{"id":1030,"date":"2020-02-25T10:36:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T10:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2020-02-25T10:36:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T10:36:02","slug":"reflection-1-march-2020-a-first-sunday-of-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1030","title":{"rendered":"Reflection 1 March 2020 (A) First Sunday of Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflection & Dialogue:<\/em> Message of Lent: \u201cRepent and\nBelieve in the Gospel\u201d. Dying to Oneself in order to have life in Christ<\/em>.<\/em> Lent is not a time for mere externals, sackcloth and\nashes. It is a period of forty days in which to reflect on the Christian mystery,\non Christian life in Christ, on the dignity and dangers to the human person and\non God\u2019s message through Christ regarding all these truths. All this is done\nwith reference to Christ, the New Man, the New Adam. During his forty days in\nthe wilderness Jesus must have reflected on these truths, and the temptations\nagainst accepting his Father\u2019s understanding of the human person and God\u2019s\nresponse to this through Christ\u2019s own life, his self-emptying, death and\nresurrection. An ancient hymn, in\nPaul\u2019s letter to the Philippians,  says\nthat although in the form of God, Jesus did not think equality with God as\nsomething to be used for human advantage. Instead he humbled himself and willed\ninstead to be found, and recognized, in human form. The reference is probably\nnot to Jesus\u2019 divine form, divine nature. The hymn, rather, is probably making\na contrast between Christ and the First Adam in the garden. Eve was told by the\nserpent, the tempter, that if she and Adam asserted their autonomy by eating\nfrom the forbidden fruit, disobeying God\u2019s command, they would become like God,\nknowing good and evil (Genesis 3:1-5). Adam, in human form, succumbed to the\ntemptation to take on divine form, with disastrous consequences. Christ would\nhave similar temptations but resisted, and became and an example for his\nfollowers, and a source of their salvation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The drama of the first Adam and Christ, the second Adam, has\nbeen played out down through history, a drama still being enacted in our own\nday. Christianity and much of modern life have contrasting views of the human person\nand what fulfilment of human desires is. There is a tendency in a widespread\nmodern worldview to regard the human person, and humanity, as one dimensional,\nautonomous, with a requirement to live and develop one\u2019s own personal and\nsocial life without any input from outside, from God or Church. This is quite\nthe opposite of the New Testament and biblical teaching. Central to this is\nthat God is love, that God loves the world, and has sent his Son to bring this message\nof love to humanity. Christ came so that believers in him, and humanity, have life\nand have it abundantly (see John 10:10). Christ is the source of life, but also\nits model. But Jesus also clearly tells us that finding the life he brings\nentails dying to self in a number of things; life in him entails taking up\none\u2019s cross and following him (Mathew 9:35-47). Jesus stresses the values of\nthe human person. What does it profit anyone to gain the whole world and\nforfeit the integrity of one\u2019s own person? What can be given in return for\none\u2019s self? (see Matthew 16:26). In its reflection on the role of the Church in the Modern World <\/em>(paragraphs\n40-44) Vatican II has treated of this question very sensitively: on the mutual\nrelationship of Church and world (no. 40), what the Church offers to\nindividuals (no. 41), what the Church offers to society (no. 42), what the\nChurch offers to human activity through its members (no. 43). The text is\navailable on the internet. It merits reading and reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            <\/strong>Lent is a call to turn away from false values and turn\nto the Gospel message. The period calls for reflection and devotion. Faith is\nnourished by devotion, personal and collective, whether in parish or family.\nDevotion need not be ostentatious. It can be personal and quiet, for instance\nreflecting on Fridays on Jesus\u2019 call to follow him, and in honour of his\nPassion abstaining from meat (by use fish or otherwise) at the main meal. And\nthere are many other ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflection & Dialogue: Message of Lent: \u201cRepent and Believe in the Gospel\u201d. Dying to Oneself in order to have life in Christ. Lent is not a time for mere externals, … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}