First Sunday of Lent
Every since I have gotten my smart phone, I have become dumber. I used to be able to remember phone numbers. Now, I have to look up my own number. It is worse with passwords. People are becoming bad spellers because of spell-check on our computers. Technology is adversely affecting human memory. We remember less and less because machines do it for us. The renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that that artificial intelligence ultimately will destroy us.
The choice of reading for the first Sunday of Lent are truly intriguing. The connection between the establishment of the festival of First Fruits in today’s first reading and Jesus’ temptation in the desert in the gospel reading is barely obvious. Yet they are connected. They have to do with memory and true practice of the faith.
Here are my three points for today.
1. Memory Matters. Today’s first reading is one of the oldest passages of the Bible. On a peripheral level it is about establishing the ritual for the celebration. However, all rituals have a deeper meaning. On a deeper level, this passage is about memory. The ritual perpetuates memory. For the Hebrew people, the memory concerns their exodus from Egypt and how God delivered them from their enemies to bring them into the Promised Land. Most people of the generation that experienced the exodus has died during their forty year wandering in the desert. In other words, The people who fled from Egypt were not the people that entered the Promised Land. That is why the ritual prescribes that the offering of the basket containing the first fruits of the harvest should be accompanied by the words, “My father was a wandering Armenian….” The First Fruit reminded the successive generations of God’s intervention on behalf of their forefathers. This passage clarifies for us the meaning and purpose of Lent. Lent is also about memory. Each year, the forty days of Lent, the ashes on our foreheads, the Sunday and daily scripture readings, the Way of the Cross, meatless Fridays, fasting, prayer and almsgiving help us keep a memory alive - the memory of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Lent is not about what we do. Lent is about “who we are” by “what we remember by doing.”
2. Christ at the Center. The Festival of the First fruits prescribed that every family offer the first fruits of the harvest at the Temple. The human instinct is so contrary to it, is it not? Our instinct is to keep the first and best for us and give the left-overs to others. The command to offer the first fruits to God kept the Hebrew people from becoming self-centered. The Festival of the First Fruits helped people keep God in the center. It was about the genuine practice of faith. Here is precisely where the first reading connects with the temptation of Jesus in the desert. Every temptation that came Jesus’ way was a temptation to uproot God from God’s legitimate place. Each temptation was a temptation to replace God with the self, or power and wealth. Jesus simply would not succumb. Jesus refused to displace God in his life, but rather, gave God what was God’s due. This is the precise purpose of offering the first fruits. What does this mean for us? First fruits were a very tangible way for people to determine their relationship with God. They knew they were giving their best to God. How do we determine the role God plays in our lives? How do we determine the quality of our relationship with God? When temptations come our way, how do we make sure that Christ’s role in our live is not compromised? How do we make sure that wealth, prestige or self does not replace Christ in our lives?
3. Confess With Your Lips, Believe With Your Heart. Perhaps the connection I am going to draw what I have said thus far and today’s second reading is a forced connection. However, it is not without its practical implications. Paul, in today’s second reading says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I would like to connect “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” with memory. The more you repeat something the more you remember it. The phone number you remember most is the one that you dial most. The more we live our faith the more faithful we will become. The more we practice justice the more just we will become. The more often we read scripture, the more often we come to mass, the more often we chose others over self, the more we forgive, the more we love, the more we show mercy, the more we will remember and be good at who Christ has called us to be. I would like to liken “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” with the offering of first fruits. To offer first fruits reluctantly would be burdensome. Lent, indeed all of religion becomes burdensome if it is not inspired by genuine love for God and our neighbor. If our Lenten practices and penances do not come from our genuine desire for transformation then they become empty, perhaps even hypocritical. In other words, Paul’s “If you confess with your lips…, and believe in your heart…” is an invitation to practice (memory) faith in a genuine way (offer first fruits with conviction).
The Eucharist is a memory. Jesus said, do this in “memory” of me. May our memory offer God genuine worship. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph