As we begin our Lenten journey, we are faced with an interesting collection of lessons. We begin with the joy of God’s promise to Noah that mankind will never again be destroyed by a great flood and, as a sign of that promise, the rainbow appears in the heavens after the storm. The Gospel reading is Jesus’ baptism. Again, we recount the proclamation that Jesus is God’s chosen.
The reading from the First Letter of Peter, though, contains a different theme – one of suffering. It is this reading that I would like to explore today.
At the time this letter was written, the Christians were undergoing persecution, both in the form of physical abuse and in the form of ridicule. It is to this situation that this letter is written. This is not a universal form of suffering, but specifically in persecution for their belief in Jesus as the Christ as reflected in their lifestyle. Much is said, both in the reading and in the verses leading up to it, about how we are to react to this suffering.
