New Beginnings

 

1^st Sunday of Lent

Cycle A

New Beginnings

The season of lent began this week, and we hear today the story of the first lent. Just as Jesus’ 40 days in the desert were his time of preparation for his earthly mission, which would lead to his passion, death and resurrection, so too we spend 40 days in preparation for our experience of that same paschal mystery in our lives today.

The number 40 is very important in the bible. References to it appear 159 times! It symbolizes a time of preparation for something significant, usually for a new beginning. Moses, Elijah and Jesus each fasted in the desert for 40 days. Moses in preparation for receiving the ten commandments, Elijah in preparation for his journey to Mount Horeb to hear the voice of God, and Jesus to prepare for his earthly ministry. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years to prepare them for entrance into the promised land. Noah endured 40 days and nights of the flood, which cleansed the world of iniquity and gave creation a new beginning. 40 has always been about new beginnings.

And interestingly, those 40 days or years all have a connection to water. The great flood is obvious. The Israelites passed through the waters of the Red Sea when they escaped slavery in Egypt. Elijah drank miraculous water given him by an angel, that sustained him for his entire trip across the desert. And Christians have always linked the water of these events to the waters of baptism.

In fact, in our baptism rite, the prayer over the water is a beautiful recollection of all the places in scripture that refer to and prefigure baptism. One particularly poignant phrase refers to what we heard from St. Peter today is

O God, who by the outpouring of the flood

foreshadowed regeneration,

so that from the mystery of one and the same

element of water would come an end to vice and a beginning of virtue.

 

It’s important that the gospel for the first Sunday of lent is about Jesus in the desert, because his time there was a direct result of his baptism. Something extraordinary happened to Jesus at his baptism. You know the story. After he was baptized, a voice was heard that said, “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”, and the spirit descended upon him. A scripture scholar once said he believed that at that moment, Jesus was virtually invaded by the Holy Spirit. Invaded by the Spirit. The Spirit compelled him, drove him, to action. Jesus gave himself over to that spirit, and he could no longer remain a simple carpenter from Nazareth.

When I meditate on this experience, I imagine Jesus needing to wrap his head around what had just happened to him. His hour had come, and he needed a final time with his Father before setting out on his mission. When he left the desert, from that moment on he rushed headlong towards Calvary, proclaiming the Kingdom of God and drawing followers to himself.

The readings today are all connected to baptism because lent itself is all about baptism. Historically, lent has always primarily been a time of preparation for baptism for catechumens – those adults who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil each year. Lent for catechumens is a time set aside for intense prayer, fasting, and study. However, over the centuries lent has become a time for all the baptized to do the same.

Our catechumens who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil have been preparing their whole lives for this event, whether they were aware of it or not. However, for the past several months they have been particularly focused on prayer, study, and preparation for this very special sacrament. Lent for them has a special meaning. During lent they turn inward to discern God’s plan for their lives, both here on earth and in heaven. They have been driven by the Spirit, as it were, out into the desert of lent in preparation for their new mission. I often wish we lifelong Catholics could have the same sense of lent and understanding of baptism that our catechumens have. I wish we had their longing.

We have this image of baptism being a beautiful little ceremony where a family gets together in a lovely church on a Saturday or a Sunday, with a little baby dressed all in white. It is all so pure and clean and hopeful. It is a time of happiness and rejoicing, a new beginning not just for the child but for the family and the entire church. To that child, baptism is all about new life. And it should be.

But there is another aspect to baptism, and that is death. Baptism is the sacrament of renewal, of washing away sin and death and our old way of life. Baptism is about dying to ourselves, to our sinfulness, and rising again to new life.

Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism in the Jordan and ended with his baptism on the cross. When Jesus spoke of baptism he was also referring to his death. When James and John asked Jesus for places of honor in the kingdom of heaven, he asked them, “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” And St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.”

This is important because for us Christians, life is death and death is life. We understand that death is not the end for us. Jesus’ death on the cross has freed us from death and allows us to share in eternal life. Death for us is not the end but a new beginning. It was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die so that he could rise again. We also suffer and die and we also have hope in the resurrection.

Jesus understood that his baptism would just be the beginning. He knew what the end would be. He knew what would happen to him when he came out of the desert. But he needed that lent, he needed that time of preparation and clarification of the mission. Just as we do. Because we are also called as disciples to share in that mission. We too can be invaded by the Holy Spirit if we allow ourselves to be. Our baptism allows us to be open to the Spirit, and our baptism charges us with a great commission.

Jesus’ final words to his disciples were “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age”. That is our great commission. That is how we share in the mission of Jesus. That is how the world will be transformed.

Live this lent as if it were your first. Live this lent as if it were your last. Live the commission you received at your baptism. Prepare yourself for your mission as Jesus did. Be open to the Spirit of God. Let it invade you and drive you to great faith and great works.