Commentary 1st Sunday of Lent- Year A
March 9, 2014
The LORD God formed man out of the
clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the
breath of life,
and so man became a living being.
Then the LORD God planted a garden
in Eden, in the east,
and placed there the man whom he
had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God made
various trees grow
that were delightful to look at and
good for food,
with the tree of life in the middle
of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil.
Now the serpent was the most
cunning of all the animals
that the LORD God had made.
The serpent asked the woman,
“Did God really tell you not to eat
from any of the trees in the
garden?”
The woman answered the serpent:
“We may eat of the fruit of the
trees in the garden;
it is only about the fruit of the
tree
in the middle of the garden that
God said,
‘You shall not eat it or even touch
it, lest you die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman:
“You certainly will not die!
No, God knows well that the moment
you eat of it
your eyes will be opened and you
will be like gods
who know what is good and what is
evil.”
The woman saw that the tree was
good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable
for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and
ate it;
and she also gave some to her
husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were
opened,
and they realized that they were
naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.
Commentary
Before
discussing this text, it must be remembered that the author never claimed to be
a historian! The Bible was written neither by scientists nor by historians, but
by believers for believers. The theologian who writes these lines, probably in
the time of Solomon in the tenth century BC, seeks to answer the questions that
everyone asks: Why evil? Why death? Why disagreements in human couples? Why
such difficulties in life? Why is work hard? Why is the environment sometimes
hostile?
His answer is
based on a certainty - one that is shared by all his people - that God is good.
They know this from experience: God has
freed us from Egypt, therefore, God wants us free and happy. Ever since
the famous Exodus from Egypt under Moses’
leadership, and ever since the journey in the wilderness, where God’s
presence and support was there to meet each new challenge, the people can no
longer doubt God’s goodness. The story we have just read is based on the
certainty of God's benevolence, and tries to answer the questions about evil in
the world under this light. Since God is good and benevolent, why is there
evil?
Our author
has invented a fable to enlighten us: in his fable there is a garden of
delights (this is the meaning of "Eden"), with humanity symbolized by
a man and a woman charged with cultivating and keeping the garden. The garden
is full of trees, each one more attractive than the others. The middle one is
called the "tree of life" and its fruit can be eaten like that of all
the other trees. But there is also, somewhere in the garden, (the text does not
specify where) another tree whose fruit it is forbidden to eat. It is called
"the tree of the knowledge of what makes you happy or unhappy."
Faced with
this ban, the couple has two choices: either to trust God because they know
that God is benevolent, and simply rejoice that they have access to the tree of
life; for if God forbids the other tree, it must not be good for them. Or, to suspect
God of a malicious intent - to imagine that God wants to deny them access to
knowledge.
This is the snake’s
argument: he speaks to the woman with twisted words: "So? God told you not
to eat of any of the trees in the garden? " Note that in the Hebrew text,
the meaning of this phrase is purposely ambiguous. It can mean to say, "
You shall not eat all of the fruits " or "You shall not eat any of
them!"
The woman
replied: "We
may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of
the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You
shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die’." Have you noticed what is happening here? Just
because she has listened to the voice of suspicion, the woman has become
fixated with the one tree and speaks of it as "the tree which is in the middle
of the garden". In good faith, she has replaced in her mind the tree of
life that was in the middle of the garden with the forbidden tree; this is the
only tree she now sees in the garden. Her gaze is already distorted by the mere
fact that she allowed the snake to speak to her, which opens the door for the
snake to continue undermining the truth. "You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment
you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you
will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil. "
Again, the woman
listens only too well to these beautiful words and the text suggests that her
gaze becomes increasingly distorted: "The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the
eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom". The snake has won: she takes the fruit, she eats, she gives it
to her husband, and he eats as well. We know the rest: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked."
The serpent
had said that, "your eyes will be
opened;" the woman’s error was to believe that he spoke in her best
interest, by revealing God’s evil intentions. It was a pure lie. It is not a
coincidence that suspicion of God comes in the form of a serpent: in the
wilderness the people had known venomous snakes. Our theologian from Solomon's
court recalls this bitter experience and says: “There is a more serious problem
than the poison of the most venomous snakes; suspicion of God is a deadly
poison - it poisons our lives.“
According to
our theologian, all of our troubles come from the suspicion that plagues
humanity. Saying that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is reserved for
God is saying that God alone knows what makes us happy or unhappy, which, after
all, is logical if God created us. To want to eat at any price the fruit of
this forbidden tree, is to pretend to be able to determine for ourselves what
is good for us: the warning "You
shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die" pointed to the fact that this leads
to a false path.
But the
story goes deeper. During the journey in the wilderness, God commanded that the
Law, what we call the commandments, should be the code of conduct from now on.
