New Beginnings

At the center of our Christian faith is forgiveness. From the beginning of creation, God showed his concern for the creatures he made. He did this through making agreements with them. These agreements are called Covenants. God gave his people every chance to start again after they rebelled and turned away from him. Our first scripture reading today tells the story of Noah and the destruction of the world by the Great Flood. After that flood, God made a New Covenant with man and with all of creation – that he would no longer destroy the earth by water again. The symbol of this agreement was the rainbow. Like all God’s agreements with his people, God was giving his people a chance to make a new beginning. The rainbow symbolizes Christ, the Savior of the World. God made His definitive Covenant with mankind through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Throughout salvation’s history God has believe in his people, trusted them, and waits for them to come back to him. Today we are the people of the New Covenant. Through baptism we are given a share in the Risen Life of the Lord Jesus. We die with Christ and rise with him to new life. As the Rainbow symbolized God’s love, care and as the chance of a new beginning, so the Cross is for us, a sign of God’s love, forgiveness and the opportunity to start all over again. Today we are the people to whom God has entrusted his vineyard – and the many blessings of faith, Mass, sacraments, devotions and a caring community. Jesus made known his love and commitment to us. He has called us to share in his life, not only in heaven, but here on earth. Like people throughout history we, too, struggle with evil and sin – within and among us. God calls us to live in love and peace with him and with all people. This is what Lent is all about. Through prayer, penance and almsgiving, we strive to overcome our sins, faults and failings, and make and renew our Commitment to Jesus. We renew the commitment that we made in baptism, at our Easter Masses, and promise God that we will live as his loyal and faithful children.

This Sunday the Church teaches that no matter the hurts, disappointments and tragedies of life, God’s love and trust will never give up on us. With the grace of God we can make a new start. Today we find ourselves fearful of the future. We worry about our world and what it holds for us. Like Saint Paul, we know that for those who love God, all things work together unto God. No matter our disappointments with ourselves, our world, our Church, our government, we know and believe that: “The love of God will never lead us to where the grace of God cannot keep us.”

During this Lent Season, the Church invites us to find hope in God’s love – in the love we see in Jesus on the Cross; in the love that helps us to forgive and seek forgiveness; in the love that treasures the other as God’s living presence in our midst; a love that readily sacrifices and willingly pays whatever is demanded to overcome the inevitable hurts and slights; love that endures beyond whatever threatens, whatever diminishes, whatever seeks to displace it.

So: “Let us live in the Faith of the Son of God who loved us and delivered himself up for us.”

Prayer

We unite our hearts, O God, in this prayer that Thou wilt teach us how to trust in Thee as a Heavenly Father who loves us and who is concerned about what we do and what we are. Forgive us that there are times when we find it hard, when it ought to be so easy. It is not that we have no faith, but that we seem so reluctant to put our faith in Thee. Men have proved to be untrustworthy, yet we trust each other. Banks have failed, still we write our checks. Depressions have upset our economy; still we carry on business in faith. Blizzards have made the winter dreary, yet with the coming of spring we plant our seeds. Hurricanes have screamed across the land, yet we build our windmills. Give to us the faith to put our trust in Thee who dost hold in the hollow of Thy hand all things living. May we learn, before we blunder, that Thou art willing to lead us, to show us what to do, and that it is possible for us to know Thy will and to be partners with Thee in doing what is right.

This we ask in the name of Christ, who never made a mistake. Amen.”

- Rev. Peter Marshall, 1947