First Reading
Genesis 9:8-15
1. God made a covenant with us, and “with every living creature … ” Does that reconfigure your attitude toward all creation––“our common home,” including the environment? How ?
2. Why do you think God chose a rainbow to be a sign of this covenant? Was it a sign for future generations, us included, as well as Noah’s family?
Second Reading
1 Peter 3:18-22
1. Compare Noah with Christ: Noah brings people out of the flood into a new creation; Christ to a
new life or transformative experience through the waters of baptism.
2. Baptism is about dying and rising. Do you have any Lenten plans that might impact your dying to self or,
figuratively speaking, rising from the dead?
Gospel
Mark 1:12-15
1. “He was among the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.” What are the “wild beasts” today? Are they personal wild beasts or community ones? Climate crises? Wars? Racial discrimination? Gun Violence? The death Penalty? What angels minister to you? To whom do you yourself minister?
2. In the “duel” in the desert, who wins, Jesus or the devil? What does Pope Francis say about the “last desert,” death? What does it have to do with who really wins?
The Tempter seduces. Indeed, during the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert, the “duel” between Jesus and the devil begins, which will end with the Passion and the Cross. Christ’s entire ministry is a struggle against the evil one in its many manifestations: healing from illnesses, exorcisms of the possessed, forgiveness of sins. It is a struggle.
After the first phase in which Jesus demonstrates that he speaks and acts with the power of God, it seems that the devil has the upper hand when the Son of God is rejected, abandoned and finally captured and condemned to death.
The devil appears to be the winner. In reality, death itself was the last “desert” to cross in order to definitively defeat Satan and free us all from his power. And in this way Jesus won in the desert of death, so as to win in the Resurrection.
Angelus: First Sun of Lent B
Pope Francis, Feb. 21, 2021
