A Homily - First Sunday of Lent (Year A)
First Reading – Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
©
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
50(51):3-6, 12-14, 17 ©
Second Reading – Romans 5:12-19 ©
Gospel
Acclamation – Matthew 4:4
The Gospel According to Matthew – 4:1
- 11 ©
(NJB)
The 1st reading for today presents an etiological myth concerning the origins of humanity, and the transgression into sin.
It is vague and explains very little.
The narrative demonstrates a simple belief that God created the universe on the macro scale (time and space), and also on the micro scale insofar as the creator causes to be organic life on earth, including all of the things beings belonging to it. Finally, the myth intends to convey a fundamental belief that what God has created is good, including human beings.
The myth also conveys the notion that there are laws that govern creation, and that human beings are intended to be subject to them It also teaches that human beings are free, even to the point of being able to violate those laws, but that there will be consequences for any such transgression.
These principles should be taken seriously. Nevertheless, it is important to know this about the divine law and what God’s justice truly iss:
With God there is never justice without mercy.
When we seek forgiveness from God, we are looking for something that already found us. When we are contrite, our contrition is like a shower that washes us.
God has forgiven us, God forgave us before we ever sinned or came to the knowledge of sin, knowing that we would.
Be mindful.
We are all sinners, subject to our animal nature; we are no different than the wolf or the lion, except in that the divine speaks to us from our innermost being. God is present at our core; in this way God gives us the power, and the grace to overcome that animal nature so that we may live a life of conscience.
This is what it means to be created in the divine image, a seed of the word within us and the knowledge of good and evil.
Know this!
There is no crime that God has not forgiven.
Do not look for God’s hand in the tribulations we suffer here, or the rewards we enjoy on earth, the good and the bad are both like the wind, fleeting and ephemeral.
Remember!
The scope of the creature’s actions, and the consequences that flow from sin, cannot exceed the scope of the divine intention and the power of grace to heal them.
Consider the Gospel reading for today and know that there is no devil, there is no deceiver except the deceiver that lies in our own hearts.
God has given us the ability to know the truth, and discern good from evil. God has also given each of us the ability to deny the truth, reject it, to lie to ourselves and others.
Be mindful.
The lies we tell always originate in our own heart. We tell them first to ourselves, before we try to convince others about the truth of what is not.
We face many temptations as human beings. The reading for today highlights three of the most basic forms that the temptation to do evil might take.
The temptation to turn stones into bread is not the temptation to perform a magic trick, it is an acknowledgement that we are at times tempted toward injustice by the simplest and most ordinary things…by hunger and thirst, by the necessity of meeting our most basic needs.
Any of us, when faced with making those hard choices, the choice to feed ourselves, our children, the ones we love, all of us will at least contemplate breaking the laws of the state, the laws of Church and God, in order to provide for those in our care.
Some would only contemplate the transgression, most would move forward and do the deed.
The temptation to throw himself off the wall of the temple, was not the temptation to rely on a supernatural power for safety and protection, it was the temptation to vanity which we all suffer from. The temptation is to believe in oneself so much that we risk any danger, even risk our own lives, and therefore the well-being of everyone who depends on us, out of the belief that we can do no wrong, or that nothing can harm us.
The third temptation was not the temptation to rule the world, because that is the temptation to fantasy. The third temptation is the temptation rooted in the love of wealth and lust for power, which is the most ordinary temptation of all.
To succumb to these temptation, to yield to any of them, is to suborn our faith in the way that Jesus taught us, putting in its place faith in our own machinations, like a will to power.
First Reading – Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 ©
The Creation, and the Sin of Our First
Parents
The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil.
Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a
living being.
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in
the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to
spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to
eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in
the middle of the garden.
Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the wild
beasts that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you
were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ The woman answered the
serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of
the tree in the middle of the garden God said, “You must not eat it, nor touch
it, under pain of death.”’ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘No! You will
not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened
and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.’ The woman saw that the tree
was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the
knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She
gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of
both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed
fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.
Responsorial
Psalm – Psalm 50(51):3-6, 12-14, 17 ©
Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your
compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse
me from my sin.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned.
My offences truly I know them;
my sin is
always before me
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil
in your sight I have done.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned.
A pure heart create for me, O God,
put a
steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
nor deprive
me of your holy spirit.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Give me again the joy of your help;
with a
spirit of fervour sustain me,
O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth
shall declare your praise.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Second Reading – Romans 5:12-19 ©
However Great the Number of Sins Committed,
Grace was Even Greater
Sin entered the world through one man, and through
sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because
everyone has sinned. Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given.
There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of ‘law-breaking’,
yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike
that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law.
Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself
considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall
so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one
man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift. The results of the
gift also outweigh the results of one man’s sin: for after one single fall came
judgement with a verdict of condemnation, now after many falls comes grace with
its verdict of acquittal. If it is certain that death reigned over everyone as
the consequence of one man’s fall, it is even more certain that one man, Jesus
Christ, will cause everyone to reign in life who receives the free gift that he
does not deserve, of being made righteous. Again, as one man’s fall brought
condemnation on everyone, so the good act of one man brings everyone life and
makes them justified. As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so
by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 4:4
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
The Gospel According to Matthew – 4:1
- 11 ©
The Temptation in the Wilderness
Jesus
was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He
fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was very hungry, and the
tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to
turn into loaves.’ But he replied, ‘Scripture says:
Man
does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God.’
The
devil then took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the
Temple. ‘If you are the Son of God’ he said ‘throw yourself down; for scripture
says:
He
will put you in his angels’ charge, and they will support you on their hands in
case you hurt your foot against a stone.’
Jesus
said to him, ‘Scripture also says:
You
must not put the Lord your God to the test.’
Next,
taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of
the world and their splendour. ‘I will give you all these’ he said, ‘if you fall
at my feet and worship me.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Be off, Satan! For scripture
says:
You
must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.’
Then
the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.
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