Mark 1:12-15
Starting Lent
by Rev. Joseph M. Rampino
Reprinted by permission of "The Arlington Catholic Herald"

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Mark wrote to explain Christ
to the new Gentile converts.

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.  He was among wild beats, and the angels ministered to him.  After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God": "This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel."

 On this first Sunday of Lent, the church gives us an incredibly concise and austere Gospel passage from Mark.  We hear the story of Christ going out into the desert after his baptism told in only two sentences.  Immediately after, we hear the first words of Christ's public ministry reduced to three statements.  "This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the Gospel."  Such a terse and succinct summary is shocking.  We are perhaps more used to Christ's longer sermons, his grand parables, his conversations with his disciples, or narratives of his miracles, filled with nuance and broad grounds for interpretation.  Such a brief and dry telling of the story as we receive today might unsettle us. 

Of course, at the beginning of this Lenten season, such shock is of great benefit for us.  Throughout the course of the year, so many matters crowd our lives.  Our relationships bring with them all their many obligations, each day carries with it myriad tasks, we have our work, our plans, our goals, our worries and our concerns.  Outside of our personal affairs, we have all the news of the nation and world that compete for their own portion of our attention.  In the midst of all this hustle and multiplicity, we might look for a Gospel that addresses everything, that helps us to respond adequately to each detail, with graces and lessons that will meet each demand, helping us to live in the world effectively.  Instead, the church gives us Lent.  At this moment, we begin a time of stripping away not only excess, but the whole pretension of daily life to ultimate importance. In order to help us focus with singleness of purpose, with total devotion of mind and heart on Christ who has loved us, the church conveys to us Christ's simple call.  The time is now.  Christ is at hand.  We must turn and look at him.

This simple call strikes across the noisy world like a crash of thunder that stops every conversation.  Yes, our daily concerns matter, and yes, God cares about them in great detail, but the Gospel itself, the world to which Christ calls us relativizes everything, and will not allow for any rival in the end.  The things of this life will either find their purpose in him or come to nothing at all.  The coming of Jesus of Nazareth, his suffering and death for us, and his resurrection to bring us into the new and definitive life mean that daily life as a goal in itself has come to an end forever.  It is only Christ who forms the horizon of reality in every possible direction.  Whatever our concerns might be here in the world, even at what seems like the grand level of cities and nations, cannot pretend to be of final importance ever again.  Christ is at hand.  This world of merely human dealings is passing away like morning fog, and real life has finally begun.  He calls each of us this Lent to wake up and follow him into that which really matters.

His call lies behind all our Lenten discipline, turning away from sin, confessing well, fasting, praying, giving alms.  We undertake each as a way of handing our lives and our world over to Christ's care, so that we are free simply to look him in the eye, love him him back, and go where he leads us.  If we trust him and undertake this Lent well, then eternity has already begun for us, and, in a certain sense, we have already stepped into the kingdom he so longs to give us.

Jesus invites us to follow Him, to imitate Him. Knowing this helps us to try to do so without becoming overly focused on the fact that there is something very different about Him. He is God. This should be on our minds as we follow Him, but it should not intimidate us. He really suffered when He was tempted. When we are tempted we should to try to imitate Jesus. This Sunday, we find Jesus in the desert among the beasts being tempted by Satan — with angels (no less) ministering to Him.

Having begun the days of Lent we should be experiencing the way our personally chosen sacrifices feel. Jesus’ example helps us. First, we notice that His “desert experience” was one He began when the Holy Spirit “drove” Him to it. We can be sure that Jesus was supremely docile. He went willingly and whole-heartedly into these days of sacrifice and prayer. We know a great deal more detail about these days from the Gospel of St. Matthew, of course. In a way, though, the sparseness of St. Mark’s account can help us see the importance of allowing the Spirit to lead us into the spiritual discipline of Lent without additional drama. We are called by the church to enter into these days with a willing spirit, a willingness to be renewed in our own spirit.