We know that the daily practice of this Law was the condition for the survival
and the healthy growth of the people; and if they could realize that God wants only their survival, their
happiness, their freedom, they would trust God and obey the Law
with willing hearts. The Law is truly the "tree of life" made
available to the people by God.
I said at
the beginning that this is a fable, but the lesson is valid for all of us since
the world began. It is a universal story.
R/ (cf. 3a) Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R/ Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”
R/ Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R/ Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
R/ Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Commentary
"Have mercy on me, O God, in your
goodness; in the greatness of your compassion
wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and
of my sin cleanse me." The people of Israel are in full penitential celebration in the Temple
of Jerusalem. They recognize their sinfulness, but they also know God’s
inexhaustible mercy. And
besides, if they have gathered to ask for forgiveness, it is because they know
beforehand that forgiveness is already granted.
If you
recall, this was King David’s great discovery: David had his pretty neighbor,
Bathsheba, brought to the palace. (Let us not forget that she was married to an
officer, Uriah, who was in the battlefield at that time). Moreover it is thanks
to his absence that David was able to
have the young woman brought to the palace! Some days later, Bathsheba sent
word to David that she was expecting his child. And so David had arranged to
have the deceived husband die during battle, in order to take for himself
Uriah’s wife and her unborn child.
However -
and this is the unexpectedness of God - when the prophet Nathan was sent by God to speak to David,
he did not first try to get him to repent; he began by reminding David of all that
God had given him, and by telling him of God’s forgiveness, even before David
had time to make any confession. (2 S 12). In essence, he said: "Look what
God has already given you ... well, you know, God is ready to give you even
more - all that you might still desire! "
A thousand
times during its history, Israel was able to confirm that God is truly
"the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love
and faithfulness" according to the words with which God reveled himself to
Moses in the desert (Ex 34, 6).
The OT prophets have also echoed this discovery, and within
this psalm we have reminders of Isaiah and Ezekiel. Isaiah, for example, says:
"I, I am He who blots out your transgressions
for my sake, and I will not remember your sins" (Is 43: 25), or "I have swept away your transgressions like a
cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you"(Isaiah
44, 22). This announcement of God’s gratuitous forgiveness sometimes surprises
us: it seems too good, perhaps, and for some it even seems unfair: if
everything is forgiven, why make an effort to avoid sin?
Perhaps we
too easily forget that all of us, without exception, need God’s mercy; so let us not complain! And let us not be
surprised that God surprises us, because, as Isaiah says, "God's thoughts
are not our thoughts." And indeed, Isaiah states that it is in matters of forgiveness
that God surprises us the most.
This brings
us to the words of Jesus in the parable of the laborers who came at the eleventh hour, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with
what belongs to me? Or are you envious
because I am generous? "(Mt 20, 15). One can also think of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). When he
returns to his father, for reasons which were far from noble, Jesus places on
his lips a phrase from Psalm 50: "I
have sinned against heaven and before you," and with this simple
sentence the link that the ungrateful young man had broken is now renewed.
Faced with
this proclamation of God’s mercy, the people of Israel, (remember that it is
they who speak here, as in all the psalms) recognize their sinfulness; but as in all penitential psalms no
detailed confession is made. That which really matters, is said in this simple supplication:
"Have mercy on me, O God, in
your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion
wipe out my offense ...
". And God who is all mercy
expects nothing more than this simple recognition of our own poverty. Moreover,
the word ‘mercy’ or ‘pity’ is from the same root as the word "alms":
we are literally beggars before God.
So we are left
with only one response: to simply give thanks for this permanent pardon. The praise
that the people of Israel address to God is always praise in gratitude for the
abundance of gifts and pardons they have received since the beginning of their
history. This shows that the most important prayer in a penitential celebration
is the acknowledgment of God’s gifts and God’s forgiveness. It begins with the
contemplation of God, which reveals the gap between God and us, and allows us
to know ourselves as sinners. Then from our lips will pour forth our song of
gratitude; we simply need to let God open our heart: "O Lord, open my lips, and
my mouth shall proclaim your praise". You may have recognized here the first sentence of the Liturgy
of the Hours, each morning; it is
actually taken from Psalm 51. On its own, it is an entire lesson: praise and gratitude can only be born in us if
God opens our hearts and lips. Saint Paul says it in these words: "When we cry ‘Abba! Father’ it is that very
Spirit bearing witness with our spirit…” (Rm 8, 16).
I almost
forgot: I said earlier that it remains for us to simply give thanks for God’s
forgiveness offered permanently. There is still one thing that we must do and
that God expects of us: to forgive in our turn, without delay or conditions ...
and that is the work of a lifetime!
SECOND READING - Romans 5, 12-19
Brothers and sisters:
Through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death,
and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—
for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world,
though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who did not sin
after the pattern of the trespass of Adam,
who is the type of the one who was to come.
