First Sunday of Lent A March 13, 2011

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7     Ps: 51    Romans   5:12, 17-19 Matthew 4:1-11 

We begin this season of Lent with a realisation that it is a preparation for Easter – the Paschal Mystery. It will be a time when we walk together with those who will be baptised at Easter. At this time, we, who have been baptised will look at our own baptismal promises and re-commit ourselves to God and to our Church community.

The readings from the Old Testament will focus in these six weeks on our salvation history. We see the hand of God touching us as we journey. We begin our journey with the Story of Adam and Eve. They stand for us: you and me. We are all designed to be the centre and culmination of creation. This is seen in the two accounts of the creation we have in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis.

• In the first story, Adam and Eve are the final creation, the climax of all the creation that went before.
• In the second story, Adam and Eve are the centre of creation. Everything else: birds, animals, fish and nature are there for their service. But they have the responsibility of being good stewards of the earth entrusted to them.

We can choose either of these stories for our prayer and meditation. We soon realise that we did not behave as God intended us to be. Today we continue to abuse the earth, genetically modify creation:  plants, animals and humans. Adam and Eve disobeyed. We continue to disobey. As a result, sin has entered the world. Paul tells us that he wages of sin is death.  In our readings today – from Genesis, from Paul and from the three temptations of Christ, the focus is on Adam and sin/death and the second Adam: Jesus and his obedience and life.

We do not look at these stories literally, but as a paradigm a symbol of what takes place in our lives. Adam and Eve stand for all of us. We cannot fall into the trap of laying all the blame on Eve. We see this in 1 Tim. 2:13-14:

• For Adam was formed first, then Eve.  And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
• In fact, Paul puts the entire blame of the fall on Adam. In Paul’s picture, Eve does not even enter the picture.
• Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people. Romans 5:12.

However the focus of the sin of Adam and Eve – and consequently on all of us, highlights the sin of disobedience. WE do not want to walk in the paths of the Lord or obey God’s commands. We consequently suffer not only death, but also hostility from nature. There are thorns and thistles rather than a bed of roses as we eke out our living each day of our life.

The first ray of hope comes from the Paul’s letter to the Romans. Just as sin and death came through the disobedience of Adam, now we have hope and life through the second Adam. Jesus, the second Adam would be obedient. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul would say: Jesus was obedient even unto death, death on the cross. His obedience would make the thorns and thistles of daily life easier to live with. As we proceed through Lent, we will see how Jesus would bear the burden of our disobedience, our sins, our death. This is the story of our salvation. This is our prayer through Lent.

In a very graphic way, we see the examples of the obedience of the second Adam in our Gospel. The three temptations deal precisely with the obedience to the new commandments, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The obedience of this command to love will be seen in the three temptations which represent the basic facets of our every day life and interactions with “our neighbour”

The first is to turn stones into bread. Bread is the substance of our every day need. Without food we die, and yet the world does not want to share. We are more concerned with making more money, and we will even turn grain into bio-fuel to feed our cars, rather than our neighbour who is starving. “Man does not live on bread alone”  - we are turning not stones into bread in our culture, but the reverse. We are taking the bread out of our neighbour’s mouth and turning it into stone – precious stones that we can sell and fill our coffers.

The second is the offer of all that glitters and shines in this world. No one is immune to this temptation. Actually that is not true, only when we get old, we realise that these things were not worth pouring all our energy, intellect and health into acquiring them. They all came, but they will all pass! As Job would tell us, “naked I came into this world” and in the same way, I will leave it. I will take nothing along with me.

The final temptation is the most devious of them all. Why would not anyone use means for the betterment of our work, our apostolate, our enterprises? And yet this involves a compromise. Jesus was asked to compromise the very purpose for which he came into this world. He came to proclaim God’s Kingdom. This would be done by “not my will, but your will be done.” Falling down and adoring other gods, no matter what the rewards – would nullify our very calling. We go back to Adam and Eve, who were made in God’s image and likeness. As Ps 91 would say The Lord is my refuge and fortress. My God, in you I trust. So why would we, how could we – fall down and worship another, no matter what the rewards.

We end up with a choice. We can be like the first Adam and disobey and choose death. Or, we can be like the Second Adam, obey, pick up our cross daily and choose Life.