Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Genesis 9:8-15 – There shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24(25):4-6, 7b-9 – Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22 – The water on which the Ark floated is a type of the baptism which saves you now.

Gospel: Mark 1:12-15 – Jesus was tempted by Satan, and the angels looked after him.

Lenten period is a time of spiritual preparation for the coming of the great Paschal feast. This is a period in which Christians are called upon to engage in spiritual renewal. But the word renewal implies that something went wrong somewhere necessitating regeneration and a restoration to freshness. It is therefore imperative that, in order to renew, we need to trace where things went wrong. This is why, on the very first Sunday of Lent, the liturgical reading takes us back to the beginning – to the Book of Genesis. The word “genesis” simply means “origin” or “birth”. And so, for the Jews as well as for Christians, Genesis is the “story” of the beginning or origin of the world. As you can observe, we did not say that Genesis is the history of the origin of world, but rather the “story” of it (and even at that, the word “story” is in parenthesis). Every civilization asks fundamental questions such as how the world originated, how the first humans came into being, why people die, why there are evil in the world, etc. These fundamental questions necessitate the need to tell a “story” to explain them. It is in this sense that the first part of Genesis (chapters 1-11) is to be understood as an inspired story told to explain the creation of the universe, the human race, the origin of sin and death, and how God intervened in human history to repair the damage. These chapters are called primordial or primeval history to emphasize that they are not history in the modern sense of history. As a matter of fact, the Jewish writers of the Genesis borrowed a lot from texts already existing in the Ancient Near Eastern neighbours. The Genesis story of creation has its parallel in the Babylonian story of creation known as Enuma Elish; and the story of Noah and the flood has a strikingly similar story in the Babylonian myth known as the Epic of Gilgamesh. However, differences exist in each tradition’s understanding of God and the purpose of humanity. Because of these differences, each tradition tells its own story to mirror its theological understanding of God and humanity.

What interests us here, however, is that our Sunday Lenten readings this year begin with the story of the flood. After creation, sin and wickedness entered into the world in such a monumental scale that God is said to have “regretted” creating man. He subsequently decided to begin afresh by wiping out the entire creation. Yet, because of the righteousness of one man, Noah, God intervened. Through the instrumentality of Noah and his ark, God saved some part of that creation by purifying and renewing them in the waters of the flood. Noah and his family, together with the preserved creatures were therefore to be the new creation that will then begin afresh having been renewed. God then entered into covenant with humankind in the form of a rainbow, which symbolizes a universal covenant embracing all peoples and all things. The rainbow would constantly “remind” God of this covenant and so, he would stop any gathering of water from becoming a flood. This constant intervention of God in human affairs runs through the entire history of salvation. And the Lenten period is a preparation for even the most definitive and direct intervention of them all – the sending of the Son of God, Jesus Christ (true God and true man), to suffer and to die on the cross in place of the sinful humanity. His resurrection points to the fact that his death has conquered sin. He therefore symbolizes the real rainbow which stops the flood of sin.

As we begin our Lent, we must go back to the genesis, to the beginning, and retrace our steps. We need to acknowledge that things have gone wrong somewhere in our individual lives. We need to plunge into the flood for forty days and forty nights as it was done in Genesis so that we can get purified and renewed as Noah and his household were. We need also to journey with Jesus into the desert for forty days and forty nights so that we can get tested and trusted, and thus, strengthened. The importance of these 40 days of retreat is that at the end of them God always made a covenant with those who underwent it with sincere heart and perseverance. Let us go back to Noah who took refuge in the ark for 40 days. When the flood finally subsided, God made a covenant with him never to destroy the human race again by means of a flood. Then we look at the Israelites’ journey in the desert to escape the slavery of Egypt. At the heart of that journey was the 40 days that Moses took to be with Yahweh on the Mountain of Sinai. At the end of those 40 days of retreat, God made a covenant with Moses and the people in the form of the stone tablets. Furthermore, Elijah fled into the wilderness and journeyed for 40 days to the mountain of Horeb when he was being pursued by Jezebel for frontally confronting and killing the false prophets of Baal. It was at the end of those 40 days that he heard the voice of God who commissioned him to restore the worship of the one true God in Israel. Also, Jesus journeyed into the desert soon after his baptism and stayed for 40 days in preparation for the mission he was sent for. That mission culminated in the new covenant which he won for us by shedding his blood on the cross. If we must rekindle that covenant, we must engage in our own 40-day mission, and this is what Lent is all about.

It is important to note that, in the second reading, Peter compared the water on which Noah’s Ark floated as a type of baptism which saves us now. But more revealingly, he stated what baptismal water is and what it is not. For those fixated on the quantity of water needed for a “valid” baptism, and for those who waste their time arguing whether baptism should be done by sprinkling, or by pouring, or by total immersion, Peter has given us the answer. He says that baptism is not the washing off of physical dirt from our bodies but rather a pledge made to God from a good conscience. Therefore, the quantity of water needed for baptism is immaterial since we are not taking our baths but rather making a pledge to God. If we understand baptism thus, then it is essential that we engage sincerely in the 40 days Lenten retreat which is a preparation for the renewal of our baptismal promises at Easter. During that renewal of baptismal promises, we shall be making a pledge to turn away from sin, to change our attitude and ways of life and follow God’s way that is love, truth and sincerity. This is called repentance; and this is what we are called upon to embrace during this Lenten season.