OMELIE / Omelie EN

18 feb 2024

18/02/2024 - 1st Sunday of Lent - B

18/02/2024 - 1^st Sunday of Lent - B

Reading 1 GEN 9,8-15 Psalm 24 Reading 2 1PT 3,18-22 Gospel MK 1,12-15

Saint Peter writing to the community of his faithful people, talks about the water of the Flood as waters which bring salvation. That water, in fact, while it was purging the whole world of evil things and people, it was also saving from destruction and death Noah and his family: in fact, this man had listened to the Word of God and he had obeyed, weathering the despise and the mocking of everyone.

That water, while it was destroying and purging the disobeying Earth of evil, it was a tool of salvation for the obedient and meek man. He could enjoy God’s friendship, nay, thanks to him all men today still can count on that promise of blessing from the Omnipotent.

To that same water Saint Peter refers talking about Jesus, who went down to hell to bring the news of His coming also to those sinners who in Noah’s times had refused to believe. They represent all the men who have never received the news of the Father’s love, both those who follow worldly religions and all those who die before receiving the Baptism. If God will take pity on the sinners and save them, He will do so thanks to the sacrifice and the offering Jesus Christ has done of Himself. He will save them thanks to the Baptism in which they will be welcomed like in a mother’s womb to receive a new life, the life of the divine love Jesus has lived on the cross and spread around Himself with His breath of Risen.

It is He who has found again the path of obedience to God, the path left by Adam and Eve in the day in which they have listened to the seduction of the serpent.

Jesus has persevered forty days in the desert, tempted by Satan: the latter was pushing Him to leave that place in which He could meet God, the God who had enticed Him to come to the garden to talk to His heart. The tempter was pushing Him to take for Himself the glory and the power among men, to use to His own advantage the resources of earth, even to look at using magic powers. But Jesus remained in the desert, persevered in His searching for God, for His Word, like Moses, and for His strength like Elijah.

The temptations of disobedience presented by the enemy are defeated by the Lord, who had entered the waters become the tomb of men’s evil, and He had left them after having made them holy and ready to be the womb giving life to the children of God.

Jesus stays in the desert to fight for us, perseves in the difficulties represented by the aversion and the danger of feral beasts, wins over the lies and the tricks of Satan. He starts on the path going back to the Father, and He becomes shepherd and guide for us, so we can join Him in going back.

He is the only one who can guide us safely. This is why He can announce humbly and frankly that we need to believe His Word to repent and reach the Kingdom God has prepared for us. To believe the Gospel is to enter a new interior dimension: we will not gain salvation with our strengths and with our efforts, but we will receive it as a free gift from the Father, and we will receive it by welcoming Jesus, sent by Him as the life, the truth and the way!

Guided by Jesus we will go through the time of Lent with meekness and firmly, listening to the Word of God and pledging ourselves to match Him with the fasting and the adoring prayer.