First Sunday of Lent
DEUTERONOMY 26:4-10
Moses said to the people:
The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. Then you shall declare before the Lord your God:
– “My father was a wandering Aramean, who went down to Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and populous. The Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.”
You shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God.
The first reading is a very famous text. It is even used today as a morning prayer by Jews and Christians. It is a kind of remembrance of the “History of Salvation,” in which the basic ideas of our relationship with God are present:
God the liberator – we are in the Kingdom – I offer my life to the Lord.
It is a summary/interpretation of the history of Israel, seen through the lens of faith: the vocation of Abraham is the birth of the people; the liberation from the slavery of Egypt is God’s great deed for his people; and the gift of the land, the fulfillment of the promise. All this is expressed here to justify the offering of the first fruits, which recognizes and gives thanks for the favors received from God.
ROMANS 10:8-13
Brothers and sisters: The Scripture says, “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.”
This refers to the message of faith that we proclaim. For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The Scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The reading from the letter to the Romans presents the principle and foundation of salvation: believing in Jesus. In a difficult style, Paul lays the cornerstone of being a Christian: believing in Jesus, confessing faith in Jesus.
This text, isolated from all others, can lead to the sterile discussion of whether we are saved by faith alone or by faith and works. In the context of all revelation, this discussion makes no sense. Faith in Jesus is the beginning of the New Life. To say with the lips that we believe and to live as if we do not believe is simply lying. Faith is not merely intellectual, but accepting Jesus as a way of life.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.