His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
First Sunday of Lent
February 18, 2024 St. Luke Parish 9:00 Mass
Sermon
“Into the Wilderness with Jesus and Alexie Navalny”
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
“I had to take my girlfriend out for a champagne dinner and her favorite desert, white chocolate covered strawberries, even though it was Ash Wednesday and I’m a good Catholic. But, after all, its Valentine’s Day!”
I heard this on a call-in radio station Wednesday night. The host laughingly said, “It’s a shame when Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day and takes away all the fun. But at least it won’t happen again until 2029, and after that, not until 2071. He jokingly told the story of a priest who reminded his parishioners that you can’t spell Va-lent-ine without “Lent,” in the middle of the word. The priest gave out heart shaped cookies with the words “Dust 2 Dust” on them. Of course, there was no mention of St. Valentine, or Valentinus, the faithful Christian who was martyred in Rome in the 3rd century.
St. Mark in 1:12-15 confronts this superficial way in which some Christians approach the penitential Season of Lent. During these days devoted to prayer, fasting, almsgiving, sorrow for sins, and prayerfully supporting those preparing for the Easter Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist, Lent tells us to leave frivolity aside and pray to the Holy Spirit for the conversion of our hearts to enable us to live as genuine disciples of Jesus Christ.
“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness, and He remained in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan.” Notice, Jesus didn’t simply decide to go into the wilderness to think for a few days. Immediately after John baptized Him, the Spirit “drove” or “forced” Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Is that not similar to our wilderness experiences? We don’t choose them. Life has its way with us and drives or forces us into a spiritual wilderness, because of family problems, financial troubles, emotional difficulties, and stress caused by sickness and death. The wilderness that Jesus was driven into was a desert, a barren place with very little water or vegetation, inhabited by “wild beasts,” possibly hyenas, wild boars, and jackals, that might have attacked Jesus. Mark may be using “wild beasts” as symbols of difficult problems in our lives that throw us off-balance, spiritually speaking, leaving us in a spiritual wilderness.
Jesus was tempted physically, emotionally, and spiritually, just as we are. Mark, as always, is very brief. He gives us no details about Jesus’s temptations. The details are found in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. Matthew and Luke describe the various ways Jesus was tempted and overcame temptation by relying on God’s Word and trusting His Father. He was tempted to command God to turn stone into bread (Matthew 4:2-4; Luke 4:2-4); to dramatically reveal that He was the Messiah by putting God to the test (Matthew 4:5-7; Luke 4:9-13); and to bow to the power of Satan and gain instant fame and power (Matthew 4:8-11; Luke 4:5-8).
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During Lent, we are not driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. It is a time when the Church asks us to choose to enter into a wilderness, a time of fasting, praying, scripture reading, going to confession, and re-examining our lives of faith. Throughout these 40 days, we can each be a spiritual example to the members of our family and to each other if we are willing to take seriously the commitments we made when we were baptized and every time we consume the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. However, we can all take inspiration from larger than life examples of Christian discipleship on the world stage.
Hopefully, most of you know and have been following the drama of the life of Mr. Alexei A. Navalny, who for many years has publicly and aggressively opposed the autocratic and corrupt government of President Vladimer Putin, who has ruled Russia with an iron fist for more than twenty years. Mr. Navalny endured the torchers and torments of solitary confinement, unspeakable living conditions, starvation and lack of needed medical care. Still, he maintained a powerful presence on social media while his team published accounts of Russia’s corrupt elite. Mr. Navalny died suddenly and mysteriously on Friday, February 16th while serving multiple sentences in the remote, harsh IK 3 penal colony above the Artic Circle in Siberia for largely fabricated charges designed to silence him. World leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference did not hesitate to place the blame for Mr. Navalny’s death directly or indirectly in the hands of Vladimir Putin. His supporters state bluntly that he was murdered. One thing is certain, with the death of this remarkable, heroic man, political dissent has seemed to come to an end in Russia. Remarkably his grieving wife, Yulia Navalnaya has indicated that she will try to fill the void in the work of trying to bring about a democratic and free Russia. “I hope you share my rage, my anger, and my hatred of those who killed my husband in an effort to kill the future of 144 million Russian people.”
What you may not know is that the 47-year-old Mr. Navalny, a slim, athletic, lighthearted former real estate attorney, husband and father of two young adult children, was a committed Christian, who said it was his Christian faith that helped him to persevere in his opposition to the structures of moral evil that persist in the former Soviet Union. Mr. Navalny, a brilliant and complex person, organized a strong protest movement ran for the presidency of Russia in 2018, despite a court ruling him ineligible. In August 2020, he was poisoned by agents of the Kremlin with Novichok, a military nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union and was hospitalized in a coma near death in Germany. His story was front page news around the world. The U. S. government praised Mr. Navalny’s commitment to “calling out Putin’s lies,” noting that he could have “lived safely in exile” after his poisoning.
Amazingly, he recovered and decided to return to Russia driven back into the wilderness by the spirit of truth, justice, and integrity. He said, “I don’t want to give up either my country or my beliefs, if your beliefs are worth something, you must be willing to stand up for them. And if necessary, make some sacrifices. Hope is my compass, and success is a reward for courage. Otherwise, you are just an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows you.”
Some of his admirers said his life was an imitation of Christ, he was returning home even though he knew he was doomed, as Jesus knew he was doomed as he journeyed to Jerusalem for the Passover. When Mr. Navalny came home, creating a nightmare for Vladimir Putin, he knew well that his Chrisitan conscience was driving him into the wilderness. He was arrested as soon as he arrived in Moscow in 2021. His return won him new respect and followers as he continued to lambast the Kremlin from his prison cell, but his followers knew this would cost him his life. Mr. Navalny challenged the Kremlin with his fearlessness and the Kremlin does not tolerate fearlessness. But, he continued protesting against President Putin’s now two-year-old war of aggression in Ukraine, often using deadpan humor. Many Russian people hoped against hope that Mr. Navalny was Russia’s Nelson Mandela, who would one day, as President, guide the people to a happier, safer, Democratic Future.
Mr. Navalny has long described himself as a Christian. Protesting that he was no saint, he said that the Bible provides him guidance leading to “fewer dilemmas” in his life. In his closing statement during his 2021 trial, Mr. Navalny said, “If you want, I’ll talk to you about God and salvation. I am a Christian, which usually rather sets me up as an example for constant ridicule in the Anti-Corruption Foundation.”
“My faith helps me in my activities because everything becomes much clearer. There are fewer dilemmas in my life because the New Testament more or less clearly states what actions to take in most life situations. It’s not always easy to follow the Gospel, but I am actually trying. Here are the words of Christ ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.’ This particular commandment is, for me, an instruction to work to solve the hard problems of my country.
He concluded, “I have no regrets about coming back to Russia, or about what I’m doing, because I am doing the right thing. I feel a kind of satisfaction. Because at some difficult moment, I did as required by the Bible and did not betray Christ’s commandment.” When his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, arrived at the prison to take home his body, she was told she could not because of the “investigation”. Later however, the body was found with suspicious bruises and marks.
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
Unfortunately, there are other stories like Mr. Navalny’s, such as The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 39, the German Lutheran pastor and theologian, who, also paying the cost of discipleship, was put to death in April 1945 for his fierce opposition, motivated by his faith, to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s evil plot to exterminate the Jewish people. I have not told you the tragic story of Mr. Navalny in order to engage you in the debate concerning what the world can do in the face of the increasing number of autocratic and dictatorial governments. I told you this sad story of a death in Lent to urge you to take seriously your forty days in the wilderness with Jesus, as Alexsi Navalny did when he found himself in the wilderness. Mr. Navalny was willing to die for his beliefs. The season of Lent is calling each of us to live for our beliefs.
Eventually wilderness experiences end. Jesus leaves the wilderness and goes to Galilee. He learns that John the Baptist has been arrested and would soon die. With a fierce urgency he declares: “This is the time of fulfillment! The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent! Believe in the Gospel!” With that, Jesus’ public ministry has begun, destined to end with his murder in crucifixion and His glory in the resurrection.
Holy Week and Easter Sunday will dawn and your forty days in the wilderness will be over. Will you be like the “good Catholic” who had to take his girlfriend out for a champaign dinner and her favorite desert, white chocolate covered strawberries, even though it was Ash Wednesday because, after all, it was Valentine’s Day?
Or, will you be more like Mr. Navalny ready to announce by everything you do and everything you say, “Repent! Believe in the Gospel!”
“The Kingdom of God is at hand!”
Praised be Jesus Christ! Both now and forever! Amen.