Morning Devotion for Lent
Monday, March 7, 2022
The Invitatory
Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Reading: Mark 1:1-13
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Meditation – Michael Palmisano
Imagine that someone published a biography of your life posthumously. Now imagine that your biography started by telling the story of someone other than yourself. This is the strangeness of Mark’s gospel. Although the gospel was written in the style of a Greco-Roman bios (biography) – a style that was intended to confirm and establish the larger-than-life credentials of an otherworldly hero – the biography of Jesus Christ exhibits all sorts of literary quirks unique to the genre.
The biography of Jesus begins by first introducing the person of John the Baptist. Perhaps this is merely a foreshadowing of the type of “hero” Jesus will be. In contradistinction to the type of bios which tell the stories of Roman emperors, the biography of Jesus Christ alters all the preconceived notions of heroism, power, and authority. At the literal heart of this biography is the refrain that, “…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This is precisely the type of “hero” Jesus is. The biography begins with the story of another (John the Baptist) because this is the biography of One who is entirely for others.
This biography reveals to us the true nature of all human life – that we are most human when we are with and for others; that true power comes through humility and not brutality; that authority is given by grace, not taken by force; that death is not the conclusion, rather a beginning. The biography of Jesus Christ breaks the genre because He Himself confounds all our preconceived notions about life and the value of being remembered. This is no mere bios; this is the story of Emmanuel – “God with us.”
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