But the gift is not like the transgression.
For if by the transgression of the one, the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
And the gift is not like the result of the one who
sinned.
For after one sin there was the judgment that brought
condemnation;
but the gift, after many transgressions, brought
acquittal.
For if, by the transgression of the one,
death came to reign through that one,
how much more will those who receive the abundance of
grace
and of the gift of justification
come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, just as through one transgression
condemnation came upon all,
so, through one righteous act,
acquittal and life came to all.
For just as through the disobedience of the one man
the many were made sinners,
so, through the obedience of the one,
the many will be made righteous.
Commentary
"Adam… is the type of the one who
was to come," says
Paul. He speaks of Adam in the past,
because he is referring to the book of Genesis, and to the story of the forbidden fruit; but for Paul, the drama of
Adam is not a story of the past, it is our story, every day; we are all Adam in
our own time and space. As the rabbis used to say, “Everyone has the mark of
Adam.”
And if I had
to summarize the story of the Garden of Eden (which we read in the first
reading for this Sunday), it would be this: by listening to the voice of the
serpent rather than God's command, by allowing suspicion on God’s intentions to
invade their hearts, by believing they could have free license to act as they
wished – to know all things, in biblical language, _ the man and the woman place
themselves under the dominion of death. And when we say that everyone has the
mark of Adam it means that every time we turn away from God, we let the powers
of death invade our lives.
Saint Paul,
in his letter to the Romans, continues the meditation of this subject, and he announces
that humanity has taken a decisive step in Jesus Christ: we are all brothers
and sister of Adam AND we are all brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. We are
brothers and sisters of Adam when we let the poison of suspicion infest our
heart, when we pretend to be a law unto ourselves; we are brothers of Christ
when we trust God enough to let God lead our lives.
We are under
the dominion of death when we behave in the manner of Adam, but when we behave
like Jesus Christ, when are "obedient" (that is to say full of trust)
we are lifted with him in his resurrection to the Realm of Life. The life in
question here is not biological life: it is that which John speaks of when he
says, "Those who believe in me, even though they die will live"; it
is a life that biological death does not interrupt.
You may have
noticed that Paul uses several times the words "reign" or "to
reign”. He is referring to two kingdoms that clash. We could rewrite his text
into two columns: one column could be
titled ‘Adam’ (that is to say humanity when it acts as Adam), with sin, death, judgment, and condemnation. The
other column is for ‘Jesus Christ’ (that is to say the new humanity) with
abundant grace, life, free gift and justification. None of us is entirely in
one or the other of these two columns: we are all men and women divided within
ourselves. Paul himself acknowledges this when he says, "For I do not do
the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (Rm 7, 19).
Adam (in the
sense of humanity) is created to be king (to cultivate and keep the garden, according
to the metaphorical language of the book of Genesis); however, badly advised by the serpent, he
wants to go it alone, by his own strength. However, he can only receive his
royalty from God, and therefore, by cutting himself off from God, he is cutting
himself off from the Source. Jesus Christ, on the contrary, does not claim this
kingship, it is given to him. As Paul said in the letter to the Philippians,
"Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not regard
equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself…" (Phi
2 6).
The story of
the Garden of Eden tells us the same thing in pictures: before the sin, man and
woman could eat of the tree of life; after the fault, they no longer have
access to it. Each in their own way, these two texts, one from Genesis and the other from the letter to the
Romans, speak to the deepest truth of our life: with God everything is grace, everything is free gift; and Paul here
emphasizes the sheer abundance, the profusion of grace: the gift of God and the
transgression are not of the same degree: the grace of God given through one
man, Jesus Christ, has far surpassed the transgression, and has filled up the
multitude. Everything is "gift" if you prefer, which is not
surprising, of course, because, as St. John says, God is Love.
It is not at
all a question of Christ’s good conduct deserving a reward or of Adam’s misconduct
resulting in punishment; it is much deeper: Jesus Christ trusts that in God, all will be given to him ... and indeed
all is given to him in the resurrection. Adam, that is each of us at
times, wants to seize what can only be
received as a gift. The outcome is that Adam finds himself "naked"
that is to say without means, powerless.
I return to
my two columns: by birth we are citizens in the reign of Adam; through baptism
we ask to be naturalized in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
*****
Addendum
In the story
from Genesis, we note that the
author intentionally did not give names to the man and the woman: he simply said,
Adam, which means "of the earth", and "of dust" (made with
dust). By not giving them any names, the author wanted us to understand that
the drama of Adam does not refer to a particular individual, it is rather the
story of each man and woman.
As to Paul’s
use of the words obedience and disobedience, in the last verse, we could
replace the word "obedience" by “faith”, and the word
"disobedience" by “distrust”: as Kierkegaard said, "the opposite
of sin is not virtue, the
opposite of sin is faith.
