wild beast with you: everything that came out of the ark, everything that lives on the earth. I establish my Covenant with you: no thing of flesh shall be swept away again by the waters of the flood. There shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.’

God said, ‘Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all generations: I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the Covenant between myself and you and every living creature of every kind. And so the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all things of flesh.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 24(25):4-6, 7b-9 ©

Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.

Lord, make me know your ways.

  Lord, teach me your paths.

Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:

  for you are God my saviour.

Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.

Remember your mercy, Lord,

  and the love you have shown from of old.

In your love remember me,

  because of your goodness, O Lord.

Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.

The Lord is good and upright.

  He shows the path to those who stray,

He guides the humble in the right path,

  He teaches his way to the poor.

Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.

 

Second Reading – 1 Peter 3:18-22 ©

The Water on which the Ark Floated is a Type of the Baptism which Saves You Now

Christ himself, innocent though he was, died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life, and, in the spirit, he went to preach to the spirits in prison. Now it was long ago, when Noah was still building that ark which saved only a small group of eight people ‘by water’, and when God was still waiting patiently, that these spirits refused to believe. That water is a type of the baptism which saves you now, and which is not the washing off of physical dirt but a pledge made to God from a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has entered heaven and is at God’s right hand, now that he has made the angels and Dominations and Powers his subjects.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 4:4

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:12 – 15 ©

Jesus was Tempted by Satan, and the Angels Looked After Him

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.

  After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’

Repent, which means turn, repent and believe.

Believe not so that you can be saved, but believe that you are saved already.

Believe that you are saved and turn, turn away from the selfishness, wickedness and injustice, turn toward the way of love, communitarianism and justice.

The way of God, the path to the garden, it is as near to you as that, turn toward it, and you are on it, and do not look back.

 

The First Sunday of Lent (Year B)