First Sunday of Lent
Memory of Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072). Faithful to his monastic vocation, he loved the entire Church and spent his life reforming it. Memory of the monks in every part of the world.
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Homily
Last Wednesday, while the priest was putting ashes on our foreheads, he said: "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." With those words and that gesture we began the journey of Lent which leads towards Easter. The awareness of our weakness, our fragility, and our misery is truly the first step we must take to draw nearer to the Lord. "Remember that you are dust," the priest told us. We feel like these words are severe. And yet, they are necessary in a world that falsely tries to cover up every form of weakness and does everything to exalt strength and self-sufficiency. But in truth, every life is fragile. It does not take much for us to become sick in heart or spirit. The Lord, however, does not abandon us to our destiny of weakness. It is written, in fact, that "the Lord raises up the poor from the dust" (1 Sam 2:8). There is also a proclamation of joy in Lent: Easter of Resurrection is not far off. The dust that was Jesus’ body is resurrected - we are walking towards Easter. On that day, our weakness, even in its most extreme form (death), will be defeated.
The season of Lent is a good time for us to recognize our weakness and sin, but it is also a good time to contemplate the mercy and protection of the Lord. Yes, we who are as fragile as dust are taken by God and reformed and recreated, just as God did with Adam. The first step is recognizing our need for help and turning our prayer to God. We heard from the book of Deuteronomy what happened to Israel: "When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, we cried to the LORD... the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and ... gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey" (Deut 26:6-9). Ancient Israelites would recite these words during the spring feast of the first fruits while making their offering to the priest. It was a recognition of God’s powerful and liberating mercy. Today, as we walk towards Easter, let us make these words our own.
The Gospel of the temptations traditionally opens the Lenten season, even if the temptations to which the evangelist refers happened at the end of the forty days of fasting, when Jesus was at the end of his strength. Luke writes that it was "then" (when Jesus was hungry) that the devil tempted him. In effect, temptation - all temptation - insinuates itself into the folds of our weakness and our fragility, so that when it does not fascinate us, it at least seems reasonable. What is fairer than giving someone who has not had any food for forty days something to eat? The first temptation is very natural: "Command this stone to become a loaf of bread." And it is just as normal to want to possess the kingdoms of the earth. "To you I will give this glory and all this authority;" all Jesus had to do was prostrate himself. To how many things do we prostrate ourselves without a second thought! The temptation to blame God when he does not protect us the way we would like is also quite common. "Throw yourself down and the angels will protect you." It is the temptation to put God at our service and not vice-versa, or to blame God for the evil we experience.
The three temptations are emblematic, and in some ways they summarize all the temptations that every man and woman undergo in the course of their lives. Jesus himself was not tempted only that time (in the first verse the evangelist writes that Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit where, for forty days, he was tempted by the devil). Luke also notes that the tempter withdrew from Jesus "until an opportune time:" the garden of Olives and the cross, certainly. Jesus made himself like us in every way, even in our temptations, but he overcame them. How? By referring to the Word of God each time. The three responses to the three temptations are themselves emblematic. The Word of God is our strength: as weak as we are, we can overcome the evil one. The Lenten season is a good time for us to rediscover the strength of the Word of God in our weak lives. Truly, "one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4).
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
