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. man . . . ground: This description of the creation and fall of man, as given in chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis, dates from about the tenth century B.C. The first eleven chapters of Genesis were written in order to explain why Abraham was called by God to form the Chosen People. The writer of these early chapters had some oral, and perhaps even some written, traditions which were centuries older. They deal with "facts," however, which happened millions of years previously, but the basic truths they contain-namely, the existence of one only God, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, who created, by a simple word of command, the whole universe with all its inhabitants including man-the masterpiece "made to God's image and likeness" and the master of all the other creatures--are truths which could only have been known from divine revelation. Apart from these basic truths, the literary settings in which the author or authors tell their story, need not be taken literally in all their details.
into. . . life: That man was made from dust, like a vase is made by a posters is one such detail. This was but a poetic way of saying God formed or made him. Experience taught that a dead man turns eventually into a heap of dust. Likewise a man breathes through his nostrils, and its a sign that he lives; while life leaves him through his nostrils when he ceases to breathe; therefore life was "put into him" through his nostrils.
a garden in Eden: A poetic description of the happy life of man before he sinned. The tree of life; a symbol of the everlasting life he would have after he had ended his life on this earth, if he had remained faithful.
tree. . . evil: To means to experience in act what is good and what is evil. The tree is a symbol for man's conduct in relation to God. While man respected and reverenced God he experienced what was good; when he refused to serve God and followed his own desires he experienced evil.
the serpent: That the world was full of sin was self-evident; not only did all the nations of the author's day ignore the true God, but even the people he had chosen to prepare for the great event of the Incarnation, disobeyed and disrespected him continually. How then did it happen that God's masterpiece and image had not only forgotten him but positively disobeyed him? The serpent, representing some intelligent creature already an enemy of God, induced the first human beings to disobey.
you . . . God: This was the bait offered: "You need not be subject to God, you need not obey or reverence him, you shall be his equals." Independence, equality, freedom to do as they wished, in other words, the sin of pride.
eyes were opened: No sooner had they given their consent their eyes were opened to this act of pride and they realized their terrible mistake. The loss of their state of grace, of friendship with God, brought with it numerous disorders of body and mind which resulted in the sins of the world, which are still with us. APPLICATION: In recent years theologians have been discussing and arguing about the nature of what is called "Original sin," and how it is transmitted from generation to generation. The patent fact is that sin abounds, and has abounded in our world from the earliest days of man on earth. The reason why the Church recalls to our minds today the basic facts that God, out of sheer goodness, created man and gave him marvelous gifts, and man in his meanness and foolish pride refused obedience and loyalty to his divine benefactor, is simply to remind us that we are all sinners and descendants of sinners. While theologians may, and should, try to discover the real nature of original sin and its mode of transmission, the fact that we men of to day, centuries and millennia later, are still sinners, still proud, still so often disloyal and ungrateful to the good God, who made us what we are, is and should be our chief preoccupation during this season of Lent. While we have every reason to regret that our first parents acted so foolishly and so ungratefully, the fact that we ourselves, with far more knowledge of God's goodness to mankind can and do act even more foolishly and more ungratefully every time we disobey God, should be a greater cause for shame and regret to each one of us. We know that God, sent his Son on earth in human nature, in order to earn for us a share in God's own divine happiness. And God did this, even though the human race had proved itself so unworthy of this divine favor. His divine Son had to suffer, not only the humiliation of taking on himself the nature of a mere creature--our human nature but he had to suffer insults and injuries in that human nature, which reached their climax in his crucifixion on Calvary. That God would deign to share his heaven with the saintly and the good who had never offended him, even though they were mere creatures would be an act of divine love indeed, but that he should want to grant eternal happiness to sinners, at the cost of the torments and sufferings of his beloved Son, is surely a mystery of love beyond our human comprehension. Yet, this is one of the basic truths of our Christian faith. What sinner--and we are all sinners could dare to hope that God would forgive his sins, what right could he have, after his own mean behavior toward the God who gave him everything he has, to expect any pardon? But one sincere look at a crucifix should be enough to dispel any thought of despair or despondency. Christ took on himself the sins of the world. He nailed them to the cross, in order to open the door to heaven for all men. Through his Incarnation he raised us up to the status of adopted sons of God; through his sufferings and crucifixion he made atonement to his Father for the sins of all men, thus removing the impediment that could prevent us from reaching the reward of sonship, membership in the eternal kingdom of God. But even God cannot remove our sins unless we do our part; Christ's sufferings and death for us will be in vain, unless we cooperate. This is just what Lent means for us. It is a period of penance and repentance. We regret the many disobediences and disloyalties we have shown to God up to now, and we try to make some personal atonement for them, by some special acts of mortification and devotion during this holy season. We want to go to heaven when our life here ends. God wants us in heaven and has proved this beyond a shadow of doubt. Satan--the serpent mentioned in today's reading--does not want us to go there. He deceived our first parents; could we possibly be so foolish as to let him deceive us too?
