The Transforming Journey! 

Sunday, February 18, 2024

First Week of Lent

Gen 9:8-15; 1 Pet 3: 18-22; Mk 1: 12-15

The first Sunday of Lent invites us to reflect on the ‘inner journey’ as the source of a new life and a new beginning. 

The Gospel in which Jesus enters the wilderness, shows how this period of inner journey and discernment, could be transformative. 

At first, the Spirit inspires the movement in Jesus as he is ‘led by’ the Spirit into the desert. Jesus is willing to be guided and led by the same Spirit that hovered over him during his baptism. The willingness with which Jesus subjects himself to this period of renunciation points to his thirst for fulfilling his mission. 

Secondly, Jesus emerges victorious over Satan and ‘wild beasts.’ The meaning could be both literal and figurative. In the figurative sense, Jesus underwent a journey of transformation in the desert. The spiritual communion he experienced with his Father prepared him for the sort of man he was to become and for the kind of mission to which he would devote himself fully. 

If we assume Jesus’ experience in the desert was an inner battle, Jesus conquered the forces that otherwise disable us. Oftentimes, it is not the external enemies or the weapons of destruction, but who we are scared of, is ourselves. Therefore, the hardest journey for humans has always been the journey inward. It is to cover up this lack that we often widen our external circle of friends and activities, though without much use. Jesus shows how the fruit of the inner journey could be a new beginning, which God has intended for every one of us. When Jesus is battle-tested through challenges from Satan, his resolve is so strengthened that the angels minister to him. 

Thirdly, the fruit of Jesus’ discernment and self-realization is reflected in his missionary commitment. When Jesus encounters the challenges of the desert, wild animals, and Satan, an unshakeable commitment is born not just to proclaim God’s Kingdom but also to present himself as the first witness of it through his words, deeds, life, and death. Who Jesus becomes has its origin in his inner journey, and what we witness in his mission is just the fruit of it. 

The first reading highlights God’s own discernment after the great flood that He will change the waters of destruction into waters of baptism so that sins, not sinners will be destroyed through baptismal waters. 

In the second reading, Peter sums up Jesus’ life and mission, which won us redemption. As a result of Jesus’ sacrifice and victory, we have a clear conscience that can discern God’s will for us. 

If we are stuck for inner journeys, new beginnings, and discernment, we should look up to the pioneering model of Jesus.

Socrates famously said, ‘Unexamined life is not worth living.’

In Jesus, we discover that the power of self-examination results in a life that is lived for others. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar