I SUNDAY OF LENT
REPENT AND BELIEVE
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jimenez
On Wednesday, we began our Lenten journey with the imposition of ashes on our heads. What is the significance of Jesus spending 40 days and nights of solitude, prayer and fasting in the Judean wilderness? In the Old Testament 40 days was often seen as a significant period of testing and preparation for entering into a covenant relationship with God. And today we could ask us ourselves: what will we get from all the Lenten practices for 40 days? What will we get for Lent? The answer is: the hope that will we enter into the Kingdom of God.
How will we enter the kingdom of God? Jesus Christ, in the announcement of the good news, gave two explicit things that each of us must do in order to receive the kingdom of God: REPENT AND BELIEVE. When we submit our lives to the rule of Christ and believe in the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, his grace gives us the power to live a new way of life as citizens of His kingdom. Christ gives us the grace to renounce the kingdom of sin and darkness ruled by Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44) and the ruler of this world (John 12:31). That is why repentance is the first step towards the Kingdom of God.
Repent means to change: change my way of thinking, my attitude, my disposition and my life choices so that Christ is the Lord and Master of my heart and so that sin, selfishness and greed no longer reign in me (us). If we are only sorry for our sins because of the consequences, we are likely to return to the sin that dominates us. True repentance requires a contrite heart (Psalm 51, 17), sorrow for the sin, and a firm resolve to avoid the sin in the future. The Lord Jesus gives us the grace to see sin for what it really is: a rejection of God’s love and wisdom for our lives, so too, the refusal to do what is good and according to his will. The grace of God brings us forgiveness and help to get away from everything that keeps us away from His love and truth.
To believe is to receive Jesus in his word and recognize that God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to free us from the bondage of sin and harmful desires, as Saint Peter expresses in the second reading (1 Pet. 3 18). God made the supreme sacrifice of His Son on the cross to take us back to a relationship of peace and friendship with him. He is our Father and our Lord and He wants us to live as His sons and daughters. God loved us first and invites us in love to give our lives to Him. Do you think that the gospel, the good news of Jesus: has power to free you from the bondage of sin, selfishness and greed?
May this Lent help us to repent from our sins and become closer to God, to grow in love, grace and faith in Jesus Christ. Fasting, prayer and charity are the means by which we live out God’s covenant that he made with all humanity. May we participate, even now, in God’s Kingdom of love, justice and peace. Amen.