SECOND READING: Romans 5:12-19. Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned--sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgressions of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the, effect of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. EXPLANATION: In chapters 5-8 (inclusive) of his letter to the Romans, St. Paul is speaking of some of the immediate effects of Christian salvation, as brought to mankind by Christ. Sin has been conquered; eternal life has been won for all who will follow Christ. All who die with Christ through baptism will rise with Christ to an everlasting life of glory; they are sons of God, they are entitled to call God their father, "Abba." They are therefore God's heirs and Christ's fellow-heirs if they continue to follow him. In today's reading (5: 12-19), St. Paul is stressing the fact that Christ through his death not only conquered sin but poured out divine grace so abundantly and lavishly on mankind, making them his brothers and therefore sons of God, that there is no comparison between the world redeemed by Christ's death and the world of sin which prevailed up to then.
sin . . . man: Paul is referring to the pride and folly of our first parents, as described in chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis (see first reading for today). As he is contrasting Christ, the founder of the new redeemed and exalted human race, with the founder of the sinful, fallen human race, he speaks of Adam as the one individual who brought sin into this world.
death . . . sin:That is, spiritual death or sin, because sin alienated man from God and made it impossible for man to reach the goal which God had planned for him--eternal life with God.
spread. . . sinned: This spiritual death or alienation from God, infected all men. How this happened is a much disputed question. It is sufficient for our purpose to admit the fact as St. Paul states it.
sin. . . law: That the law given to Moses contained all the precepts and commands God wished his Chosen People to keep. To break one of these precepts was to sin. And such a sin was like that of Adam, as literally described in Genesis, for Adam had been given an explicit command. But St. Paul says that in the long period between Adam and Moses, when men had no explicit commands from God, sin still abounded because man's reason could and did inform men of the sinfulness of certain acts. By violating what we call the natural law" men sinned.
sin . . . counted: These sins were not violations of God's formally expressed commands; but still they were violations of God's law "written in men's hearts" and as such merited eternal death.
free gift . . . trespass: This is the point St. Paul wants to stress: the grace, the favor of God, brought to men through the Incarnation, exceeds beyond measure the evil that sin brought into the world. For, by the Incarnation Christ not only took away the sins of men but made all men adopted sons of God and heirs to eternal life.
condemnation . . . righteousness: The condemnation which sin brought on man was estrangement from God in this life, to be followed by eternal separation from him in the next. The justification brought to us by Christ, not only means the renewal of our friendship with God, but it gives us the new status of adopted sonship.
death . . . man: Many, perhaps, refused to repent of their personal sins and so merited exclusion from God's eternal kingdom, but compared with the millions who would gain eternal life, because of Christ, their number was very small.
