First Sunday of Lent: “Repent and believe in the Gospel”
This February 18 the Catholic Church celebrates the First Sunday of Lent. The reading of the Gospel corresponds to Saint Mark (Mc 1, 12-15) in which the idea of the “desert” is linked as a preamble to the “Kingdom”. It is, in short, a call to conversion, “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1, 15).
It is a short passage that revolves around two fundamental events: first, the Spirit “prompted Jesus to withdraw into the desert where he remained for forty days.” And, secondly, the presence of Jesus among men announces the arrival of the Kingdom: “The Kingdom of God is already near.” Message from Pope Francis for Lent 2024 suggests that both events make up a single dynamic – the passage from the desert to the Kingdom – and require repentance and conversion. “Through the desert God guides us to freedom,” the Holy Father recalls in his message.
Why the desert? Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that “it was Christ, of his own free will, who allowed the devil to tempt him, just as, of his own free will, he offered no resistance to being killed by the devil’s minions. If he had not wanted to, the devil would never have dared to approach him.” By overcoming temptation, Christ shows us that it is possible to defeat the enemy, that he knows us, and he knows well how and when to attack. Saint John Chrysostom suggests, as Saint Thomas recalls, that, just as “the Holy Spirit prompted Jesus to withdraw into the desert” (Mk 1, 12), the same thing must happen to all those who allow themselves to be guided by the Spirit: there will be to experience the desert. Saint Ambrose, for his part, suggests that Christ chooses the desert as a setting to be tempted not by chance, he does so to also show that the devil envies everyone who aspires to a better life.