New Beginnings

A Reflection on the First Reading for March 27th, 2022:
Fourth Sunday of Lent

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Joshua
5.9a, 10-12

The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.”

While the children of Israel were camped in Gilgal they kept the Passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho.

On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.
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For 40 years, the Israelites were in a sticky situation. After escaping slavery in Egypt, then starving in the desert, they complained to Moses they might die of hunger. Moses cried out to the Lord for food, and manna rained down from heaven. For those 40 years in the wilderness, the bread of heaven sustained them.

In today’s scripture, Joshua has completed the work of his predecessor Moses by leading the Israelites into Canaan, the Promised Land. But upon their arrival, things change. They are no longer in the desert where food cannot be harvested. They begin to work the land for crops and to eat its produce. The manna disappears, and the Lord says to Joshua:

Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.

For the Israelites, entering the Promised Land was a new beginning. When they were in the desert, God knew they needed manna. The manna has now served its purpose. Now God invites the Israelites not only to actively participate in determining their future good, but to also take on their identity as free people. He wants them to grow into the fullest version of themselves as He intended them to be.

A comparative concept could be our journey in Lent — or any season of life we experience as wilderness. Because God is good, we trust He will sustain us in times of trouble. But we are not made to stay in the wilderness forever. To stay there is antithetical to God’s plan for us. At some point we must step out into a new beginning and take on His purpose for our lives, whatever that might be. 

There is a sense of maturation in this process. All deserts come to an end, and if we allow them to, they can lead us to the resurrection. There must be an end to something, so that something else might be born.

There are 2 weeks left in Lent. Perhaps now is a good time to reflect on what fruit our wilderness has borne, and consider how it will help us to become more fully as God intended: a resurrected people.




Michelynne Gomez
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