trespass. . . righteousness: Again the same contrast between the relatively small consequence of the original sin, and the superabundance of the effects of the Incarnation. It has made life eternal available to all men. APPLICATION: The message that should come over "loud and clear, to each one of us today, from these words of St. Paul, is that we Are dealing with a God of infinite mercy, and infinite love. He created man and gave him gifts which raised him above all other earthly creatures. Through these gifts, man was able to recognize that he was a mere creature, that he owed all he was and had to a generous Creator, and that therefore he was in duty bound to respect and reverence his benefactor (see Rom. 1: 19-23). But man, moved by pride in the higher gifts he possessed, which were not his own, turned his back on God and refused to revere and obey him. Man sinned and thereby excluded himself from the eternal reward God had planned for him. What human benefactor would stand for such ingratitude, and would not turn his back on such an ungrateful creature for evermore? But God is infinite in mercy and in love; he is not a human, limited being. He would still carry out his plan to make men his adopted sons, and thus give them a share in his eternal inheritance. The Incarnation as planned from the beginning would still take place. The Son of God would take our human nature, would come down to our level, so that we could share in his divine nature, and be raised up to son ship with God. The Incarnation--this almost incredible act of God's infinite love for us--was not a "second thought" on God's part when man sinned, but was willed by God from all eternity as a means of uniting all men with himself and with each other. The sins of the generations that preceded Christ's coming were therefore, in comparison, but tiny shadows which brought out all the more strongly the brilliance of divine love as seen in the Incarnation. The effects of the Incarnation were retroactive--sinners who repented before the Incarnation took place, became heirs of heaven, as will also all repentant sinners who have lived and died since Christ came on earth. Learning the lesson Paul teaches us today, let us thank God for his infinite mercy and love, as proved by his making us brothers of Christ and co-heirs with Christ to heaven. Let us also beg pardon with heartfelt contrition for the many, times we have forgotten his goodness to us, and in our pride have followed our own will rather than his. He will forgive and forget our sins if we sincerely seek his pardon. He has prepared heaven for us and wants us there; let us all use this holy season of Lent to help us to get there.
GOSPEL:Matt 4: 1-11. Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the, wilderness to be, tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge of you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. EXPLANATION: It was God's purpose that the devil should tempt Christ and be conquered in the contest. As the Fathers of the Church aptly remark, there was nothing unbecoming in the fact that Christ allowed the devil to tempt him and to touch him in his human nature. He had assumed that human nature in order to suffer in it, through Satan and his agents, and thus redeem and elevate all human nature.
Jesus . . . Spirit: After his baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into a desert place (near the Jordan). This was a voluntary act under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, through which he would set an example to all his followers.
tempted by the devil: This was a humiliation surely for the Son of God, but only one of the many Christ underwent for our sakes.
forty . . . nights: The length of his period of fasting, 40 days, and the desert, would seem to indicate that Christ, the founder of the New Israel, was reproducing at the beginning of his messianic mission, the trials and temptations of the old Chosen People during their 40 years wandering in the desert. They failed miserably in their tests, they murmured and rebelled against God, but Christ gave a decisive "no" to the tempter's suggestions. Christ's answers are couched in words taken from Deuteronomy 6-8, the section of the Old Testament which summarizes the trials and the failures of the old Israel in the desert (see Dt. 8:1-6).
he was hungry: After 40 days Christ had to be hungry he was really human, and he used no divine power to prevent the natural effects of want of food on a human body. This gave the tempter his opportunity.
If you . . . God: Satan, suspected or knew, that Christ was the promised Messiah, that is, the "Son of God," in the sense of an agent or close friend of God. The kings of Israel and the Chosen People were also called "sons of God."
command . . . Stones: In all three temptations, the tempter wants him to use his messianic power for his own benefit. Here he is asked to turn stones into loaves of bread, just to satisfy his own hunger.
