“Dream Singles” won’t make you happy.

2024 1^st Sunday of Lent (B)

Jesus says, “Repent and believe the good news”. But why not just say, “believe the good news?”  It’s surely a more attractive message.  Repentance can bring up all sorts of negative images. We may be familiar with such messages as:  “Repent for the end of the world is nigh”, or, “Repent before it’s too late”. These sound like threats.  However, Christ’s message of repentance is not a threat. On Ash Wednesday people turned up in droves to receive the ashes. Why is this?  If you know, answers to me on a postcard!  They heard the priest say, “Turn away from sin, which is another way of saying “repent”, and believe the good news.” So, Christ’s message is as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago: we are called to repentance and to believe the good news. 

They are two sides of the same coin; one does not make sense without the other. To repent requires you to think: to think about yourself, about life, about the past. But simple as that sounds, so many of us would rather not think.  We would do anything but think. No thank you! Switch the radio on, let’s have noise, some sort of distraction, anything but silence. The world we are living in is full of distractions to stop you thinking. Pubs and cinemas and sports stadiums are full of people looking to be distracted. Is this wrong? It may be if this is all we do to stop ourselves thinking. To be a good Christian you need to think, to pray, to reflect. Why is this so difficult? Who do so few people do it?  Could it be because we all have a past and we’d rather not go there, thank you very much. 

Jesus message isn’t just about repentance, it’s also good news about our future. It is called “good news” because it is.  By definition, “good news” will make you happy.  Who doesn’t want to be happy?  When I open my iPhone I am bombarded with invitations to make me happy. One that keeps occurring has the heading: “Dream Singles: Find your ideal partner internationally with Dream Singles – Join, Browse and Find your Match Today.”  There are others too inviting me into friendships and maybe more. Such invitations are exploiting our vulnerabilities and our need for love.  It is part of our human condition to want to be loved. However, they won’t fulfil that need or make us happy. But Christ’s does. 

Christ knows us better than we know ourselves. He sees our past, he sees our sins and failings, our weaknesses, but in spite of them, he loves us. Some people find this difficult to believe, they don’t like themselves never mind love, so how can God love them.  There is a famous saying: “If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn’t true.” But not in this case: it is true: God loves us as we are.   During Lent we are asked to think about that, or as the gospel says, ‘repent’.  “Repent and believe the Good News”.  Give some time to prayer and reflection this Lent. You won’t regret it.