1st Sunday of Lent - Year B - In The Desert & “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”

Lent comes around each year and presents us with its usual challenge to take stock of our lives, to see more clearly what is in our hearts, and to discover what might be calling us out of our comfort zones. It is a time for personal reflection, a time for entering into ‘the wilderness’ and grappling with the mysteries of life. It is also a time of preparation for Easter when we renew our baptismal vows and celebrate the greatest mysteries of our faith.

This weekend’s Gospel (Mk 1:12-15) presents a drama that is played out in several ‘worlds’: the human, the celestial and the wilderness. Jesus is, as usual, the main character who is both human and divine. The Spirit, Satan, and God & His angels represent the celestial world. The Spirit impels Jesus into the wilderness, the place of beginnings for Israel, where Satan tests him for 40 days, just as the people of Israel were tested during their 40-year ordeal in the wilderness. Jesus passes the test that Israel failed. As Jesus is ‘with the wild beasts’, this evokes Isaiah’s prophecy of a time when God would reign, a time of reconciliation, of trust, of harmony and peace: ‘ The wolf shall lie down with the lamb…’(Isa 11:6-9).

This brief Gospel passage provides a microcosm of the ministry of Jesus, and of his struggle to overcome the opposing forces that threaten the success of his mission. God’s power breaks through, Jesus announces the ‘time’ of God’s reign. This is not a matter of clock time (chronos) but of God’s time (kairos), the time to turn our lives in God’s direction. The tense of the verb is continuous: the invitation is to continually ‘think beyond’ and turn our lives towards God. Lent helps us to focus on that invitation, knowing that we are not alone!

In honour of this weekend’s Gospel, we would like to share our latest video, "Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley", a beautiful traditional Lenten spiritual whose origins are shrouded in obscurity. It first appeared in U.S.A. hymnals during the second half of the twentieth century. Although listed as an American folk hymn in most hymnals, it appears that its origins may be found in a conflation of the Appalachian folk song tradition and the African American spiritual.

Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below: