February 22, 2015  	           A fresh start 			         
1st Sunday of Lent, Year B

Today is about making a fresh start. People like the idea of making fresh starts, as evidenced by resolutions we make at the beginning of each New Year. For example, after a season of bad form or plagued by injuries to key players, football or cricket teams look forward to putting the past behind them and making a new start.

When I was preparing today’s reflection, I googled ‘fresh start’ and received thousands of hits. Groups and organisations used ‘fresh start’ to promote all kinds of programs: from drug rehabilitation and weight problems — to fitness clubs and improving school results. Human beings are attracted to the idea of making a fresh start. If we’ve had a bad year due to health, family or financial problems, we look to the New Year and starting afresh.

But it’s not just people who want to make a fresh start. As our first reading tells us, God also made a fresh start with his creation of the world. The story of Noah and the flood is an old and familiar one — maybe so familiar that it’s easy to forget what it’s about. We read only a part of it in today’s Eucharist. The story, found in the book of Genesis, is a long one and it starts with God regretting what he had created. After all, his work had gone wrong. 

Adam and Eve had to be thrown out of the garden and Cain committed the terrible crime of murdering his own brother. As the human race multiplies and spreads, so does its wickedness. God comes to regret what has been created and decides on a fresh start. After the great flood, when Noah and company emerged from the ark, there was a new beginning. As is the case with the first chapter of the book of Genesis, the man and woman are told to “multiply and fill the earth”, Noah and his family are given the same command by God who is making a fresh start.

We read this story about a fresh start because we are now in the season of Lent, and are preparing for Easter and the celebration of new life. We hear and read about new life and leaving our bad habits behind. For people who will be baptised at Easter, it’s obvious that they are beginning a new kind of life. 

But for those of us who are long-time Catholics, we can also make a fresh start. We can leave behind things like old resentments; taking God and people for granted; or being indifferent to the needs and the suffering of others. Lent provides us with the time and the opportunity to look into our hearts and to confess our sins. God offers us the grace to make a new start and to live life with a renewed faith and a heart more open to the needs of others.

									             John Hill CSsR 
									       ©Redemptorists 2015

2687A
We respond
ENTRANCE ANTIPHON (or a hymn) When he calls on me, I will answer him; I will deliver him and give him glory, I will grant him length of days.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM (Ps 24)
Antiphon: Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth, to those who keep your covenant.
RESPONSE: Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth, to those who keep your covenant.
LECTOR: Lord, make me know your ways. Lord, teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my saviour. R.
LECTOR: Remember your mercy, Lord and the love you have shown from of old. In your love remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord. R.
LECTOR: The Lord is good and upright. He shows the path to those who stray, he guides the humble in the right path; he teaches his way to the poor. R.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION  Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory! No one lives on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!
COMMUNION ANTIPHON (1) or (2) (or a hymn)
One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
Or
The Lord will conceal you with his pinions, and under his wings you will trust.
TODAY’S READINGS Genesis 9:8-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1: 12-15
NEXT WEEK (2nd Sunday of Lent) Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18; Psalm 115; Romans 8: 31-34; Mark 9:2-10