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1. Genesis
9:8-15
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2. 1Peter3:18-22
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Gospel: Mark
1:12-15
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Suffering for No Wrongdoing
Here we have a story
about a small boy who had the habit of coming home late from school. One day
his parents warned him to be home on time, but he still came back lat as usual.
So they decided to teach him a lesson. At dinner that night, the boy was served
only a slice of bread and a glass of water while his father had a full plate of
food before him. The poor boy looked with hungry eyes at his father's full
plate and with pleading eyes at his father. The father waited for the full
impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy's plate and placed it in front of
himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy,
and smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, " All my
life I've known what God is like by what my father did that night." What
his father did was on himself the punishment and suffering that rightly belonged
to his son. This is called atonement or
substitutive suffering. That is what
Christ did for us. And that is what the Church invites us all to do in the
Period of Lent.
In today's 2nd reading,
Peter encourages Christians to endure the unmerited suffering of persecution.
Unmerited was good not only for their personal salvation but for the salvation
of others, as we can see in the life and example of Christ. " For Christ also suffered for sins once
for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God"
( 1Peter 3:18). Those who benefited from Christ's suffering include not only
sinners who are alive but also sinners who are dead, the disobedient souls who
were swept off by the flood of their disobedient at the time of Noah and who
are now " Prison" In other words, all human kind benefited from the
unmerited suffering and death of Christ, both sinners who heard of Christ and
rejected him and sinners who lived long ago before Jesus came.
Based on the example of
Christ, Peter encourages the persecuted Christians of his community to join
Christ in suffering the undeserved suffering of persecution since their
suffering and death, like suffering and death of Christ, will be immensely
beneficial not only to them personally but to other sinners, both those alive
today and those who are already dead but are detained in "prison"
Catholics call this temporary " prison" where believing sinners are
detained after death pending their final admittance into heaven" Purgatory"
As we begin the season
of Lent, the Church invests all her sons and daughters to join Christ in the
forty-day journey of fasting, penance and alms giving. Some Christians may find
this call difficult to heed on the grounds that they may not need this type of
voluntary suffering. But it helps to know that
suffering, even when we are not paying the debt for our misdeeds, has an
atoning value not just to sinners in our world today but also to those who have
gone before us but are still held up in " prison," which keeps them
from beholding God face to face.
In urging believers to
embrace suffering without wrong doing, peter mentions baptism, comparing it to
Noah's ark which saved those who had
recourse to it. In the course of history, Christians have debated with one another
over the amount of water required for baptism. Is baptism to be done by
sprinkling, pouring, or total immersion in water? Peter reminds us that the
amount of water is inconsequential since it is not a body bath designed to
remove dirty but a matter of conscience.
" And that is a picture of baptism,
which now saves you by the power of Jesus Christ's resurrection. Baptism is not
a removal of dirty from your body; it is an appeal to God from a clean
conscience."( 1 Peter 3:21). Lent is a time of retreat for the whole
church in preparation for the renewal of our baptismal vows at Easter. Let us
pray for the grace to observe the Lenten season in such away as to purify our
consciences and join Christ in the suffering of atonement for the good of all
sinners living and dead.
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