"
GOSPEL - Matthew 4: 1-11
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command that these stones become loaves of bread.”
He said in reply,
“It is written:
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down.
For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you
and with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus answered him,
“Again it is written,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their
magnificence,
and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you,
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”
At this, Jesus said to him,
“Get away, Satan!
It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then the devil left him and, behold,
angels came and ministered to him.
Commentary
Each year, Lent begins with the story of the temptation of
Jesus in the wilderness: it must obviously be a fundamental text! This year, we
read it from Matthew’s Gospel.
After his baptism
"Jesus was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." It is important to make the
connection between the baptism and the temptation of Jesus; for in the Gospel
itself, Matthew, after reporting the baptism immediately continues, "Then
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
He himself invites us to make a connection between the baptism of Jesus and the temptations that immediately
follow. Of Jesus, Matthew had said a few
verses earlier that, "he will save his people from their sins", which is the meaning of the name,
Jesus. John had baptized him in the
Jordan, and if we recall, John was not happy with this situation: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you
come to me!" (Meaning: the world has been turned upside down) ...
Moreover, at this baptism, something
had happened: "When Jesus had been baptized,
just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and
he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a
voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased."
This sentence
alone, publicly announces that Jesus is truly the Messiah: for the phrase "Son of God" was
synonymous with Messiah-King, and the phrase "the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased" was taken from one
of Isaiah’s Servant Songs. In a few words, Matthew has just reminded us of the
whole mystery of the person of
Jesus, and it is precisely he, the Messiah, the Savior, the Servant, who will face the Tempter. Just like his
people centuries ago, Jesus is taken to the desert; just like his people, he
knows hunger; and like them, he must discover the will of God for his children
and choose whom to worship.
"If you are the Son of God,"
repeated the Tempter, thereby indicating that this is indeed the problem. Jesus was confronted with this problem, not
just three times, but throughout his earthly life. What does it mean, concretely,
to be the Messiah? The question
is complex: is it to solve the problems of humanity by performing miracles,
such as changing stones into bread? Is it to play games with God in order to
test his promises? By jumping from the temple, for example, since Psalm 91 had promised
that God would send his angels to protect his Messiah... Is it to possess the world, to dominate,
to rule, at any price, even if it involves idolatry? Even if it means no longer
being the Son? Note that the third time, the Tempter does not repeat, "If you are the Son of God" ...
In essence these
temptations are all aimed at God's promises: they speak of nothing other than
God himself had promised his Messiah. And both parties, the Tempter as well as Jesus himself, know that. But
here is the difference: God’s promises
are of the order of love; they can only be received as gifts. Love is not
demanding or grasping; it is received on bended knee, in thanksgiving. Basically, we have here the same scenario as
that of garden of Eden: Adam knows, and rightly so, that he is
created to be king, to be free, to be master of creation; but
instead of receiving this as pure gift, in thanksgiving and gratitude, he demands,
he claims for himself, he poses as God’s equal... He steps outside the range of love and he can
no longer receive the love offered... he finds himself poor and naked.
Jesus makes the
opposite choice: "Get
away, Satan! "As he
said later to Peter," You are
setting your mind not on divine things but on human things"(Mt 16,
23). Moreover, several times in this text, Matthew calls the tempter, the "devil"
-"diabolos" in Greek - which means "one who divides." For
each of us, as for Jesus himself, Satan is that which tends to separate us from
God, to see things Adam’s way and not God's way. Incidentally, I note that
everything revolves around one’s outlook: Adam’s was distorted. In contrast, in
order to keep a clear gaze, Jesus scrutinizes the Word of God: his three
responses to the tempter are quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, from a
passage that is a reflection on the Israelites’ temptations in the desert. Consequently,
the devil (the divider) leaves Jesus, having failed to divide, to divert the heart
of the Son.
Recall the words
of St. John in the Prologue (Jn 1, 1): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God
("pros ton Theon" in Greek), and
the Word was God". The devil failed to divert the heart of the Son and
he is open to receive God’s gifts: "Then the devil left him and, behold, angels
came and ministered to him."
Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Dimanche 9 mars:
commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut
http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html
FIRST READING: Gen. 2:7-9; 3:1-7. The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.," But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that, it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. EXPLANATION: Today, as we begin the liturgical season of Lent, a period of preparation for the sufferings and death of Christ for us, our first and second readings give us the reason why that suffering and death were necessary. God created man. "male and female he created them" (Gen. 1 :27). He gave man powers superior to all the other earthly creatures, and expected of him in return obedience and reverence. Man. because of his pride in the gift given him, refused that obedience--with disastrous results that would have everlasting effects on himself and his descendants, had not the mercy of God intervened.