First Sunday in Lent
Reflection: We always are evolving
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
Who are we and who are we to become?
Adam and Eve tell us one story, Paul another, and Jesus, well, I think we should assume he’s the one who gets it just right.
Adam and Eve, our mythical ancestors, lived in God’s garden and had permission to help themselves to its goods, a vocation to tend it, and a prohibition against eating from one tree, a command to remind them that they were not in charge of everything. When they ventured outside God’s plan, they discovered a new dimension of their humanity. They hadn’t realized that their actions would change them forever and call forth new lovingly creative responses from God. A new, powerful, confusing and dangerous dimension of their humanity had emerged. They had become the creatures who could make choices for good or evil. Because they could decide, everything they did involved choice. While they hid in fear, their God began offering alternatives to the situations they created. They were evolving and God kept up with them at every turn.
That summary may sound unconventional, but Paul’s words to the Romans affirm it: “The gift is not like the transgression.” With every error or misstep, the grace of God overflows. We change reality with every action and God continually calls us into greater life with divine grace and creativity. These two readings illustrate how God keeps drawing us to grow in the divine image.
And Jesus? Immediately after his baptism, the Spirit sent Jesus to the desert, John the Baptist’s turf. Why 40 days in the desert?
Every account tells us that the Spirit sent Jesus out to where he would be stripped of his ordinary life: company, food, synagogue, family and a place to lay his head. There, midst nothing and nowhere, he would delve deeply into the mystery of who he was called to be. Far from the baptizer and the crowds, he needed to choose how to become who he truly was.
The temptations challenged his identity and presented him with three dimensions of the most personal and universal dilemma of life: Who and whose are we? The devil’s offers depict the choices that define us all. The tempter challenged Jesus’ fundamental identity: “If you are Son of God … ”
His first question focused on the human condition. Jesus was hungry, needy like every human being. The enticer taunted Jesus like those who mocked him by his cross: “Turn these stones into bread, look out for number one.” And Jesus said one does not live on bread alone. Humans are nourished through relationships with God and others (John 4).
Not willing to admit defeat, the tempter tried another way to undermine Jesus’ identity as Son of God. This offer proposed that Jesus demand that God obey him. “Throw yourself down, demand that your Father prove his protective love on your terms.” Jesus’ response: “God’s angels aren’t first responders. We are responsible for what we do.”
Pressed hard, but not crushed, the fiend tried to detour Jesus with a promise of power. “Stop appearing so weak. How could your lowliness image God? I’m the real model for you. You could wield real power! Don’t waste this chance!” That was the last straw. Jesus expelled the demon from the desert with the message: “Your hour has come. I am sent to counter your worthless enticements by drawing others into the Reign of God with me.”
Temptations would continue throughout Jesus’ ministry and so would his faithful responses. Every retort Jesus shot at the tempter revealed his devotion and commitment to collaborate with God’s design for creation. Led daily by the Spirit until the very end, Jesus learned how to be, grow and act as the Son of God. In countering every one of the demon’s enticements, Jesus deepened his identity as faithful Son of God and model for us.
And us? We, too, face the temptations to put ourselves first, to expect God to do everything or to choose wealth, power or prestige over human persons. It will happen because we have needs, desires and free will. At the very same time, God’s grace remains available, offering creative alternatives to the messes we make and leading us to greater love. Under the guidance of the Spirit, we can keep learning how to expose and expel the idols, the demons who promote domination, self-centeredness and the relentless quest for power, fame, beauty, luxury and the like.
If we are children of God …
Lent offers us the opportunity to spend time asking ourselves who we are at our core and who God wants to help us become. Growing in our identity as daughters and sons of God will continue until we take our last breath. It takes time — more than 40 days.
Reading 1
(Genesis 2: 7-9, 3: 1-7)
The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,
and so man became a living being.
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,
and placed there the man whom he had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow
that were delightful to look at and good for food,
with the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals
that the LORD God had made.
The serpent asked the woman,
“Did God really tell you not to eat
from any of the trees in the garden?”
The woman answered the serpent:
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
it is only about the fruit of the tree
in the middle of the garden that God said,
‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'”
But the serpent said to the woman:
“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.”
The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves,
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 51: 3-6, 12-13, 17)
Reading 2
(Romans 5: 12-19)
Brothers and sisters:
Through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death,
and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—
for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world,
though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who did not sin
after the pattern of the trespass of Adam,
who is the type of the one who was to come.
But the gift is not like the transgression.
For if by the transgression of the one, the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned.
For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation;
but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal.
For if, by the transgression of the one,
death came to reign through that one,
how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace
and of the gift of justification
come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, just as through one transgression
condemnation came upon all,
so, through one righteous act,
acquittal and life came to all.
For just as through the disobedience of the one man
the many were made sinners,
so, through the obedience of the one,
the many will be made righteous.
Gospel
(Matthew 4: 1-11)
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command that these stones become loaves of bread.”
He said in reply,
“It is written:
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you
and with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus answered him,
“Again it is written,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you,
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”
At this, Jesus said to him,
“Get away, Satan!
It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then the devil left him and, behold,
angels came and ministered to him.