REPENTANCE BRINGS ABOUT THE KINGDOM.

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT. YEAR B.
March 1, 2009.
(First reading: Genesis 9:8-15) (Psalm 25:4-9)
(Second reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22) (Gospel: Mark 1:12-15)


REPENTANCE BRINGS
ABOUT THE KINGDOM.

In today's gospel Jesus announces the kingdom: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15).

Jesus, like a new Noah, brings about a kingdom of life so that humanity may never again be destroy by evil, lies, injustice, war and death.

Jesus wants us to join him in keeping our world from being destroyed again: "Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

The gospel of Mark emphasizes the need for repentance, because evil is actively at work in our world, just as it was active when "Jesus remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan" (Mark 1:13).

Satan was then trying to prevent the fulfillment of the promise; satan continues trying to prevent the fulfillment of our liberation, satan does not want us to reach the kingdom of life.

What is repentance? is the action by which a human being transforms the destructive effects of suffering into liberating effects. Through repentance a person joins in the liberation brought about by Jesus' suffering in the cross, where Jesus transformed human slavery into liberation, death into life. Repentance transforms the suffering which ends in destruction into suffering which brings about life.

Now, as repentance leads to liberation, repentance becomes a source of joy, the joy of the fulfillment of the promise.

Through repentance we cleanse ourselves individually and collectively from evil, just as the floodwaters cleansed the world of Noah's time.

Today, as we begin Lent, may our repentance lead us to Jesus who himself is the fulfillment of the promise to restore fullness of life to all human beings, the promise to free humanity from all forms of evil.