Moments ago, we admitted to God that we had sinned in our thoughts, words and deeds. Sin is a reality we contend with daily, a consequence of our freedom to make choices.
One of the greatest blessings we receive from God is the power to decide, along with the responsibility of being able to decide. We’re free to choose, but that also means we’re free to make bad choices. Lent is a time when we remember and repent for the evil choices we’ve made personally and as God’s people. The readings today show us how we got into these situations and how we can get out of them.
The first reading from Genesis tells us how temptation, the devil’s tool for seducing us, works and like Adam and Eve, we have to take responsibility for our actions, because excuses like “the Devil made me do it” and “I didn’t know any better” are so often old, tired, and lame.
As we heard, Adam and Eve had life breathed into them by God. Having created a paradise for them, God also created limits for their own good. “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat of it you shall die.” God knew what was in store for them if they did so and became aware of their freedom to make moral choices.
To make Adam and Eve aware of good and evil, the serpent first prompted them to doubt whether God had their best interest in mind. “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.” Eve considered her options and ate; Adam follows her lead, and the deed was done. Their eyes indeed were opened and life was no longer a bed of roses for them.
In today’s second reading, Paul reminds us that Adam’s decision had consequences not only for him but also for all humanity. Adam sinned and lost it all, like a gambler squandering his family’s livelihood and going bust. As Paul tells us, “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death.”
The Original Sin of Adam ushered in death for us all. Like a virus, sin is contagious, impacting every person. We sin whenever we decide to disobey God or worse yet rebel. Sin occurs when we do not love God, our neighbor or ourselves.
Fortunately, our capacity to decide has an even greater potential for doing good than for evil. Christ, the New Adam, ushered life back into humanity through his good decision. By becoming human, Jesus Christ became the new head of humanity, since he was and still is its greatest example of love, the antidote for sin. He decided to lay down his life out of love for the Father and us, and by doing so, he conquered sin and death but alas he didn’t destroy our ability to sin.
The garden of temptation in the gospel has been replaced, ages later, by a desert of temptation. Before beginning his public ministry Jesus fasted and prayed for forty days, and, like us, he had to face temptation when making the right decisions. He does this to teach us how we can face and overcome temptations ourselves.
The devil first tempts him to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. Undoubtedly, Jesus could turn stones to bread in a snap. But he replied: “One does not live on bread alone.” There are more important things to life than just filling your tummy. We must also live on God’s word as well. God’s will for us and others should always shape our decisions.
Since the devil knew that Jesus was a scriptural man, he tried to use some scripture of his own. Taking him to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem, the devil then insisted that Jesus demand proof of God’s protection, and he even had the gall to back up his demand with Bible verses. But Jesus replied that we must not put God to the test.
Instead, we need to have faith in God to make right decisions. Scripture helps us to know God’s will, not just to justify our actions. We can try to make a Biblical case for when we choose to do wrong, but it is God who ultimately justifies or condemns our actions, not us.
Finally, the devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, provided Jesus groveled at his feet. He offered Jesus everything except the one thing the devil wouldn’t give up: being number one.
Rebuking Satan, Jesus focused on who is number one: his Heavenly Father and the mission he had received —“The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Serving God should always shape our decisions. If God is not in first place, our decisions will take a wrong turn.
Lent is a time when the Church invites us to pay special attention to God’s Word, the truth that Christ came to reveal to us – so that we don’t forget what really matters.
There are many ways to do this. It could be as simple as spending fifteen minutes a day reading and reflecting on Scripture. It could mean turningoff the noise around us and taking time to read a good spiritual book or study the catechism – that hidden treasure house of Catholic doctrine and wisdom that we pay much too little attention to.
Today Jesus will renew his commitment to us by coming once again, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the sacrifice of this Mass, by offering himself to us as the true bread from heaven in Holy Communion. When he does, let’s renew our commitment to him as we venture into this holy season.