In today’s Gospel, which tells of the feeding of the five thousand, it is said about the time of its occurrence that “the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.” This remark has a deeper meaning than simply chronological: it connects the feeding of the five thousand and ultimately the entire life of Jesus, including His suffering, death, and resurrection, with Passover. Passover, the deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, was a foreshadowing of the redemption accomplished in Jesus Christ, the deliverance of all mankind from slavery to sin, evil, and death.

At the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus tells two parables. In the first of them, He speaks of Satan and Himself: Satan is the strong one, Jesus is the one who is stronger than Satan and has defeated him.

However, although Jesus has defeated Satan, it is quite frightening and alarming that Jesus portrays Satan as a landlord, armed to the teeth and holding everything he owns, including mankind, which has become his slave through sin, with almost absolute power.

As Christ’s redeemed, we look forward to eternal life in heaven, in the Kingdom of God. The fullness of life that God has promised us in Christ surpasses anything we can even dream of. The happiness and joy that we hope to experience in heaven is pure and free from any corruption. In the midst of the realities of our earthly life, it is difficult for us to understand this, because we are so accustomed to the fact that our joys and pleasures inevitably have a certain taste of sin.

A few days ago, I was talking to young people who have decided to try to make the most of Lent this year. One of their concerns was what to do if they were to break their Lenten promises at some point. "Will the whole Lent be ruined then?" I encouraged them, assuring them that this was certainly not the case, because as long as God gives us another day, even a single new moment, we can change the attitude of our hearts and, if we have fallen, with His help, rise again and return to Him: “For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

The Gospel for the last Sunday before Lent tells of a blind man whose sight Jesus restored, and of Jesus’ disciples who, in a spiritual sense, were even blinder than that blind man. When Jesus told them about the suffering, death, and resurrection that awaited Him in Jerusalem, “they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken”.