06 March 2022 – 1st Sunday of Lent (Year C)

by Fr Francis Anthony

Dear friends,

We have come here to worship God and it happens to be the First Sunday in Lent. It is a period of change in us. We are asking God to help us to be faithful to Him.

In the First Reading, we call this the confession of the Jewish people while they were in the desert and while they were in the Promised Land, they always fall back to “Who are we? Our father was a wandering Aremanian, that is Abraham. And we were migrating and we went to Egypt, there we suffered. Then you delivered us, then you brought us.”  That was their confession on what God did for them in a very personal way.

The Second Reading, it does not speak of the suffering of Jesus but it goes on to say “Who are you?” You are the one who has been raised to new life because Christ has risen and Christ has saved you. And because of that, you are able to call Christ the Lord. Yes, we take it for granted. I say Lord or say Christ and it is coming from conviction, from a relationship like the Jewish people, they and their God. Like what is our faith in relationship to Christ.

We did not have the liturgical entrance hymn and very fitting entrance hymn taken from Psalm 90(91) and it shows a relationship between God and us. The text says:

When he calls to me (God is saying) When he calls, his chosen one calls, I will answer.

Then He carries on:

I will deliver him. I will give him glory. I will grant him length of days. When he calls me.

That is the God we re worshipping. And now at this Lenten Season, we are calling him, calling him to help us to be able to live our dignity. And what is our dignity?

In the Old Testament, they had been delivered by Yahweh. In the New Testatment, we have been saved by the death and resurrection of Christ. And through this, we have become the Children of God. That is our dignity. And now I’m crying to God to help me, to lift my status. When I call Him, Yes.

Lenten Season will be crowded with all sorts of penance and prayers and all. But basically what are we calling for? That I will be able to live my true self as a Child of God. A Child of God because God chose me. He sent His Son because of His love for me. And that Son died for me because of His love. And now through baptism, I have accepted that Son. Through baptism I am acknowledging: Yes, God has saved me.

And so now I’m crying: “O Lord, hear my voice. That I will be faithful to you”.

And the Gospel text speaks of temptation. Yes. All of us are being tempted to go away from our dignity and fall into our selfishness, our pride, our anger, our hatred, our violence. Yes. We might not be tempted asking to let the stone be turned to loaves of bread. We might not be put on the pinnacle of this church and tell jump and prove you are the disciple. No. Our temptation comes in the way we are living and asking us don’t follow the right path. And it varies from person to person.

So, going back to the entrance antiphon, when He calls (God is saying), I will answer. So let us not be discouraged. Very many of us will be saying ‘I’m trying my best, I’m falling’. What did Jesus say to the disciples?

If you love me, take up your cross and follow me.

As I said quite often from this pulpit, the cross I not one disaster in the family, No. The cross is my struggle to be faithful to that dignity that has been given to me through baptism. And falling short of it.

So Jesus telling us, take that challenge and keep following. He is not saying it is all over. No. Jesus’ words “Take up your cross and follow”. So that assurance that He is there at the end of the tunnel to receive me and He is there when I am in the tunnel groping in the dark helping me to go to the end of the tunnel, the tunnel of life.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 06 March 2022