14 February 2027 · Latin Rite
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“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” Mark 1:12–13
Every First Sunday of Lent takes us into the desert with Jesus, but each year tells it differently. Mark, in Year B, is the briefest of all: two verses. “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” No dialogue, no list of temptations. Just the scene: the Son, newly anointed at the Jordan, sent by the Spirit into the place of testing. He is the new Israel, who spent forty years in the wilderness and failed; he is the new Adam, who was tempted in a garden and fell. Jesus is tempted in a wilderness and stands firm. And the wild beasts around him and the angels serving him recall paradise restored: the harmony of creation that Isaiah foresaw, when “the wolf shall live with the lamb.”
The first reading opens with another new beginning. After the flood, God makes a covenant not only with Noah and his family but “with every living creature”: “never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood.” As its sign he sets his bow in the clouds: “When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant.” The bow, once a weapon of war, now hangs unstrung in the sky, pointed away from the earth. It is a sign of God's peace. St Peter sees in the flood a figure of baptism: in the ark “eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you.” Christ, “put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit”, has suffered “for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.”
After the desert Jesus comes into Galilee proclaiming: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” This is Lent in one sentence. Today in cathedrals the catechumens who will be baptized at Easter are chosen and enrolled: the Rite of Election. For them Lent is the final preparation for the waters; for the rest of us, it is a return to the waters we have already passed through. The Psalm gives our prayer: “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.” We do not go into this desert alone. The Spirit leads us, the angels serve us, and the One who was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin, goes before us.
Theme: “The time is fulfilled… repent, and believe in the good news.”
The bow of peace, the waters of baptism, the desert of testing and the call to conversion.
“I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Genesis 9:13
“For in him every one of God's promises is a “Yes.”” 2 Corinthians 1:20
Apply: When you see the sky this week, thank God for his faithfulness.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,” 1 Peter 3:18
Apply: Find the date of your baptism and renew your baptismal promises in prayer.
“Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.” Deuteronomy 8:2
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15
Apply: Name your strongest temptation and bring it to Jesus each day.
“Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.” Psalm 25:4
“and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”” Mark 1:15
Apply: Keep a daily desert of ten minutes' silence with the Gospel.
God's covenant of peace reaches us through the waters of baptism.
Jesus has faced the desert for us; with him we can overcome.
Take-home resolution: Pray each day of Lent for the elect and for your own fidelity to baptism.
Dear brothers and sisters, every First Sunday of Lent takes us into the desert with Jesus. This year Mark tells it in just two verses: the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him (Mark 1:12–13).
Israel was tested forty years in the wilderness and failed. Adam was tested in a garden and fell. Jesus, the new Adam and the true Israel, is tested and stands firm. And around him are wild beasts at peace and angels serving: a glimpse of paradise restored.
In the first reading God makes a covenant with Noah and with every living creature, and sets his bow in the clouds as a sign (Genesis 9:13). The bow, a weapon of war, now hangs in the sky as a sign of peace.
St Peter tells us that the ark, in which eight persons were saved through water, prefigured baptism, which now saves you (1 Peter 3:20–21). Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. Today the elect, who will be baptized at Easter, are called by name.
Then Jesus proclaims: the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15). That is Lent in one sentence: turn around, and trust the good news.
We do not enter this desert alone. The Spirit leads us, the angels serve us, and Jesus, who was tempted as we are, goes ahead of us. Let us pray with the Psalm: make me to know your ways, O LORD. Amen.
Children, Jesus stayed in the desert for forty days. Satan tried to make him do wrong, but Jesus said no! Angels came to help him.
When you are tempted to do something wrong, say: Jesus, help me! He will help you say no.
Grant, almighty God, through the yearly observances of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Let us also pray: Lord Jesus, you went into the desert, were tempted and overcame. Lead us by your Spirit through these forty days; keep us faithful to our baptism; strengthen the elect who will be baptized at Easter; and bring us all to the joy of your resurrection. Amen.
The First Sunday of Lent always takes us into the wilderness with Jesus. In this Year B, Mark tells it in two verses, and the other readings explain why it matters. Genesis gives God's covenant after the flood, with the bow in the clouds. Peter says that the water of the flood pointed forward to Baptism. Psalm 25 is the prayer of someone walking a road with God and asking to be taught. Then Mark shows Jesus, fresh from his baptism, driven into the desert among beasts and angels, and coming out to announce the kingdom.
So the theme of this Sunday is water and wilderness: what God saves us through, and where he leads us afterwards. Catechumens who will be baptized at Easter are chosen today in many dioceses, and the rest of us begin to prepare to renew our own promises. The key words are covenant, baptism and repent.
Setting.
The flood is over, and Noah has left the ark and offered sacrifice (8:20). God has already said in his heart that he will never again destroy every living creature (8:21). Now he says it aloud, as a covenant. This is the first time the Bible describes God establishing a covenant in a full way, and it comes long before Abraham, Moses or Israel. Its partners are Noah, all his descendants and every animal.
Other peoples of the ancient Near East also had flood stories. Many scholars point out how different this one is: the God of Genesis grieves over violence and ends by binding himself to creation.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,” (9:9)
“As for me”: the initiative is all on God's side. Noah says nothing in this whole passage.
“and with every living creature that is with you,” (9:10)
The animals are named as covenant partners too: “the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth”. God's care reaches to all that lives.
“I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” (9:13)
The God who sends the rain has also pledged himself in the rain. The sign appears just when the clouds are most threatening.
“I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh;” (9:15)
This is the language of Lent: our hope does not rest on our having remembered God but on his remembering us.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the covenant with Noah expresses the principle of God's saving plan towards the nations, and that it remains in force during the times of the nations until the universal proclamation of the Gospel (CCC 56–58). In other words, God has never left any people without care. For Christians this covenant is a first step towards the new and eternal covenant in the blood of Christ, of which we hear at every Mass.
Setting.
Psalm 25 is an acrostic prayer: in Hebrew its verses follow, more or less, the letters of the alphabet. It joins a plea for guidance with a plea for forgiveness. Today's verses make a small school of prayer: first the request to be taught, then the request to be remembered with mercy, then a statement of who God is.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.” (25:4)
This is a prayer for Lent's first week. It asks for no great things, only to be shown the road.
“Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me,” (25:7)
A beautiful distinction: forget what I have done, but do not forget me.
“Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.” (25:8)
“Therefore”: the logic is surprising. Because God is good, he does not avoid sinners. He teaches them. The same logic brought Jesus to Levi's table.
How the Church reads it.
The Church sings this psalm on this Sunday as the prayer of those who begin the Lenten journey. Its refrain, from v. 10, joins God's “steadfast love and faithfulness” with those who keep his covenant, and so links directly to Noah. The Catechism says of Christian prayer that it is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ (CCC 2564). In the same spirit we can make v. 4 a daily prayer for the forty days.
Setting.
1 Peter is addressed to Christians scattered through Asia Minor (1:1), who were being slandered and treated as outsiders. The letter comes to us under the name of Peter. Many scholars think that it was written by a disciple in Peter's name, or with the help of a secretary such as Silvanus (5:12); others hold that it comes from Peter himself. It has so much to say about Baptism that some scholars think it draws on baptismal preaching. Here the author encourages his suffering readers by pointing to Christ, who also suffered unjustly and is now in glory.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” (3:18)
A note on the text: some ancient manuscripts read “suffered”, and others “died”. The NRSV has the first and the POC the second. The purpose is the important thing: “to bring you to God”.
“in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison,” (3:19)
One of the hardest verses in the New Testament. See the question below.
“in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.” (3:20)
The water that destroyed was also the water that carried the ark. The Fathers noticed the “eight”: St Justin connects the eight with the eighth day, the day of the Resurrection, on which Christians gather.
“And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you” (3:21)
A bold statement: Baptism saves. But the author immediately explains that this is not a washing of the skin, and that its power comes “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.
