FIRST WEEK OF LENT B 24

1ST SUNDAY LENT, 18 FEBRUARY 2024, GEN 9. 8-15; 1 PET 3. 18-22; MARK 1. 12-15 Focus: Repent and believe Indicative: Kingdom of God is our end and destiny, and repentance and faith are the effective means to belong to that kingdom and to spread the same 1. Today, on this first Lent Sunday, we shall take a slightly different route. We shall start with the kingdom as the departure point. 2.  Jesus begins his mission and this is well-prepared for. He spends an intense time of prayer and fasting. He prepares himself in a rigorous struggle with temptation and perseverance. 3. This points to a significant ingredient in our life: sacrifice, self-restraint, self-discipline and prayer. What about our preparation, our orientation for our Christian vocation and mission? 4. As Jesus commences his ministry, he proclaims, “Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe in the gospel”. Thereby, he makes it abundantly clear that the Kingdom is the focus of his mission. 5. For him, the kingdom is not a territory, not a political reign or a juridical domain. Rather, the kingdom is a holy sphere where God reigns. 6. Kingdom is more a matter of experience, belonging, relation, loyalty and commitment. Kingdom is there where and when God reigns and acts, and where man submits and commits himself to God, the supreme king and ruler. 7. Jesus not only points to a kingdom-oriented mission, but also points to the essential conditions or requirements. They are “to repent and to believe in the gospel”. 8. These both are the means, as well as the expressions of the kingdom. They become the features and testimonies of one’s belonging to the kingdom. This implies that one cannot be a kingdom-member, unless one repents and believes. One cannot work for and spread the kingdom unless one repents and believes. 9. “Repent and believe” indicate two essential movements of the kingdom: the first indicates a “turning away from sin” and the second, a “turning toward God and good”. It is a decisive step, a crucial paradigm shift, a transition from one realm to another. It is opening oneself to operate on totally changed norms. 10. “Repent and believe” indicate two essential aspects or layers of life: of attitude or perspective, and of action and conduct. That is, primarily ‘repent and believe’ indicate an attitudinal or perspectival change. 11. And this reflects and manifests itself a concrete changed way of acting and behaving. In other words, it is primarily an interior change but flows into an exterior change as well. 12. As interior change, ‘to repent’ involves a deep anguish over one’s sinfulness. This cuts one’s heart to the core for the lapses and infidelities. True repentance is not a mere feeling sorry, not a mere emotional outburst of sorrow. 13. Certainly it is not a load of guilt or remorse. True repentance is profoundly positive. It is humble, confident and surrendering. Thus, one who truly repents cannot but detest sin, cannot but cut off his clingings to it and decisively turn toward God. True repentance opens up to faith. 14. To believe then implies a positive passion, relation, reliance and commitment toward God. It is not only believing-that, but much more believing-in. It is not merely propositional but personal and relational. It is something experiential which leads to a thorough existential transformation. 15. If this is the real mission of the edifice of the kingdom, with its pillars of repentance and faith, then it is time to check and see how do we shoulder this mission of the kingdom? How much do we train and orient ourselves to belong to it? How much do we bear the signs of the kingdom? 16. How much do we bear testimony to the kingdom through the marks of repentance and faith? How much do we constantly turn away from sin and turn to God? How much do we become aware that it is not only a mission to others but essentially a mission to our own self? Imperative: One who does not truly repent cannot lead others to repent. One who does not truly believe cannot authentically induce others to believe! One who does not repent and believe, can never be part of the kingdom! ( Reflection 2)  Focus: True faith is nothing but repentance and conversion on one hand, and love and loyalty to God on the other hand. This is truly belonging to the kingdom. This is the mission of Jesus, and our mission as well.   1.       "Repentance"! This is the crux of today's word of God. This is the call of God, the urge of the prophets all through the history of salvation. This is the essential condition for obtaining God's grace, mercy and salvation.   2.       This is the opening theme of Jesus' preaching ministry as well: “The time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel” (Mk 1. 15). Jesus begins his public ministry with the call to “Repent”.   3.       And there are several strong calls for repentance all through Jesus’ teachings: “Unless you repent, you will all perish” (Lk 13. 3, 5). “The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here” (Lk 11. 32). “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes” (Lk 10. 13). “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespasses against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he trespasses against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to you, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him” (Lk 17. 3-4). The proclamation of the early church, especially Paul’s preaching would also include this call for repentance: “turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20. 21).   4.       Now, what is repentance? The basic sense, as the term is used, is “being sorry, or grieved” for something that has been done. Both the Hebrew term, naham, and the Greek term, metanoia, contain this sense of “feeling sorry” and “regretting”. Certainly, a deep and strong feeling is good and needed. It is because such a sense and feeling makes the person realize and regret the wrongness of the action, and the gravity and consequence of it.   5.        However, true repentance is not just that. A mere feeling sorry and grieving is not enough, because often such a feeling is peripheral, shallow, unstable, fluctuating, inconsistent and transient. Besides, it is not a disturbing sense of remorse. Repentance is not a pressing or depressing sense of guilt. Guilt and remorse are negative, disturbing and pressing while true repentance is something positive: It is elevating, relieving and assuring.   6.        True repentance is a deep anguish and pain, over a life of inadequacy, in offence and deviation, against God and others. It is a deep and consistent process. It is where one is stirred within, touched to the core, and struck with a deep anguish over one’s own sinfulness. And it is an about-turn of a whole way of living, in determination and dedication.   7.       Repentance opens up a radical change of life, both in spirit and in action. Thus true repentance is both affective and effective. A sincere repentance would mean a “change of mind, change of ways, change of life”. This concretely implies both “turning away from evil” and “turning to God”. Accordingly, we can understand these two aspects in the call to “repent and believe”. Seen in this integral sense, true repentance is integral to conversion, and leads to be concretely committed to a process of transformation.   8.       Thus, it is very clear why the faith of many is so inadequate. It fails to change a person’s life, fails to touch his interior and transform his exterior. The whole reason is there is no depth and durability of repentance. Mostly, it is limited to some temporary moments of grieving and weeping.   9.       On the other hand, true repentance leads to conversion, true conversion leads to deep faith in God, and that shows itself in a transformed life. This is what is implied in the change of one’s way of life: from being fishermen to becoming fishers of souls. It is not only a new dignity which is the most beautiful effect of God’s call. It is also the concrete evidence of repentance, conversion and faith-filled and faithful life. One who experiences God’s touch, cannot but become an intimate, radical and committed follower of Christ fishing souls for God. This is in fact the spreading of the wings of the Kingdom of God. This is truly the kingdom at hand! Direction: Depth of faith is not merely shedding buckets of tears in a passing emotional distress, and efficacy of prayer is not merely performing or organizing some spiritual activities. True faith is a converted life in spreading God’s reign.