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THE SPIRIT immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." [Mk 1:12-15]

Artist: Victor Luciano Rebuffo

(1903 - 1983)

Buenos Aires, Argentina

SOJOURN, EMBARK, BEHOLD! ^_[1]

TIME OF NOAH

1. In the time of Noah, humankind was corrupt in God's sight and delighted in evil. Because of its wickedness and wanton violence, the Lord regrets commanding man to be fruitful and multiply. [cf. Gen 1:28] Thus God tells Noah:

MAKE YOURSELF an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.... But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

AND OF every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female." [Gen 6:14,18-19]

What does this teach us, but that God is supreme over his creation! He who wills all life into existence holds the power to destroy it.

2. He commands two of every animal species in the world to take refuge in the ark from the "fountains of the great deep" and the "windows of the heavens" which would inundate the earth over the course of forty days and nights. [cf. Gen 7:11-12] Noah's family will shelter in God's holiness; they will not be swept away in the cleansing flood.

TIME OF CAPTIVITY

3. In the time of the Hebrew captivity in Egypt, the Lord appears to the shepherd Moses in the form of fire which appears to consume a bush. Moses approaches the bush and investigates. God addresses him by name from the fire and is pleased with his reverence and respect.

4. Moses, though personally intimidated by the prospect of speaking before pharaoh, agrees to represent God before the Egyptian king. The Lord tells Moses that he has been attentive to the suffering of his people in Egypt. Moreover, he will liberate the Hebrews in Egypt and deliver them to a coveted land "flowing with milk and honey". [Exo 3:7-8]

TIME OF DELIVERANCE

5. In return for their deliverance, God expects his chosen people to demonstrate obedience and fidelity. He formalizes his relationship with the Hebrews and directs Moses to organize the people's worship:

AND LET them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst....They shall make an ark of acacia wood....And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you....

THERE I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you of all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. [Exo 25:8,10,16,22]

From this passage, the Christian discerns a fundamental dynamic: God determines the character of his relationship with man. The Lord reveals the glory of his love to his chosen people.

6. The Hebrews sojourn for forty years with God's light and glory in their midst, paying homage to their deliverer and fearing the Lord lest his holiness consume them. They covenant with God, for they preferred life and prosperity. Israel's covenant with God at Sinai, stunning in its originality and exclusiveness, obliges the Hebrew people to honor and obey God for having sought them in a desert land and plucking them out from the "howling waste of the wilderness". [cf. Deu 32:10]

TIME OF OCCUPATION

7. In the time of the Roman occupation of Israel and the reign of King Herod, the angel Gabriel appears to a virgin named Mary on whom God's favor rests. Distressed but not deterred, the handmaid of the Lord consents to conceive and bear the Son of the Most High by the power of the Holy Spirit. He will be named Jesus. [cf. Lk 1:31-33]

8. Ominously, the aged Simeon appears to Mary in the temple, prophesying words of sorrow:

BEHOLD THIS child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed. [Lk 2:34-35]

What is his message but a premonition of the fire that Our Lord will cast upon the earth [cf. Lk 12:49], a purifying light that illumines the unrepentant world's darkness and division! [cf. Jn 1:4-9]

EVENTS OF MYSTERY

9. The words of Christ are a two-edged sword cleaving minds and hearts, and "before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do". [Heb 4:12-13] Moreover, Mary herself lives under the sign of this two-edged sword. Jesus challenges his mother to love him less as mother and more as disciple: "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?...For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother." [Mt 12:48,50]

10. Awash in events of mystery and contradiction, Mary suffers the senseless death of her only son who dies on a tree as her Lord. Jesus, eternally begotten of the Father,^[2] is executed in the flesh as a revolutionary. God is murdered by man. The pitiless treatment inflicted upon Jesus was commonplace; absent his identity as the Son of God, his suffering is altogether eclipsed by the ominous tremors of civil war which would soon shatter Israel.

WISDOM OF THIS AGE

11. To properly situate violence and futility in the context of faith, St. Paul focuses attention upon Jesus true identity. Jesus of Nazareth is none other than the Lord of Glory. The magnitude of this truth as well as its inevitable consequences is inescapable. Idolatrous leaders, worshipping luxury and empire, crucified the Lord of Glory and thereby sentenced themselves to self-destruction. [cf. 1Cor 2:6]

12. The apostle Paul, writing in the power of the Spirit, declares, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." [1Cor 2:8] The wisdom of this age justifies deceit and violence to appropriate power and plunder the world's wealth. Such arrogance, observes St. Paul, is doomed along with its proselytizers.

SEASON OF GRACE

13. Those who hate the living God deny his authority; they stand in fear of what they deny. The Word of the World disguises itself as a call to freedom and prosperity. The Word of the World is a mask for death and affliction. It is this faithless treachery that St. Paul condemns outright. Making no attempt to reconcile himself to such delusion, the apostle flatly declares, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." [1Cor 2:2]

14. Lent is a season of grace, a time to grow in the knowledge of God. Every Catholic is given the opportunity to approach the Lord of Glory as he passes by. [cf. Exo 33:18-23] Every Catholic is to imitate Moses' words of assent, Here am I Lord! [cf. Exo 3:4] and to peer more perfectly through the window of his heart and be reconciled to Christ crucified. The Christian, ever thirsting for the "spring of water welling up to eternal life" [Jn 4:14] must drink from the fountain of grace and mercy flowing from the heart of the Lord of Glory. The Bride of Christ enters into the Lenten mystery as a Spirit-filled opportunity to contemplate the meaning and mystery of grace in the life of the Church.

