1st Sunday of Lent – B
February 18, 2024 – 5pm
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
Normandy and Forces of Evil
About ten years ago, I was on a parish trip to France.
One day we visited the Normandy coast. This, as you know, is where D-Day took place in World War II – eighty years ago.
We went to Omaha Beach – part of the beach front where 6,000 Allied ships dropped off thousands and thousands of soldiers for the invasion of Europe. We stood on the top of the Nazi Sea Wall and could just imagine the terrible carnage that took place.
We walked through the German artillery bunkers. But what moved me most was walking through the American Cemetery.
There are 9,500 crosses or Stars of David over the remains of each dead American soldier. By the end of the Normandy campaign, there were 425,000 Allied and German troops killed, wounded, or missing.
As I stood in that cemetery, I felt keenly aware of the great force of evil that the world was caught up in at that time. I felt very aware of the forces of evil that are much bigger than we are as individuals.
Lent and These Forces
Maybe all of us have had this awareness of forces bigger than ourselves.
There are these powers in the world that just seem to swirl around us and maybe catch us up in them. Sometimes, we can be unaware of all of this, but then comes the Season of Lent.
Lent makes us aware that much of life is a complicated dance between good and evil, between light and darkness. Much of life is a conflict: between charity, justice, and peacefulness, on the one side, and then, self-absorption, injustice, and hostility, on the other side.
Jesus and These Forces
Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus goes into the desert and wrestles with these forces of darkness.
Jesus confronts the same choices that we confront.
Ø Jesus chooses Faith in the Father in the face of temptation to believe in something else.
Ø He chooses a trusting Hope in the face of darkness.
Ø And he chooses sacrificial acts of Love in the face of insult and rejection.
We and These Forces
The Season of Lent reminds us that we also must make choices in the face of the conflicting forces around us.
Jesus calls us to choose Faith. Sometimes we may question or doubt.
But Jesus calls us to believe in the Almighty One and to be anchored here. He wants us to be in relationship with God through the Eucharist and to make sure we participate in this.
And he also wants us to make time for personal prayer. Jesus calls us to share this Faith with one other person today.
And then Jesus calls us to choose Hope. On a personal level, maybe we feel unjustly treated at work or unfairly talked about by others.
On a global level, there are major problems, like the two wars preoccupying us right now or the violence in our own country. But with all of this, the power of Hope lies not in what is around us but in what is within us.
The power of Hope lies in God’s constant presence within. Jesus calls us to share this Hope with one other person today.
And then Jesus calls us to choose Love. There is much demonization today of those who are different from us or who disagree with us.
And there is a lack of sensitivity to the life of the unborn and the life of children without proper food or health care. But with all of this, the power of Love flows from the One who is Love itself.
This power of Love leads us to find common ground with other persons and to be open to the common good of our country and of our world. Jesus calls us to share this Love with one other person today.
Conclusion
So, there are forces bigger than us and we have choices to make.
Lent makes us aware of this and makes us aware that our choices shape who we are as persons. They have etern
