First Sunday of Lent 2024
When we begin a project, it’s always helpful, even critical, to look forward to the end, to the moment when the project is complete. In the Latin, the word we want is perfectus. Ordinarily we think of anything “perfect” as being totally flawless. That is a negative-looking method. But sometimes we can attain completeness even with tiny flaws. I’ll give an example. When one builds a pipe-organ, if all the pipes are totally consonant with each other the music coming out sounds ok. But the greatest pipe-organs in the world have ranks of pipes that are deliberately made out of tune. The sound that emits is fuller, and the goal is better attained. There are many other examples in life and manufacture.
So as we begin the season of Lent this year, let’s look at the end first, and let’s do that with St. Peter, who wrote in his first letter what we consider his first encyclical as bishop of Rome. This was clearly written to more than one of the churches in the Roman Empire, probably only thirty years after the Resurrection. And it’s really about our own Resurrection, our participation in the rising of Christ from death.
Jesus was put to death, but that was only in His physical flesh or body. His Sacred Heart was pierced by a Roman spear, and that was intended to be the end of Him. Any chance of a fake resuscitation by the disciples stealing His body was, according to Matthew, nixed when the procurator had a guard stationed at the sepulcher. But Christ’s human spirit or soul lived on, as do all human souls after death. Moreover, His Divine Person was not affected. Peter affirms that by saying “put to death in the flesh. . .brought to life in the Spirit.” In that terrible day after the crucifixion, the disciples were mourning, weeping behind barred doors. But simultaneously, if we can use human time-words, Christ was preaching to Adam and Eve and Noah and all the other “spirits in prison.” He would release the just from Sheol and take them to heaven when He rose from the dead the next day. We are set on the same course in this life when we are baptized in Christ, because in that rite, we symbolically die with Christ and are raised to the new life. We are anointed and made fit to participate with the Church at Eucharist, giving God right praise as He wishes.
Jesus had a different baptism. Immediately after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, to fulfill all righteousness, the Holy Spirit “drove” Him out into the desert to begin the battle that would issue three years later in His death and Resurrection. Jesus battled Satan and–as the other Gospels affirm–defeated him totally, but not finally. The final temptation would be right after the Last Supper in the Garden. But Christ won that last battle by going into His last day freely, willingly.
We probably won’t have to witness to our faith in the same way as Jesus and the many, many martyrs of Christian history. But we will need to battle, and as we heard Wednesday when we received ashes, our weapons are at hand if we will just use them: prayer, fasting, almsgiving. We are summoned, commanded to give of ourselves in hours of prayer, Scripture reading, lectio divina, fasting from sin (of course) and fasting from legitimate pleasures. We need also to give to the Church, to beggars on the street or (these days) at intersections, and to charitable institutions that work to help the poor rise from destitution. On that point, many of you are hesitant to give money to people on the street. I’ve learned that it’s just as helpful, maybe more helpful, to carry in your car a gallon plastic bag with a couple of bottles of water and juice, a healthful snack or two, and a paper with the name and address of a Christian charity. At an intersection I just reach behind my driver’s seat, grab a bag, and roll down the window. Give the indigent person a short blessing and drive on.
These three tools will help you improve the lives of others, strengthen your own identity in Christ, and help the Church witness the justice and charity of Christ to a world in sore need of Truth and healing. May God bless our Lenten time and brighten our world with peace.
