Commentary
Sunday, 3/5/2017, First Sunday of Lent
There Was a Reason for the Command
First Reading Commentary Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
For Mankind, the battle between good and evil began in the Garden of Eden which was a place where everything was a pleasure and a delight. There was but one tree, the tree of knowledge; that God commanded Adam and Eve to not eat from or even touch. But the serpent who; was the most cunning of creatures, convinced Eve to eat from the tree and Eve then convinced Adam to do the same. After eating from the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve knew the difference between good and evil and thus the battle began.
There are several lessons for us to learn from this mistake of Adam and Eve but today’s liturgy is all about good vs. evil so I will focus this commentary on that point.
If it were not for the cunning ways of the devil, we would not know evil. We would not have any evil ways and there would be no sin. Everything in our lives would be perfect. There would be no war, no such thing as crime and no greed. As a result, there would be no need for money. Oh what a joy that would be. No money: no bills. Works for me. But because the devil is so good at making bad look and/or sound good, we submit to his temptations and that is why the world is a mess today.
Now don’t get it twisted. We cannot blame the devil for our sins. He just puts the temptation in front of us and makes the sinful act appear so satisfying that we simply have, to commit the sin. The operative words are, “we…commit the sin.”
The good news is that we are blessed with the gift of a free will and the Spirit works within our conscience always trying to get us to choose; good. But the bad news is that the devil is always in front of us trying to con us into following his temptations. This is the constant battle of good vs. evil that we confront every day and all too often, we side with evil.
None of this is news. We all know it. Even those of us who are not religious know it. But what the mortal eye can see and what the mortal ear can hear is often times so attractive to us that we forget that this life on earth is only mortal. When we follow the devil’s temptations, it is because we choose the physical pleasure of what is right in front of us, which is mortal, and we loose touch of the spiritual pleasures which are eternal.
Ask yourself this question: Did God command Adam and Eve to stay away from the tree of knowledge because He did not want them to have knowledge? Of course not! God did not want Adam and Eve to go near the tree of knowledge because God did not want them to follow the evil one thereby choosing sin. Unfortunately for them and for all of us, Adam and Eve did choose sin by not obeying God’s command.
But we have a great advantage over Adam and Eve because we can learn from their mistake. We can also learn from the promise that God made in Genesis 3:15 as a result of their mistake: the promise of the woman and her Son; the promise of Mary and Jesus. This knowledge is our advantage and the reason why we should always remind ourselves of the story of Adam and Eve.
One Man’s Sin vs. One Man’s Obedience
Second Reading Commentary Romans 5:12-19
St. Paul looks at the sin of Adam and Eve and says, “Through one man sin entered the world.” Two questions immediately come to mind. 1- Why does Paul say, “…one man…?” 2- Does Paul blame the sins of the world on Adam?
In Genesis 2:16-17, God gave man the command of not eating from the tree of knowledge. God did not give this command directly to Eve because she had not yet been created. Adam was therefore responsible for upholding the law.
Some women take exception to what I am about to say next but it was God’s intent from the beginning for the man to be head of household. As Adam was responsible for upholding the law in the Garden of Eden, the man is responsible for the well-being of his household. It is for this reason that Paul says, “…one man…”
Paul’s wording in the beginning of today’s reading may give the impression that he blames Adam for all sin. This is not true. If Adam and Eve had not broken God’s commandment, we would not be born with original sin. But the sin of Adam and Eve has nothing to do with the sins that we choose to commit. Those sins are our own fault and we can only blame ourselves.
We cannot say that the devil made us do it either. Adam and Eve tried that and it did not work. The reason is because when we submit to the devil’s temptations, we make a deliberate choice to sin. Therefore, as I said, we can only blame ourselves.
But Paul goes on to explain that even though the sin of one man brings death to all men, grace and justification come to reign in life through one man, Jesus Christ. Paul is not talking about physical death or physical life. Paul is telling us that when we sin, our spirit dies to the eternal life in heaven and that only through the saving-grace of Jesus Christ, can we be resurrected.
