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 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.
Remember your mercy, Lord,
and the love you have shown from of old.
In your love remember me,
because of your goodness, O Lord.
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.
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 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.’
Reflection
The Psalmist longs to do the will of God, as did Noah in the ancient epic, and as did Jesus himself who lived from every word that comes from the mouth of God. The Psalmist trusts in God’s love and so trusts that the way marked out by God is the wisest way to live, the way that will best lead to life. He makes three points all of which are relevant to us today.
The first point is that this way is indicated through tradition. We do not have to discover it all on our own. God has been saving people for a long time. The saints have a lot to teach us. We are not alone, and the example of their beautiful lives and the wisdom that they have left us is one powerful way in which God reveals to us his will.
The second point is that if we sin, and so lose the way, God will always be there calling us back and breathing the breath of his Spirit into us to guide us along the right way. This is the Good News of which Jesus speaks in the Gospel as he calls his contemporaries to take stock of where they are, and to open their minds and hearts to the Good News. Lent is a very special time for us to do this.
The third point is that to be open to God’s saving grace we need to be humble and to recognise our need for grace. We call this virtue faith. We are invited as we begin our Lent, to name the kind of chaos that threatens to engulf us, and to pray earnestly for the faith needed to respond to God’s invitation to enter the ark, that is to say the inner temple of our bodies, there to live in growing communion with God.
Fr Michael Fallon msc
