The beginning of Lent, says Father Andrzej Dominik Kuciński, once again asks us questions: does Christ have anything else to say to us? Can we really afford to live without God and his program of salvation for us rather than repent?
In February, Andrzej Dominik Kuciński will accompany us on “Our Sunday”. He was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1978 and, after training as a priest in Bonn and Cologne, became a priest in 2009…
Andrzej Dominik Kucinski
Mark 1:12-15
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, B
Once again we are at the beginning of Lent. Another moment when someone calls us to repentance. Another chance to change coordinates, to align ourselves with the objective of life, to put God first.
This role is assumed this Sunday by the evangelist Marcos, who immediately says the essentials in brief words.
“The desert: in the Bible, a highly ambivalent place: the place of drought and death, but also the place of an intensive encounter with God.”
Jesus has just been baptized. He has just heard the voice: “You are my beloved Son, I delight in you.” It has just manifested itself as the fulfillment of the hope of Israel, announced through John the Baptist as “the strongest”. And then he is led into the wilderness by the same spirit that came upon him at baptism. A highly ambivalent place in the Bible: the place of drought and death, but also the place of an intensive encounter with God and a new beginning that promises salvation. The time spent in the desert is also symbolic: Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days, the people of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years and Elijah went to Horeb, the mountain of God, for forty days.
Reflection on the Sunday Gospel in the video
Do you want to hear from God?
This connection clarifies Mark's perspective: in his opinion, Jesus is not led into the desert to be tempted. On the contrary, it points to God's work in people's lives. God works in silence, calm, seclusion. This is also part of Lent. Do you want to hear from God? Give him access to your inner life amid the increasingly loud purveyors of meaning in this world who want to attract your consumer-oriented attention. But there is also the element of trying. Generally the word peirazomenos – “tempted” – is translated in the sense of leading to sin.
MOT of faith
But it may be better understood here as a “test” – like the test of Israel in the wilderness or the test of the righteous in faithfulness to God in the Old Testament. The divine adversary, Satan, appears as the TÜV of faith. In the book of Job, he even became a member of the heavenly court, who was given the task of testing Job's faithfulness to God. In the New Testament, however, he appears as a synonym for demon or devil and in Mark he is even identified with the “prince of demons”. Jesus' temptation in the desert thus manifests his unshakable will to fight evil. Because the person being judged is placed in a decision-making situation that they cannot extricate themselves from using shaky tactics like, “Actually yes, but maybe not.” Christ emerges victorious from temptation. In his entire existence he is a “yes” to God and to God’s plans of salvation, whatever the cost. And so he is predictable for us. We can count on him not to decide again except to save us.
The kingdom of God comes through suffering and death
Jesus wins, also because he has the most important message to proclaim. In the last two verses we hear a brief summary of his mission, which does not leave us indifferent. Prepared by John the Baptist, who was “cast into prison,” as the Standard Translation tells us. In fact, there is a biblically serious word there: “deliver.” It is the same word that describes the destiny of Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus is handed over to death. In Mark it has another meaning: the fate of John and Jesus is linked to that of Christians. “Being delivered” is the price for proclaiming the message of salvation: the Kingdom of God is coming. It is not a human invention, nor is it a boring conversation about human trivia. However, baptism, which incorporates us into this kingdom, does not confer immunity from trials. On the contrary, it prepares us for them, as happened with Jesus. The kingdom of God comes through suffering and death.
“This kingdom of God has proven its worth and has been washed with all the waters of our life.”
There is no reason why followers of the crucified Christ should be spared this if they are promised resurrection with Christ. At the beginning of Lent we are presented with this program: Yes, you are free to share the destiny of Christ. But before you decide, know: His reality is the kingdom of God that has arrived. Nothing banal. This kingdom of God has proven its worth and has been washed with all the waters of our life. Nothing in your life is excluded if you commit yourself to Christ and dare to die and rise with him. Because the kingdom of God does not mean a place, but rather a relationship dynamic: God's government, not a Walt Disney heavenly palace.
God is not satisfied with crumbs of our existence
This reality requires conversion: “Repent and believe in the gospel.” It is a metanoia, a change of mind or heart. It is deeper than a simple confession of any truth. Because biblically, faith also means a trusting relationship with the person you believe in. God cannot be satisfied with the crumbs of our existence. He wants us whole. Only then can he fulfill his promises to us.
What are we waiting for – the holidays or the next pandemic?
There is a requirement to experience this. “The time is fulfilled”, Christ tells us today. The only one capable of saying something like that. He is different from other teachers and prophets. For him, the Good News is the present, not the distant future. Because he himself is this good news. Humanity is waiting for him, without even knowing it. And that is the prerequisite for meeting God: the question of whether we are still waiting for something. Does Christ have anything else to say to us? Or does he already have to abdicate? Jesus' words fell on fertile ground for many at that time. The land had already been fertilized by the prophets, watered by divine intervention and plowed directly by John the Baptist. People knew something was still pending. There has to be fulfillment. And today, especially in our European latitudes: what are we waiting for? On a new cell phone model? Looking for the next bargain? On our vacation? Or are we already desperate and waiting for a new war? For a new pandemic? For a new economic crisis?
Have Christ and Christianity had their day?
You can become alienated in different ways. The main thing is not to allow Christ, the man sent by God, to be the object of our expectation. Out of pride or despair. He's already had his five minutes of story. Unfortunately, many would say, he failed miserably. He did not create evil in the world, but succumbed to it himself. And what he left behind, namely his church, has accumulated so many flaws throughout history that it is no longer taken seriously. Especially when it claims to assert something valid about people and morality. Someone has to come, a new ideal, a new vision. Christ and his Christianity have had their day.
“Man accumulates so much power in his hands that only ethics slowly reaches him.”
In fact, nature cannot tolerate a vacuum. And so there are many salvation dealers today who promise us something, e.g. B. the prophets of technology. Our progress far exceeds anything previously known. It's more of a rollercoaster ride than an evolutionary change. Man accumulates so much power in his hands that only ethics slowly reaches him. Can we do all we can? Naturally! Says human arrogance. Man must fulfill himself. He is self-determined. His own master and creator. We literally experience this in laboratories where people are reproduced, where human embryos are researched for the sake of progress because they supposedly represent only genetic material. We don't need God, in fact, as we all know, he died. Already in the 19th century, as an honest philosopher pointed out. And another philosopher, also in the 19th century, explained that until now philosophers only described the world, the only thing that needed to be done was to change it.
Paradise on Earth…
As a result, various attempts to build a man-made paradise on Earth have brought millions of deaths, devastation to entire countries, and millions of indignities to God's children. But we can obviously continue to live without God and without his salvation program for us. Therefore, today we move happily towards transhumanism, which promises to become something completely new. We will then be able to reprogram not only our environment, but also our identity as human beings.
despair or hope
How many people live, act and believe in this spirit today? How many people despair of specific people, either because they only fear the worst in them or, conversely, because they unshakably believe in their own creative power to overcome the previous limits of their own nature. Or they allow themselves to be numbed by the intoxication of everyday triviality, which would be the third possibility. Not because they are bad. Maybe because they just don't have hope. And I never really knew Christ. They knew no John the Baptist, no Isaiah, no Moses in their lives. Not yet.
Called to repentance
But Lent is coming and with it the call to repentance. God never tires of calling us to himself. Once again he gives us the opportunity to go into the wilderness with Christ. Not just to fight the opponent, but to reflect on what is most precious in our lives. Renounce the non-essential to rediscover the essential. It is never too late as long as we live to say “yes” to God.
(vatikan radio – claudia kaminski editorial team)