First Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 22
Reading 1
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
R. (cf. 3a) Be
merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Reading 2
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.
or
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 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.
Verse Before the Gospel
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
Gospel
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.
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Lent. Our journey is still young, and we may still be getting used to this season or maybe contemplating what we are going to do differently this year to get the utmost out of this venture through sacrifice, prayer, and thanksgiving. If we have not yet thought of this, then maybe this should be the time while reading this, to make a commitment to our faith. It is never too late to make the adjustments necessary to achieve a spiritual experience or to make some sort of change in our thoughts or actions to change the path that we are on. This is one of the primary purposes of Lent: To unite ourselves with the crucified Christ, acknowledge our sins, and become closer with God. This becomes a unique opportunity to join the billions of people around the world, likeminded people, who are seeking the same thing. Strength in numbers can bring about a movement, which can then escort in change on the individual level and the communal level.
Each season of the Church has a particular purpose, which then brings about a focus that aims at both teaching us and bringing about an understanding about our faith. It is through wisdom and knowing that we become familiar with God and then we can experience Him more intimately. Lent is about the Human Jesus. This is known as Low Christology; in contrast to High Christology which focuses on the divine nature of Jesus. The Human Jesus is the one who experiences all our emotions and relates to us on the same level. He feels what we feel, specifically our pain and turmoil, with the shared experience becoming something that binds us together with Him more intimately. It is through the Human Jesus that He can suffer with us and walk the hard road of our life as our most intimate companion and friend. In response to our sorrows and suffering, He offers us His cross that He bared upon His shoulders along the way to His crucifixion at Calvary. We all have our own crosses to carrying, but it can be understood that we are not alone in our suffering and that it should be comforting to know further that our God knows what we are going through completely and can relate. He is not only watching us but is also experiencing what we are experiencing. Through this relationship forged in trial and tribulation, we have the opportunity to get closer to Jesus than we could otherwise. So impactful and important is suffering to the foundation of this unique relationship, that it can be said that to be a Christian means that we will encounter suffering in our lives because Jesus, our God, suffered and died for us. Now, it is our turn to live out our own suffering to get close to Him.
This is known as the Paradox of the Cross:
“the central Christian concept that the crucifixion, an instrument of humiliation and death, became the means of salvation, life, and divine power. It reverses human logic by finding victory in defeat, strength in weakness, and love in the midst of hostility.”
We, as Christians, should take joy in suffering. It is through our suffering that we become victorious. We encounter special graces and become receivers of many spiritual gifts through this process. There is an understanding that any suffering that happens here on this earth has a definite end, while Jesus Christ is eternal. Jesus suffered and died for our sins, yet then came the resurrection and eternal joy. We can experience our own sufferings, then witness our transformation as a result and the joy that waits for us on the other side of it through the Resurrected Christ. As a reminder, to get to the resurrection we must experience the crucifixion.
Jesus sent us a clear message today through His own actions in the Gospel Reading. After His baptism, He was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He did not have to do this. It was to show us that He understands the temptations and struggles that we go through, but that we can be victorious over them. By allowing Himself to be tempted, He joined in our own temptations and suffering. He fasted so to demonstrate that it is through sacrifice that we can become stronger and be victorious over all that opposes us in the world today. The key to our success was and always will be a relationship with Him and a rejection of all that this world has to offer. Spirituality becomes key to all successes in this world and victory through Jesus Christ.
It would behoove us to follow the example and message of Jesus Christ. When things are good, we should praise God. When things are bad, we should praise Him more for allowing us to live our own version of the Passion and that we are given the opportunity to be forged like gold in the furnace by the experience. The First Reading today tells the story of Original Sin, how we turned away from God by abusing our free will, and choosing to be gods ourselves. But by choosing this, we chose ultimately to turn away from God himself, choosing to pursue what we wanted to pursue and do what we wanted to do, regardless of the damage that it may have and will continue to cause in our lives. Overcoming this sad state of affairs means that we have to stop rebelling against God and return to Him with a contrite heart; one that seeks forgiveness and yearns to do better. Temptations and the allure of evil must be combatted and driven away, as we put God first.
Just as Jesus humbled Himself by becoming a slave, we too must humble ourselves by turning our back on everything that this physical world has to offer, instead choosing that which is divine: Jesus Christ. When we embrace the divinity of Jesus, then our entire focus can change to a focus on that which is eternal, instead of that which has an expiration date. Through this understanding, our final destination can then be perceived.
Deacon Tom
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