Living
Obedience Is Our Gift To God; Pray Against Temptation
As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners,so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
First Sunday of Lent (Year A)
Gen 2.7-9, 3.1-7;
Rom 5.12-19;
Mt 4.1-11
SIN IS MISSING THE MARK
The human tendency of making bad decisions has been around for a long time. We often substitute our God-given choices, that is, choices of respecting one another and integrity, for our selfish desires and aspirations. These wrong choices and intentions can lead us far away from God. In today’s first reading, we see how our first parents were tempted by the devil, fell into sin and sin gave a dirty mark on humanity. Eve made a bad choice and from then on Adam and Eve started going further away from God.
DISOBEDIENCE IS THE RESULT OF UNBELIEF
Disobedience is the mark of sin and they lost their tickets to heaven. The soul’s spiritual faculties over the body was shattered, the union between man and woman becomes subject to tensions while creation’s harmony is broken and universe is alen to man. Sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Testament. Over centuries, in the history of Israel sin constantly raise it’s ugly head among the people,; drifting them far away from God. The obedience of the people of Israel is what determined their entrance into the land of promise.
ST. PAUL’S COMMENT ON ORIGINAL SIN
In his great letter to the early Christians in Rome, St Paul talks about this sin, and about the truth that we are released from it through the blood of Christ. Let me remind you of what he says: 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. 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. As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
THE FORTY DAYS MARK
Lent is a period of forty days. It takes its duration from the event described in today’s gospel passage: He fasted for forty days and forty nights. Our Lord is about to start His public ministry, healing the sick, raising the dead, and preaching the good news of the new covenant between God and mankind. And before He starts this work, He prepares by praying and fasting for forty days. It is a basic human necessity to prepare for a decisive event or decision, or a major change in our lives.Moses acted in the same way before proclaiming, in God’s name, the Old Law on Mount Sinai; Elijah went into the desert for forty days also, to fulfil the law. And so we too have our forty days of preparation. We follow in Christ’s footsteps in our yearly Lenten fast; we do so to prepare for Easter, to prepare to proclaim the gospel of the salvation of the risen Christ. This is the good news of the gospel: that we have been freed from the power of sin by Christ. Of course, this does not mean that we will not be tempted. We know that we are, and we know that often we will show just how weak we are by our repeated falls into sin. But we can learn from our Lord’s responses to the devil in His temptations in the desert; we can see how He overcame the power of the devil. He continues to teach us to follow His example.
In the first of the temptations, Christ has been fasting for forty days and nights; naturally, He is very hungry and the devil makes use of this opportunity, tempting him to change a stone into bread. Although he could do this miracle, Christ chooses to continue to trust his heavenly Father. The miracle which the devil proposes would have been for Christ’s benefit only, and so could not have been part of God’s plan for our redemption – and it is only as part of that plan that God shows his power in the miracles. God had led his Son into the desert to prepare Him for His work as Messiah; and He will now see to it that Jesus does not die of hunger. For his continuing trust in His Father’s providence, God sends angels to minister to Him.
THE NEXT TEMPTATIONS
And then the devil shows just how subtle his warped mind is. For he says in effect, “Very well; if you trust God to look after you in all things, throw yourself off this tower. God will surely look after you.” He continues now to make the same move in tempting us; he takes our good actions and thoughts, and twists them, making them into something fitting his purposes, trying to turn us away from God. Satan tempts Christ to put God to the test, the very opposite of having trust in him. To do so is a sign of unbelief and of arrogance.
+BE GONE, SATAN!
In the third temptation, we can perhaps see the devil looking towards the reason why Christ was in the desert in the first place, as preparation for his role as Messiah. Like many of the people, the devil sees the Messianic kingdom as an earthly rule, but he is wrong and Christ rejects him vigorously: “Be gone, Satan!” In order to establish the true kingdom of heaven, Christ will have to suffer and shed his blood. There is no short cut. Christ could not win the final victory over sin without the ultimate sacrifice.
THE INDELIBLE MARK OF BAPTISM
On the first Sunday of Lent, the Church wants to expose us to the beginning of Christ public ministry in obedience to the will of the Father. He allowed himself to be tempted out of love for us and to instruct us. He wanted to teach us how to fight and to conquer our temptations. He shows us that we will do it only by having trust in God, and by prayer, with the help of God’s grace. By rejecting the temptations of the devil, Christ atones for the sins of us who come after Him, and for those who went before Him
Our Lord has shown us the way, and He promises his grace to assist us. Through our baptism, we receive the indelible mark on our forehead as a sign that we belongs to Christ. It is the mark of Christian identity.
LIFE’S PREPARATION
When we go to confession – which I strongly urge you all to do often, and most especially as part of your preparation for Easter – we make an act of contrition for our sins. And this often concludes with these or similar words, addressed to our loving heavenly Father: “With the help of your grace, I will not sin again.” We can only defeat the devil with the help of God’s grace, grace we can receive sacramentally in confession. Let us make it our Lenten resolution to follow our Lord into the desert and to follow his example in overcoming our temptations, by the strength of his grace.
Fr Joseph Osho
