Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."

        And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Today's Epistle is from the 1st Letter of Peter beginning at the 3rd Chapter, and the 18th Verse:

        For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

        Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

+ A Reading from the Gospel of Mark, beginning at the 1st Chapter, and the 12th Verse:

        The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel."

        Today is the first of four sundays in Lent -- the Church's time of preparation for the Resurrection.  In bygone years, we tended to see it as primarily a penitential season, wherein we punished ourselves with asceticism and penance -- hair shirts and fasting.

        While we do not totally discount such things nowadays, we tend to look more at the expectation of the Resurrection than the Suffering and Death of Jesus.  The Crucifixion was a necessary step, but we are saved by the Risen Lord, not by the blood He shed on the ground.

        In today's conversion process -- called Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults by our Roman brethren -- the Lenten emphasis is on meditation and preparation for Baptism at the Mass of the Resurrection.  Having gone through the teaching process as Catechumens, learning the Faith, they are encouraged during Lent to take the Faith inward -- to pray and meditate on just what it is that they will be doing and getting into .

        So too we, who have "grown up in the Faith" -- literally from childhood, or latterly from conversion -- need to turn our thoughts and eyes inward, examine ourselves, and prepare ourselves for the glorious news that "He is Risen!"  Lent is a serious time -- a time to work on ourselves, to make ourselves ready and open to the experience of transformation and salvation that the Paschal Mystery promises.

        Fasting is used by all human cultures as a way of seeking the inward light.  It is both symbolic -- cutting ourselves off from the pleasures and passions of the sensual world -- and practical -- when we are not satiated (full of food), our physiology changes, and our outlook on the world with it.  When your stomach aches from lack of food (even a bit, in moderate fasting), you turn your attention inward -- inward to your physical stomach, and inward to your feelings and intuitions.

        Stricter fasting can also produce visions and hallucinations -- and ought not be practiced without experienced supervision.  The great ascetic athletes among the Desert Fathers fasted for months and years at a time, and brought back much wisdom and holiness from the experience.  We are not all called to that level of asceticism, but we do need to take time out from our comfortable routines, and drive ourselves a bit harder than usual toward the Holy and the Transcendent.

        There is hardly a person in this 21st Century who is not carrying an extra pound or two, and who would not benefit from staying away from candy & pastry.   We are also very bound up in the often frenetic pace of modern life -- cell phones and 24-hour schedules, and meetings, and projects, and distractions.  As the poet said:  "The world is too much with us, late and soon."

        We need to take this time -- 40 days, not including Sundays -- to reach out and make contact with that Risen Lord, whose Death & Resurrections freed us from sin and death.  Let us then resolve to do a little fasting, and a lot of praying . . .

        In the Name of
        The Father      +
        And of the Son 
        And of the Holy Spirit
Amen.