By. Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB

Typically, the reading from Genesis this first Sunday of Lent gives a divine meaning to one of nature’s beautiful signs, the rainbow. The great flood had passed. After the rains had ceased, the comforting multicolored rainbow was used by God as a sign of a new covenant between Himself and humanity. A flood of that magnitude would never cover the earth again. Humanity and the animals of our world were off to a new start in their relationship with God.

Then, St. Peter is our Christian interpreter of what Noah’s Ark signifies. The flood came upon the earth because of the sinfulness of humankind. We, too, were immersed in sinfulness, but by His suffering and death, Jesus led us out of our sorry state back to God. His life was renewed in the Spirit, and He went to preach new life among the disobedient dead who awaited salvation as sinners waited for the building of the saving Ark. Peter saw the water of the flood as that of Baptism from which Christians are saved by the Wood of the Cross. We must follow Christ into heaven, where He presides at the right hand of His Father. Even the angels are subject to Him.

St. Mark also refers to the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who drove Jesus into the desert to live among the wild animals and be tempted by Satan. The angels ministered to Him. That is all Mark has to say about this event. We are left to gather that in Jesus, the adoring angels recognized a superior being and that Satan could not harm or conquer Him. Then, after the death of John the Baptist, Jesus left the Jordan region for Galilee.

Mark leaves much to conjecture. Perhaps on His journey, certainly after reaching Galilee, Jesus took up the mantle of his cousin John, confirmed John’s prophetic role, and applied it to Himself: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

“The time of fulfillment”: Not only of the prophecies of John but of all the prophets. “The Kingdom of God is at hand”: I, Jesus, am among you. “Repent; believe in the Gospel”: Set sin aside; allow Jesus to draw you to himself. This is a perfect program for Lent, an ideal program to guide us to heaven.

When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself ( Jn 12:32).

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