It is written: Christ's answer is a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, where God tells the Chosen People, who had bitterly complained of hunger and whom he had fed miraculously with the "manna," that bread alone was not the sustenance or source of life, but the will of God their Creator and sustainer.
pinnacle . . . temple: Probably the southeastern corner of the wall which surrounded the temple, where there was a drop of 120 feet into the Kedron valley.
for it is written: Shakespeare says: "the devil can quote scripture for his own purpose." Again the attempt is to make Christ abuse his messianic power and tempt God.
again. . . written: Christ answers the Devil’s quote from scripture with another quotation from scripture (Dt. 6:16) in its true sense. The texts quoted by Satan were falsely interpreted. God would protect his faithful one, but the faithful servant of God must not put himself deliberately in danger--this would be tempting God. The reference in Dt .6:16, is to the rebellious Israelites who accused God of bringing them out of Egypt to die of thirst in the desert (Ex. 17: 1-7).
all . . . world: Here is a final temptation to use his messianic power for his own aggrandizement and glorification, not for the glory of God. Also, it is a foolish attempt to lead Christ into idolatry.
Begone Satan: Christ replied "begone Satan" and forthwith the tempter is named and dismissed. Christ reminds him that God alone must be worshipped and served "as it is written" (Dt. 6:13). The Israelites, on getting possession of the Promised land, frequently forgot God in their desire for earthly wealth and power, and thus frequently turned to idolatry. This eventually made them slaves of the pagan nations whose false gods they had adored instead of Yahweh the real God.
angels . . . him: God sent his messengers to provide for his bodily needs after the long fast. APPLICATION: This incident in our Lord's life, his forty days and nights of fasting followed by temptations, has been chosen as a reading for this first Sunday of Lent for our edification and encouragement. Lent is a period of preparation for the central Christian events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Christ, the Son of God in human nature, died the excruciating death of crucifixion on Good Friday, because of the sins of the human race. By this supreme act of obedience to his heavenly Father he made atonement for all our disobediences, and set us free from the slavery of Satan and of sin. In his resurrection his human nature was glorified by God the Father, and in that glorification we are all offered a share and given the right to an eternal life of glory, if we follow Christ faithfully in this life. For every sincere Christian therefore, who appreciates what Good Friday and Easter Sunday mean for her or him, this period of preparation should be a welcome opportunity. The Church no longer imposes on us any obligatory daily fasting from food, but it urges us to find other means of mortifying ourselves, so as to show that we realize what Christ has done for us and what he has earned for us through his passion, death and resurrection. The example of Christ fasting from food for forty days, should move even the coldest Christian heart to try to do something to make reparation for past negligence and sins. Christ had no sin to atone for; it was for our sins that he mortified himself. We all have much to atone for. If, because of the demands of our present way of life, we cannot fast rigorously as our grandparents did, we can find many other less noticeable, but maybe nonetheless difficult, ways of subduing our human worldly inclinations. Where there is a will there is a way; the willing Christian will find ready substitutes for fasting. The temptations, to which our Lord allowed himself to be submitted, are for us a source of encouragement and consolation. If our Lord and master under went temptation, we cannot and must not expect to live a Christian life without experiencing similar tests and trials. The three temptations Satan put to our Lord were suggestions to forget his purpose in life--his messianic mission of redemption. He was urged to get all the bodily comforts of life, all the self-glory which men could give him, and all the possessions and power this world has to offer. Our basic temptations in life are the same: bodily comforts and pleasure, the empty esteem of our fellowman, wealth and power. There are millions of men and women on earth today--many of them nominal Christians--who have given in to these temptations and, are wasting their lives chasing after these unattainable shadows. But even should they manage to catch up with some of them, they soon find out that they are empty baubles. They will have to leave them so very soon. Today, let each one of us look into his heart and honestly examine his reaction to these temptations. Do we imitate our Savior and leader, and say "begone Satan"? Our purpose in life is not to collect its treasures, its honors or its pleasures. We are here for a few short years, to merit the unending life which Christ has won for us. Would we be so foolish as to swap our inheritance for a mere mess of pottage (see Gen. 25:29-34)? Lent is a golden opportunity to review our past and make sensible resolutions for our future.-a104 Click to return to our Home page
