Fr. Chris - First Sunday of Lent - Homily

"Repent and Believe"
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​“He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the Angels waited upon him.”  
 
It might surprise those who are more familiar with the detailed stories of Christ’s journey in the wilderness which are found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, that Mark’s narrative is just two, brief, rather non-descriptive sentences. But scholars tell us the writer of Mark was concerned with getting to the point: that Christ the King of Heaven had arrived with salvation for all humanity. And how do we access this glorious, grace-filled, holy gift? Repent and believe in the good news!  
 
In fact, scholars think Mark’s gospel was most likely a kind of newsletter or report portioned out in sections, perhaps chapter by chapter, and circulated from one new Christian community to the next, probably in secret, under cover, to avoid altercations with either the religious leaders or Roman authorities.
 
Much like the liturgy of the word we hear in the mass, it was meant to inform, support, motivate and inspire believers in their early worship services. The glorious arrival of the greatly anticipated Messiah and the good news of salvation which he preached was here and available to us.
 
The gospel was not intended as a biography of Christ, but rather as a proclamation of who he is: the King of Heaven, Son of God, herald of good news, promoter of peace, justice, and salvation with the reign of God presiding over all creation, just as Isaiah prophesied in 61.1-2 which early congregations were familiar with.                         
 
So, no descriptions of Satan’s tempting Christ to use his divine powers, no beckoning Jesus to turn stones into bread, nor to leap from a mountain top, confident his angels would bear him up. Because in so many ways, Mark’s gospel was right! The point IS: Repent and believe! This is Mark’s gospel message, simple, clear, uncomplicated. Regardless of suffering and the challenges of life, some of them brutal, we are invited to ask forgiveness for our sins, our faulty focus on the things of this world, and instead to trust in the God who created us, confident he is doing and allowing to happen to us what is best for our soul development.  
 
This past week, a 1964 film called, The Pawnbroker, was aired. The main character, ‘Sol Nazerman’, played by Rod Steiger, is a holocaust survivor, haunted by memories of the cruel deaths of his wife and children in the camps. He lives in a wilderness of unceasing bitterness, anger, and hate, not just toward the Nazis, but toward everyone and everything. The world itself is hell. He no longer believes in God, no longer believes in anything. Some reach out to him, try to comfort him in his torment, but he shows no gratitude for their compassion, only contempt. He is blind to their love, seeing only pretension and lies. The small income he makes off desperate customers is the only thing he believes in. Satan has found a way to pull Sol into his web through Sol’s preoccupation with himself, his anger, and futile survival. Only when his clerk, ironically named ‘Jesus’, who loves him, idolizes him, and calls him ‘his teacher’, dies protecting him during a burglary, does Sol Nazerman come face-to-face with God and the reality of the empty, sinful life, he has created for himself, and his lethal affect on others. Kneeling next to him, Sol holds his clerk, Jesus, watching him die, the only true source of love Sol had.     
 
Mark’s gospel doesn’t tell us what temptations Jesus endured, perhaps because he wanted his readers to reflect upon their own wilderness, their own temptations. So, what kind of wilderness might we be living in? What is perhaps tempting us?
 
Of course, right now we are all living in a kind of wilderness called the ‘pandemic’. But will we be bitter and angry about it, impatient, maybe even aggressive, letting negative emotions get in the way of love, which exists all around us, like Sol did?
 
Or will we learn to be humble, trust in God, forgive others as we seek God’s forgiveness, learn patience, develop strength in adversity just as Christ teaches us by his example, face-to-face with the enemy, in his wilderness? “As our Lord did everything for our instruction”, says St. John Chrysostom, “so he wished to be led into the wilderness … to enter combat with the devil … so the baptised should not be troubled … even if they suffer still greater temptations [in their own lives]. Remember to be objective, not just subjective, because it is not just about ourselves, but about each other. Remember, our children especially learn more by what we do than what we say. Reach out to others as clerk Jesus did to Sol, just as Jesus is reaching out to us in our wilderness. Repent and believe in the good news.                            
 
– Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario