First Sunday of Lent God of Memories….. Deut: 26: 4-10
Rom 10:8-13
Lk 4: 1-13Dear Sisters, Brothers and Children, I welcome you all to this grace filled season of lent. We journey along with whole Church towards the cross of salvation, cross of forgives, cross of liberation and cross of new life. All our efforts of penance, prayer and fasting may support our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI and our Holy Church at this Historical moment.
What is the memory you want to cherish and carry on always? John answered; there is nothing as such memories to carry on for the rest of my life, because I have only the memories of hurt, memories of humiliation, memories of failures and memories of rejection. Why do we carry only and struck with these bitter memories? It is because we live and daily faced with different realities of struggle and suffering. The husband suffering from cancer, thoughts of son in Iraq, not able to get a suitable and satisfying job and the broken family ties, all these don’t allow us to live God of memories in our life. Our Lord is God of memories, who constantly and consistently reminds us His love, His saving act and His acts of liberation. This is the lesson offered to us on this first Sunday of season of lent.
In the first reading, Moses reminds them about God of memories. How God was in action in their life. The journey from Mesopotamia to Egypt, the liberation from Egyptian slavery to freedom as covenantal people of God, finally possessing the Promised Land, reveal, remind and revive the powerful, merciful and ever loving memories and image of God. Moses is telling the people of Israel not to forget, not to linger around with bitter memories rather gratefully remembering and reminding the God of memories.
What are those memories?
Not to remember the moments of Isolation rather to retain the memory that they are chosen people of God.
Not to carry the memories of slavery and suffering but to cling on to the memories of His accompaniment and liberation.
Not to hold on to the memories of pain and hurts rather to the memories of manna and water in the desert.
Not to look up to false gods rather to look for the Promised Land of milk and honey.
So Moses invites them to carry on these memories of God in their life. Suffering, slavery, pain and loss pass away, diminishes when Glory of God is revealed. The saving act of God is consistent and constant so the call and challenge is to remember the God of memories and be thankful through offerings. Season of Lent also demands us our consistent and constant effort to re-live and be revived with the memories of God.
The well-known temptation passage is given to us on this first Sunday of the season of lent. Here Jesus is remembering firmly and clearly the call, love and goal of the Father. So, the great memories of Father who sent Him, the memories of His task of Kingdom and the memories of Calvary of new life. Jesus re-lives the memories of God the Father. Thus made him to give back the proper answer and send back the Satan. He could break the motives of Satan and He was successful in overcoming the human desire for power, authority and ego before He could begin His mission. Man shall not live by bread alone tell us the memories of God who created world with only word and continue in loving the chosen people with words of commandments.
You worship Lord our God alone remind us the memories of constant revelation of God of Yahweh as creator, as liberator and as protector in Egypt and in in the desert.
Finally, let you not test son of God, shows the strong memories of the closeness of the Father.
We think that season of Lent is a period to recall the memories of sin, memories of failures and memories of omission. We need to go beyond to another step, by looking, restoring and reviving with the memories of God, memories of His blessing with a good family, memories of His guidance in hard times, memories of His accompaniment in our journeys and memories of His abiding presence in all our celebrations. Then we know the consistent and constant presence of God in our midst on various occasions.
We have a greater task of reviving the memories of God by finding God in our circle of life, Jer29:12-14 “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, your God”
Two weeks ago, Jim approached me in the hospital and asked me for clarification with certain things. First he told me that her 35year old daughter is very sick, they family left the Catholic Church more than thirty years ago. His daughter was not baptized; he could not find peace in none of the prayer groups and non-denomination churches. Many say God punished them by giving this illness to her. I listened to him then I asked him to spell out the blessing of God in these thirty long years and the image of God he experienced in these years. He took twenty means of pause in silence, and then he said the blessings and memories of God are uncountable. To mention some, He sees God as protector in his entire journey to different countries in the army, he sees God of forgiving in all the moments, he neglected his responsibility and God as friendly companion showing the path during the times of loneliness. He promised that he will re-live this God of memories he found and revive his life in these 40days of journey-Amen.
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