ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

First Sunday of Lent, 2006

Fr Ivan Aquilina

In just seven verses Mark tells us so much about our Lord and about our discipleship. Today’s gospel is a triptych. The first three verses set the Messiah on the scene; the next two speak about desert and temptation, the last two sum up the message of the preaching of Jesus.

The verses about the baptism present Jesus as the one who reconnects earth to heaven. In him God and humanity meet. These verses show that the Father, the Son and the Spirit delight in each other.

The baptism of Jesus reminds us of our own baptism: the moment in which we were grafted in Christ. That moment we entered into the fellowship of the Trinity and so we find delight in each other. As baptised, one with Jesus, we need, with him, to reconnect earth to heaven. We do this work as the community that delights in each other: the Church.
In the next two verses the Spirit takes Jesus in the desert. There he is tempted, surrounded by wild beasts but ministered to by angels. Jesus is not afraid of temptation or the evil of the world represented by wild beasts, but he is not on his own, the angels, the community of God, bring him solace. In the desert Jesus is still part of the Divine Community that delights in each other.

Although baptised and so part of the divine life of God, for us temptation will not cease. We need to face temptation and not run away from it, face it in the wilderness of a place apart, in the innermost and unexplored space of our being. There we will meet the wild beasts of jealousy, pride, lust and envy and we are expected to tame them. We will receive the consolation of the angels as a result of love of God and prayer. The angels also signify our fellow Christians. As Christians we never make sense individually but always as part of a community, a community that delights in each other.

Having faced our own devil we than leave the inner wilderness and enter the world were like Jesus we are to proclaim: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”

All this happens in a context of an intimate relationship with God. This happens through the celebration of the Sacraments. Liturgical celebrations, above all else, bring us in front of God and His heavenly company and in each other we find delight. This can only happen in the experience of Church, of community. For a Christian the cry of Descartes: “I think therefore I am” does not make complete sense. For us it must be: “We are therefore I am.”
Cherished by God and His people and sanctified by the celebration of Liturgy we face temptation. Like Jesus we are called to struggle and resist evil. Caught up in this spiritual struggle highlighted in this Holy Season of Lent I would like to share with you some resources for our common struggle.

The first universal weapon in our struggle is prayer. Prayer helps us to stop focusing on ourselves and to seek God. Prayer needs to be private and public, mental and vocal and physical: prostrations, genuflections, bowings and fasting. Spiritual Struggle is also physical therefore some of the weapons must be physical too. Our prayer will lead us to contemplation. Contemplation is the elevation of the mind and heart to God in an act of love, dwelling in His loving presence awhile: delighting in each other.
The second great weapon is the Church. The Church is the living body of Christ. With the Church and as Church we have absolute power over evil, remember: “We are therefore I am.” We engage as Church when we corporately worship God and listen to His word as part of the Church throughout and beyond the world and down the centuries.
The third weapon is charitable work. It is not a question of giving from our extra to those who do not posses what they should. This comes from a sense of natural justice: to remedy the injustice made by the want of our neighbour as in them we see our beloved Lord.

These three weapons take us deeper in what is called Divine Filiation, realising and living in the joyful freedom of being sons and daughters of God. In us God will delight and we shall delight in Him.

This gospel today is a triptych in which each panel refers to our life. The baptism of Christ refers to our worship as we delight in God and He in us.
The temptation of Christ refers to our own battles in life engaged as we are to tame the wild beasts of vices.

The preaching of Christ corresponds to our mission to bring freedom and joy to those around us.

Lent is the Holy Mountain upon which we feel the intensity of our spiritual struggle. As living members of the Church, hearing the Word, immersed in prayer and engaged in work for the common good of humanity we live as children of God. As children of God we are to proclaim repentance and faith in the Gospel.

This is our task; this is the message we are to send: a change in lifestyle by repentance to enable us to be free to live the joy and love of the Gospel of the Kingdom and to offer this joy to those who we come across.