Paul reminds us that this saving-grace is available to us because of the crucifixion, death and Resurrection of Christ when he says, “Through one righteous act, acquittal and life come to all.” We reflect on this reading on the First Sunday in Lent, because we attain the redemptive saving-grace of Christ by confessing our sins and repentance. Lent is a time to repent and we should make a special effort to go to Confession during Lent.
Finally, Paul reminds us that through Adam’s disobedience, we were made sinners, but through the obedience of Christ, we will be made righteous. Think about that: the obedience of Christ. I could write pages of commentary on that subject but the point that I want to make here is that Christ did not have to come and be obedient. Christ came and gave Himself up on the cross because He loves us that much!
That is what makes Lent so special and it is the reason, why we should take the time to admit to our sins, tell God that we are sorry and repent.
Stand Up with an Attitude
Gospel Commentary Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus was led to the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil and spent forty days. The forty days of Jesus in the desert was a reliving of the forty years that the Israelites spent wandering in the desert but where the Israelites fell into sin; Jesus did not. The forty days of Lent are a reminder to us of the forty days of fasting that Jesus spent in the desert.
Imagine yourself going through forty days of fasting in a baron place like the desert. Imagine how hungry you would be and how strong your urge would be to satisfy your physical desires. Now take that urge and multiply it by the total number of mankind; past, present and future. This is how strong the urge was for Jesus.
The devil tempted Jesus three times taking full advantage of His physical state. When we reflect on this gospel, we must remember that Jesus was one hundred percent divine but He was also one hundred percent human. It was the humanity of Jesus that the devil tempted. After all, if the devil could get the humanity of Jesus to sin, then he could make a case for himself as being better than God.
In his first temptation, the devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” But Jesus replied, “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
How often, we have heard that line. But we don’t always stop to think about what Jesus really said. Nothing of this world is worth anything to our survival and our life in heaven because this life on earth does not begin to compare to our life in heaven. This life is only temporary and unimportant but our life in heaven is eternal.
There is also an undertone to what Jesus said. Jesus was calling the devil a liar and testifying to the truth of the Father. Jesus could have just as well said, “Shut up you liar! Only my Father speaks the truth!” That is attitude that you have to love.
Then the devil tempted Jesus a second time by making Him stand on the parapet of the temple in the holy city and told Jesus to throw Himself down because it was written that if He was the Son of God, the angels would come to save Him. But Jesus replied, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
I laugh whenever I read this second temptation. Not only does Jesus cite that testing God is in violation to His law, Jesus also shows more attitude. It’s as though Jesus is saying, “You idiot. Don’t you know who you are talking to?”
So the devil moves on to his third temptation. He took Jesus to a high mountain and showed him the magnificence of all of the world’s kingdoms and offered them to Jesus if He would prostrate Himself and worship the devil. This time, the devil really got told off as Jesus said, “Get away, Satan…The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”
It was not enough for Jesus to simply say, “I will not worship you.” Jesus basically said, “You must be crazy! Just who do you think you are? You are nothing…a complete nobody and not worth my time. Go back to where you came from and don’t bother me.” I could have used more eloquent street language here but this is a spiritual commentary and it is Jesus talking so I will keep my language clean.
Now that is real attitude. It is the kind of attitude that Jesus wants us to have when we are confronted by the devil. It is the kind of attitude that the devil cannot stand. And with this attitude, we can and will always stand up to the devil because the strength given to us by the Spirit will not allow us to fall.
If the devil is bold enough to tempt Jesus, he will not stop tempting us. But in this gospel, we see the war between good and evil played out. We see that good is more powerful than evil. We see that evil does not win against good.
This is the first time in the gospels that we hear Jesus tell the devil to get away and when Jesus tells the devil to get away, the evil does just that. So when the devil stands before us with his temptations, all we have to do is say from the heart with conviction and the same attitude as Jesus, “In the name of Jesus, get behind me Satan.” And should the devil persist, and he usually does, don't give up. Jesus will bring on the Spirit and lay the devil out sending him running with his tail between his legs.
