Homily Lent 1B: Let us go into the desert with Jesus this Lent

 Homily for Lent – 1^st Sunday Year B 2021

Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15

Introduction

The desert is a harsh environment: hardly any rainfall, limited plant life and extremely high temperatures.  Why then, as we just heard in today’s gospel, does the Spirit drive Jesus into the desert, where he stays for forty days?

I am reminded of a friend, who enjoys camping with his kids.  Every few months they will go off hiking and camping for a couple of days.  The first time they described to me what they did, I asked them: “why would you leave your nice house with indoor plumbing, a full pantry and air-conditioning to go camping?”

We can find an answer to this question of abandoning modern comforts to rough it, as well as why Jesus went to the desert, by recalling some desert experiences described in the Bible such as that of Moses leading the people through the desert for 40 years and the prophet Elijah fleeing into the desert for 40 days.

Scripture and Theology

As you might remember, Moses led the Hebrew people to the Promised Land, not via the shorter route through the present-day Gaza strip that would have taken a couple of weeks, but via the roundabout way through the desert that took them 40 years.  Surely, he did not do it for the scenery. 

For Moses and the Hebrew people, their 40-year journey in the desert was both a time and a place of testing.  Were they really ready and worthy to be God's chosen people?  And as we know from the book of the Exodus, often they failed that test, by being disobedient to God.  And yet even despite their disobedience, the Lord sustained them in the dire conditions of the desert, providing them with food and water.  And so, the Hebrew people emerged from the desert stronger in faith and ready to begin their life as God's people in the Promised Land.

Similarly, with the prophet Elijah, from the first book of Kings we learn that he fled into the desert to escape the death threats issued against him by Queen Jezebel.  He had thoroughly defeated her false prophets and showed that the God of Israel was the only true God.  Now she wanted his head for squashing her plans to turn Israel into a pagan nation.  Elijah therefore fled into the desert for forty days and forty nights, but only after he was given food for strength or viaticum by an angel.  His fasting experience in the desert prepared him for the mission that God was about to give him, the mission of restoring Israel to the Lord.

The desert experience of Jesus bears a striking similarity to these two experiences of Moses and Elijah, and fulfils them.

·        Like God provided for the basic needs of both Elijah and the Hebrew people, the angels ministered to Jesus in the desert.

·        Like the Hebrew people were tempted to turn away from the Lord and Elijah was tempted to give up on the Lord since all the prophets had been killed, Jesus too was tempted three times in the desert.  The difference is that unlike his predecessors, Jesus did not succumb to the desert temptations, but always obeyed God perfectly in all things.  He thereby proved that he was truly the Son of God sent to begin a new Israel.

·        Like the desert served as a training ground, a place of preparation for a great mission, for both the Hebrews and Elijah, Jesus too emerged from his desert experience ready to start his mission.  But his mission was much greater than that of the Hebrews or Elijah.  Simply stated his mission was to announce the Good News, which is: "This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel."

Our Lenten observance of 40 days is like the desert experience of Jesus.

Christian Life

Going to the desert is something Christians have done throughout history.

First, the desert Fathers, like St. Anthony the Great, literally went out and lived in the desert.  The story has it that one day Anthony heard a Sunday sermon stating that perfection could be achieved by selling all of one's possessions, giving the proceeds to the poor, and following Christ (Matt. 19.21).  So, he did just that and went to the desert to seek complete solitude and to be with the Lord.

His example has been followed throughout the centuries by monks and nuns, brothers and sisters, friars and hermits, whose life, even when not lived in an actual desert, is a kind of desert experience.  I am sure some of you remember being taught by the Sisters and Brothers like the Benedictine Monks, Carmelite Sisters, the Jesuits, Dominicans, Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross, the Salesians and many other religious orders.

When a young man or young woman enters any of these orders it is like they are going into the desert, leaving behind the world that ordinary men and women know and live, to enter a life that demands much from them, just like the desert or the camping trip exacts much from those who dare to enter it.

·        They give up the perfectly normal gift of children and the intimacy of a spouse, trading their mother or father for a mother-general or father-general, and their siblings and children for sisters and brothers, and children with whom don’t share any DNA.

·        These men and women give up the life of autonomy and liberty to enter a life where they submit their will to the will of God mediated by their superior.  Like the desert environment restricts one's freedom, the life of the religious man or woman is no longer his or hers, but God’s.

·        And in choosing to live the vow of poverty the religious men and women literally live a desert lifestyle.  For they own nothing for themselves, sharing whatever resources they have in common, and thus experiencing a life of personal privation.

Now why do they this?  Why do they go into the desert?  Just like their very human Lord and Master, Jesus Christ went into the desert, to grow closer to His Father, the monks and nuns also “strive to follow more closely in the footsteps of your [God's] Son, . . . [so that] constantly seeking evangelical perfection, they may add to the holiness of your [God's] Church and increase her apostolic zeal” (Collect for Religious Profession).  This experience benefits them and us.

Conclusion

The rest of us are not off the hook.  We are invited to follow them and the Lord into the desert for purification and growing in intimacy with God.  It should be no surprise that the period of Lent is also 40 days, the same number of days that Jesus spent in the desert.  We should therefore consider Lent and its three main practices of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, as an experience of the desert.

And we too go into the Lenten desert for the same reasons Moses and Elijah and Jesus did, for the same reasons that religious men and women do.  And so:

·        May our Lenten observance of fasting and abstinence help us experience the deprivation of the desert and so “restrain our faults, raise up our minds, and bestow [on us] both virtue and its rewards” (Preface IV of Lent).

·        May our Lenten observance of almsgiving, sharing what God has given us similarly “humble our sinful pride, contribute to the feeding of the poor, and so help us imitate” God’s kindness (Preface III of Lent).

·        May our Lenten observance of more fervent prayer deepen our relationship with God and so prepare us to live fruitful Christian lives and ministry, strengthened by right faith, sure hope and perfect charity.

And like Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, may we come out of the desert stronger.