First Sunday of Lent
GN 2:7-9; 3:1-7 PS 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 ROM 5:12-19 MT 4:1-11

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a season in which we take up our annual Lenten observances. We embark on a journey which we hope will draw us nearer to God.

Many Catholics find this season ideal for returning to their faith if they have drifted. Its penitential character encourages us to clear away those things which come between us and God. This is all good and beneficial but, reflecting on the liturgy, something I had not previously considered suddenly appeared glaringly obvious to me. While self-identified spiritual ‘seekers’ are numerous among both those in traditional religious communities and the disaffiliated alike, the perspective of seeking after God belies an egocentric view of our spiritual journey. This trope is commonplace today, e.g. ‘I go out in search of God’ (eat, pray, love-style). But it does not accurately, or, more to the point, fully reflect the biblical narrative nor the liturgical message for that matter.

“Where are you?”

(Genesis 3:9)

On this first Sunday of Lent, in the very first reading, we are met with the true genesis of our journey towards God and, contrary to expectation, it does not begin with us but with God-“The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground…” (Gn 2:7). God is always the first mover. Even the seeking heart of man is only seeking because God has planted the desire for the divine within his breast already. God creates Adam and Eve, and calls out “Where are you?” (Gn 3:9) when they have hidden themselves, he reaches out through the covenants with Abraham and Moses, relentlessly God seeks out his people, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!” (Mt 23:37). The whole biblical narrative, culminating with the incarnation-wherein God comes down finally to “pitch his tent among us” (Jn 1:14)-reveals to us the story of a faithful God seeking a fickle people.

What clarified this for me is that today, the first Sunday of Lent, also corresponds with the celebration of the Rite of Election. In my years walking with catechumens and catechizing for this key rite in the process of Christian Initiation, I always point out to them that the Rite of Election is unique for the very reason articulated above. Lest I boast in my righteous seeking, I am reminded that in every inch I make towards the Good, I am always only responding to the grace of God. The praenotanda for this rite explains that, “This step is called election because the acceptance made by the Church is founded on the election by God in whose name the Church acts.” (RCIA, 106) This rite reminds us that God is the steadfast seeker, and we who respond. St. Augustine masterfully gets to the heart of it, “You were within me, and I outside…” (Confessions, Book X). The search for God inevitably leads inward and we find that we are embarrassingly late to our own party.

In Lent, we set out for the desert in imitation of Jesus. But the Gospel reading reminds us that Jesus did not go there in search of God. The scene immediately preceding the passage designated for this Sunday is Jesus’ baptism. Following this, he is led by the Spirit into the desert.
This season of Lent, do fast, pray and give alms, seek after God, but I invite you first to attend to those quiet, gentle ways in which God is seeking after you.