MYSTERY'S THRESHOLD

15. Who am I? What is my destiny? What am I meant to accomplish in life? How must people remember me? The scope of these questions is breathtaking. To address one's gaze beyond the things of nature is a spectacular exercise in boldness and faith. That these thoughts can be expressed at all evidences man's proper pursuit of the truth which has as its object God who dwells in mystery and is himself mystery. Without reference to God, however, man's hope of elucidating his place in the divine plan of redemption remains obscure if not actually impossible to comprehend.

16. To perceive one's place in the mystery of God is the beginning of spiritual fruitfulness and the multiplication of "many good works from the Father". [Jn 10:32] Standing before the mystery of God prepares one to cross its threshold. By participating, one enters into the saving mysteries. He submits to the movement of the Spirit, kneels in repentance of his sins, and cries out, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" [Lk 18:13]

ALONG THIS SIGHTLINE

17. To confess that one's destiny lies beyond the things of nature is to kneel in humility to the Spirit of God. Man's origin and destiny is in the Lord. By directing his eyes along this sightline, his object is clear and unimpeded. By deviating to the right or left, however, he risks being devoured by the deus ex machina (Gk. theatre: a god from the machine) of the world.

18. Who can submit to God's purifying love while clinging to his prideful autonomy? Who can be sustained in grace, mercy and love without immersing himself in the Spirit, the cleansing fountain of the Holy Trinity's great deep? The season of lent reminds each Christian to increase his awareness of God. This is to say that one must heighten the fertility of his spiritual readiness.

'WHEN GATHERED"

19. The arable soul receives the seed of God's Word. The tympanum of the heart resonates God's whisper. How does God speak to man in the midst of his captivity to sin? In what circumstance would he intervene? How are we to remain alert? As in all questions of faith, we seek the promised land of a prayerful relationship with Christ, the High Priest of our faith. These words, taken from an ancient Mass prayer, express the joy of the Christian community which experiences communion under the sign of bread:

WE GIVE Thee thanks, Our Father, for the life and knowledge which Thou hast made known to us through Jesus, Thy Servant. To Thee be the glory for evermore.

AS THIS broken bread was scattered over the hills and then, when gathered, became one mass, so may Thy Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into Thy Kingdom. For Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for evermore.^[3]

20. We should cultivate a willing spirit, a genuine alertness to the voice of God. The Spirit of God disdains the world's hauteur, preferring instead to make its home in amenable souls. The Spirit enkindles ordinary souls and burnishes them with the luminous mysteries of God. Through these souls, God makes known his Word and Deeds, declaring his solicitous mercy in the midst of his people: "The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows; and let Israel itself know!" [Josh 22:22]

TO PRAY DIFFERENTLY

21. Our Lord "withdrew to the wilderness and prayed". [Lk 5:6; Mk 1:12-15] He retreated periodically from the demands of his public ministry, sequestering himself in deserted places for the purpose of rest. He did not seek the wilderness as mere escape. He withdrew to pray to his Father! Herein a crucial fact must be acknowledged.

22. Jesus, who knew no sin, withdrew to the desert. There he was tested. There he prayed constantly. There he entered into the fullness of his Father's love. He did not seek obscure geography for its own sake or view the desert as an austere theater for popularizing his ministry. Our Lord retreated to the wilderness to pray differently.

SEEK GOODNESS

23. In the desert, Christ offered himself exclusively to the eternal Father for the sake of their filial relationship, their perfect communion. The Church is herself the beauty of this strenuous wilderness, offering its members spiritual seclusion from the world to "appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ". [1Pet 3:21]

24. Do you fully grasp that the Father knows your every thought? To be granted a hearing before our heavenly Father, should you not be praying always? During the forty days of Lent, are you found in the Church as one would enter a secluded place far from the turmoil of the world? What hinders you from seeking Christ who wills to lead you to his provident Father?:

I WILL make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name The Lord; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. [Ex 33:19]

If you seek goodness, mercy and graciousness, emulate the worthy example of Christ. Do this for the greater good of your eternal soul and on "account of the people standing by" [Jn 11:42] whose happiness and confidence are in need of perfection. Where, if not the Church, is the fruitful wilderness, the maternal ark, and the resplendent rainbow? Sojourn there! Embark on it! Behold it!

^[1] Cycle B /First Sunday of Lent /Gen 9:8-15 /1Pet 3:18-22 /Mk 1:12-15.

^[2] Cf SACRAMENTARY, "Profession of Faith", Nicene Creed (1985).

^[3] THE DIDACHE, trans. James A. Kleist SJ, no. 9. Ancient Christian Writers, eds. Johannes Quasten, STD, et al., vol. 6 (New York: Newman Press, 1948) 20.