2024/02/18 SCRIPTURE REFLECTION
First Sunday of Lent
- Catherine Shaffer, Wedding Coordinator
We are now a few days into the Lenten season having declared our belonging on Ash Wednesday with the ashes imprint on our forehead. And, we probably have spent considerable time deciding and settling on what we planned to ‘fast’ on in Lent. Whether it be candy, wine, going to the movies or indulging in extravagant dinners, we ‘give up’ something that we love as a sign of our commitment to Jesus and his forty days in the desert. In current times, it has been evolving that rather than deprive ourselves of something, we invest in positive steps doing good.
Whatever path we choose in our Lenten journey (deprivation or investment), it is one that is in keeping with the covenant that God declared to Noah when he instructed him to build his ark. In the first reading today and the responsorial psalm, the term covenant reappears. While I have heard this word many times before and had a vague idea of what a ‘covenant’ was, I decided to look up the theological meaning of this word. So much was packed into this definition that we can embrace today as we are on the first steps in our 2024 Lenten journey. A covenant is a relationship of commitment. I underscore the word relationship, which can mean the way in which people or groups regard and behave towards each other.
In the second reading today, God patiently waited for Noah to build his Ark all while He observed disobedience and sinning. And further in our readings today, the Gospel is the cornerstone of our Lenten experience. Jesus was driven into the desert where he spent forty days being tempted by Satan. Jesus exemplified living the covenant with those forty days strengthening his relationship of commitment to God and an example to his followers.
His instruction to Noah embodied the essence of covenant and both Noah and God pledged themselves to this relationship of commitment. How can we look for these opportunities in our daily encounters and identify how we can develop our 2024 Lenten covenant?