“who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.” (3:22)
For readers who felt powerless, this is the point of it all. Whatever frightens them has already been put under Christ.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Church has seen in Noah's ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, and it quotes this passage (CCC 1219). The blessing of baptismal water at the Easter Vigil recalls that the waters of the great flood were made a sign of the waters of Baptism (CCC 1219). The Catechism lists the flood and Noah's ark among the examples of typological reading (CCC 1094). And in teaching on Christ's descent among the dead, it refers to this passage: he went there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there (CCC 632).
Setting.
Mark has just told of Jesus' baptism, with the heavens torn open and the voice calling him “my Son, the Beloved” (1:9–11). The next word is “immediately”. Matthew and Luke give the dialogue with the tempter and the three temptations. Mark gives none of this, and does not even mention fasting. He gives only the bare scene, and then, with John in prison, Jesus' first words in this Gospel.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” (1:12)
The same Spirit who came down like a dove now pushes him out. Being God's beloved does not exempt one from the desert. It may be what leads there.
“He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” (1:13)
Forty recalls the rain of Noah's flood (Genesis 7:12), Moses on the mountain (Exodus 34:28), Elijah's walk (1 Kings 19:8) and Israel's years (Deuteronomy 8:2). Only Mark has the beasts. They may show the danger of the place, as Psalm 91:11–13 pictures angels and wild beasts together, or a peace restored as in Eden and in Isaiah 11:6. The text does not decide between these, and the two may stand side by side.
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,” (1:14)
The arrest of the prophet does not silence the message. It is at that moment that Jesus begins.
“and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”” (1:15)
These are his first recorded words in Mark, and they sum up the Gospel. “Time” here is kairos, the moment of decision that Paul spoke of on Ash Wednesday. God's rule is close. Then come two commands, and it is significant that the announcement comes before them: God acts first, and repentance is our answer.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Jesus, the new Adam, remained faithful where the first Adam gave in to temptation, and that he fulfils Israel's vocation, as Israel had tempted God during forty years in the desert (CCC 538–539). “By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert” (CCC 540). It quotes Mark 1:15 at the start of Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom (CCC 541) and as the call to conversion (CCC 1427).
St Augustine says, in a passage read in the Office of Readings on this Sunday, that in Christ we were tempted, and in him we overcome: he took on our temptations so as to give us his victory (in substance).
Who are the “spirits in prison” in 1 Peter 3:19?
There are several readings. St Augustine thought that Christ, in spirit, preached through Noah to the people of Noah's day. Many Fathers and the Catechism connect the verse with Christ's descent among the dead after his death, where he brought the Good News to the just who had gone before (CCC 632–635). Many modern scholars think that “spirits” refers to rebellious powers, connected with Genesis 6 and with Jewish writings such as 1 Enoch, and that the “proclamation” is Christ's announcement of victory. The verse remains difficult, but all agree on its message: Christ's saving work reaches even the just among the dead.
Wasn't there a rainbow before the flood?
Genesis is not explaining how rainbows work. The rainbow is a natural sight that the story takes up and gives a meaning. In the same way, bread, water and oil existed before the Church took them up into her sacraments. From now on, whenever a person sees the bow after a storm, they are to think of God's promise.
If God leads us into temptation, why do we pray “lead us not into temptation”?
God does not tempt anyone to do evil (James 1:13). In Mark the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness, and it is Satan who tempts him there. The Catechism explains the prayer in the Our Father as a plea not to enter into temptation and not to give way to it (CCC 2846–2849). Jesus has gone through this ahead of us, and he prays with us (see Hebrews 4:15).
In the Roman Rite this Sunday has a clear baptismal note. In many dioceses the bishop today celebrates the Rite of Election, in which catechumens are called by name and enrol for Baptism at Easter. Lent's “double character” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 109) is seen today: the Elect prepare to go down into the water, and the rest of us prepare to renew our promises at the Easter Vigil. The Collect asks that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ. The Alleluia and Gloria are not sung. The memorial of Sts Cyril and Methodius, which falls on this day, is not kept this year because it is Sunday; their translation of the Scriptures for the Slavs is a good reminder of what the word of God does for a people. Pray today for the catechumens of your diocese by name if you can, and if you do not know your own date of Baptism, find it out this week.