Today’s first reading speaks of God’s covenant with humanity, given to Noah after the great flood, when He promised to never again destroy the earth and its inhabitants by a flood. As a sign of His covenant, He gave us the rainbow. St. Peter, in the second reading, tells us that the great flood “prefigured baptism.” The comparison being that just as Noah and the others were saved through water purging the earth, we are saved by baptism. The sacrament of baptism washes away original sin and fills us with God’s grace. John the Baptist told us this when he said that while he baptized with water, Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel, we hear briefly of Jesus’ time in the desert after His baptism. We hear that Jesus proclaimed “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” Jesus came to bring us the new covenant, as He told us. Although today’s Gospel does not dwell on Jesus’ time in the desert, we know that in addition to being tempted by the devil, He fasted and prayed in order to prepare Himself for His mission. Here we are, at the beginning of our annual forty days in the desert of lent. We are given this time to prepare ourselves to celebrate Easter, to put to death those things in our lives that separate us from God and foster those things that draw us nearer to Him. May we all take the time, make the time, to prepare ourselves well.