February 26, 2023 (First Sunday of Lent, Year A)
Today is the first Sunday of Lent (Year A). The Church invites us to celebrate Jesus Christ the second Adam, who by the power of the Holy Spirit overcame temptation and sin. Through his obedience to the Father’s will, Christ restored the world completing the need for salvation for all people.
Today’s First Reading (Gen. 2:7-9; 3:1-7) recounts the beginning of our need for salvation with the story of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 2 we are told that God created man from the clay of the earth and breathed His spirit into him. Then the Lord placed him in the garden of Eden where he made several types of plants beautiful to look at and good for food as well.
As the story continues, Genesis 3 illustrates the way in which sin is introduced into the world as the first humans disobey their only prohibition issued by God – to avoid the fruit of the tree of knowledge (Gen. 3:3). The snake uses a cunning line of questioning to entice Eve into tasting the forbidden fruit, assuring her that she will not die, but rather obtain the knowledge of good and evil, reserved only for God.
In their arrogance and pride, the man and woman both consume the fruit and give in to the temptation of the serpent, striving to become equal to God. This, their first, or original sin, is the abuse of the God-given gift of free will to determine the difference between good and evil according to human standards, as opposed to God’s standards. Their sense of the goodness of creation becomes corrupt as they feel shame for their nakedness and hide from God for their indiscretion.
The consequence of their sin leads to enmity between the snake and humans, a constant struggle between good and evil, as well as to pain in childbearing, toil, death, and expulsion from the Garden (Gen. 3:1-24). This choice between following God and giving in to selfish desire is a plight which will continue to plague humankind forevermore.
In the Gospel (Mt 4:1-11) we see how Jesus is tempted, like Adam and Eve, and us, on a daily basis. But, as God’s son, Jesus is born into the world by the Blessed Mother totally lacking in original sin. Thus, he lacks the concupiscence, or urge to give into sin, that all other people retain through inheritance from Adam and Eve.
The story picks up after Jesus has been baptized in the Jordon by John the Baptist. At this time Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He survives forty days and nights without food or water, relying solely on prayer. After forty days the devil is compelled to tempt Jesus three times, thinking him weak as other humans.
The first temptation by the devil is for Jesus to turn stones into bread. Jesus must have been extremely hungry from his forty day fast, yet he does not give in to Satan. Rather, he responds by saying, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4). Next the devil takes Jesus to the parapet, or highest observation point of the Temple, and tempts him to throw himself down knowing God’s angels would protect him. But Jesus responds, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test” (Mt. 4:7). For the final test the devil shows Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world and says he will give all of these to Jesus if Jesus would bow to him. But Jesus rebukes him saying, “”Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve” (4:10). Realizing his defeat, the devil leaves Jesus at this time and angels come to minister to him.
What do we learn from these stories of temptation which are read today? From the story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Eden, we learn that there is something inherent within human nature, a sense of self-centeredness, pride and rebellion, which causes us to choose to act contrary to God’s will. In essence, we abuse our God-given freedom in ways counterintuitive to natural, moral and ethical laws as a predicament of our human imperfection. It is this mistrust of God’s ordering of creation which leads us often times to give into the temptation to act according to our own wants and needs and ignore what the Lord asks of us.
From the passage on the temptation of Jesus we are taught to strive for holiness and perfection in imitation of Jesus. This requires self-control and sacrifice as we witness from Jesus in the desert. It also requires peace from distraction, overcoming our physical needs, and a deep sense of God’s presence through the power of prayer.
At this time, the beginning of Lent we fast, abstain, and do penance in the hopes of achieving, not the failure to give into sin like Adam and Eve, but rather the strength to avoid temptation and sin and so mimic the actions of the Son of God. If we accomplish this we also accomplish the solidarity with Jesus to obtain a state of holiness and eventually the Resurrection and union with Christ in the kingdom of God. This is what we strive for this and every Lent.
