FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A Theme: Be aware of evil

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A Theme: Be aware of evil Few among us will dispute the fact that the world is fraught with evil. Newspapers, radio or television broadcasts offers adequate proof of its presence. War, victims of violence, millions of refugees and all types of abuse demonstrates pervasive evil in human society. While existence of evil is somehow unavoidable, its origin and the tragedies it produces have been the subject of debate for centuries. Contemporary analysts attribute its ills which plague us into conflict to ideologies and economic imbalances. At the beginning of this Lenten season, the Church invites us to reflect on the reality of evil and see how we can overcome it. First reading: Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 As part of the primeval history, we encounter in the first eleven chapters of Genesis Yahwistic and Priestly traditions which assert that God was caring for human beings beyond measure. However evil as we view it today was not absent as Genesis presents answers to some of life’s basic questions about why this world, its creatures and humankind die, feel pain, suffer and are hostile. Why hard work and perspiration, and why peoples of this earth are estranged from one another. Each of these questions is explored and solutions are proffered, not on the basis of scientific investigation, archaeological discoveries or chronicled historical developments but rather in a language of myth, poetic and theology. In fact, to expect scientific and strict historical accuracy from Genesis is to miss the point. In today’s text, the truth consists in the fact that evil exists in this world because there is aitia, a Greek which means cause and loggia which means reason. Using traditional themes and motifs which were prevalent in the neighboring cultures e.g. garden, tree of life, serpent, flood, ark, tower, the biblical authors fully presented truth to their audience in strict monotheism which was a distinctive mark of Israel’s faith. As portrayed by today’s reading, man/Adam was formed by God from the clay of the earth/ damah and enlivened by the very breath of God with the intension that humanity should live in happiness. Unfortunately today’s reading does not include Genesis 2:15-25 wherein God instructed humanity not to eat of the tree ‘of the knowledge of good and evil’ meaning that right from the start, God was attentiveness about humanity’s welfare. More importantly, the omitted passage also narrated the formation of woman as man’s ezer, his treasured helpmate whose equality with man God acknowledges. Though duly instructed and warned of the consequences of their actions, human beings freely chose to determine their future apart from God. Having surrendered their original integrity of original justice for which they had been created they plunged themselves into the problem of unending evil. As we consider the times we have surrendered our integrity depriving ourselves of justice, we are encouraged to be careful about evil in our world rather than behaving as if evil was fiction. Second reading: Romans 5:12-19 When the participants at the second Vatican Council reflected upon the condition of humanity they acknowledged that, “man has inclinations toward evil as he finds himself incapable of battling its assaults successfully, thus finding self-bound by its chain” Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World No.13. In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul refers to these evil chains as reign of sin, condemnation and death only broken by Jesus Christ. Using Adam as type and Christ as antitype, Paul says human sin and its consequences are only challengeable by Christ’s saving action. Though sin and evil came from one person; he was able to infect the rest of humanity thus causing all of us to sin cf. Romans 5:12. The Council of Trent understood this as original sin committed by Adam and inherited by all of humanity cf. 5th session, canons 2, 4. Later in his letter, Paul will clarify his point by describing the consequences of Adam’s sin as an inclination to evil which is in every human person cf. Romans 6:12. All the same this universal contagious environment of evil and its innate tendency which is also called concupiscence does not negate personal responsibility and culpability. Just as Adam freely chose to surrender his original integrity, each of us is capable of freely following suit. Only with Jesus, is this chain reaction broken and the situation reversed because His saving action is a gift cf. Romans 5:16. Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11 Ordinarily, the English word temptation connotes seduction to evil, enticement to sin and inclination to take the wrong path. In Greek, however, the term used by Matthew to describe Jesus’ experience in the wilderness is peirazein, which means to test. Just as tempered steel is tested to ascertain its strength and resistance to stress and strain, so the experience of Jesus was intended to ascertain his strength and ability to withstand difficulties. Temptation is not meant to lead us into sin but to enable us to conquer it, to prove we are not bad, weak but good, stronger, purer and finer. Temptation is not the penalty of being a human person; it is instead meant to provide us the glory of being the real person God appreciates. In each of his three confrontations with the tempter, Matthew portrays Jesus as the New Israel. Just as God had called Israel out of Egypt to be his people, so God called Jesus out of Egypt; see Matthew 2:15. Just as God led his people through the sea to the desert where they remained for forty years, so did Jesus come up from the baptismal waters and depart to the desert for forty days and nights cf. Matthew 3:16, 4:1. Whereas Israel’s experience in the desert was marked by repeated failures and infidelities, Jesus remained faithful. Jesus first temptation recalled God’s gift of manna to Israel in the desert cf. Exodus 16:4-8 and tested him in his capacity as the Son of God. Would he use his powers as the Son of God to play the role of a political and social messiah by feeding a hungry mankind? Jesus’ response, a citation of Deuteronomy 8:3 indicated that God’s word and will would be his food and the sustenance which he, in turn, would offer to hungry humankind. The second temptation, also a test of Jesus’ authentic sonship, recalled the wilderness incidents wherein Israel complained against God and annoyed Moses into asking God for a show of power saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17:7. Refusing to test God or to force his hand, Jesus’ replied by citing another text in it fullness, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah” Deuteronomy 6:16 Then in the third test, Jesus is offered a vision of all the world’s kingdoms in their splendor. No doubt here that Matthew intended to remind all who would reflect on this message to remember two scripture texts; one which described Moses atop Mount Nebo surveying the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 34:1-4, and the other referring to an enthronement psalm which described God giving his messiah-son-king the nations of the earth as an inheritance in Psalm. 2:6-8. Jesus’ response, again from Deuteronomy 6:13 recalled Israel’s dalliances into idolatry. Refusing to worship his tempter, Jesus remained a faithful Son of the Father. Later in the gospel, when Peter attempted to divert Jesus from his Father’s saving plan, Jesus would dismiss him just as he did the tempter, ‘Away with you Satan’. Not ended here, Jesus’ testing as God’s Son would be reprised during his passion “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” Matthew 27:40. But Jesus was not to be deterred from his Father’s will. Today at the outset of Lent, Matthew offers us a lesson in resistance to evil and reminds us to keep the promise. Application Lent is a season of penance set apart by Mother Church in memory of the forty days when our Lord Jesus was tempted in the desert, we fast with Him as a means for our sanctification. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, the Lenten Season offers us a time to fasting and prayer so as to gain spiritual strength in order to resist all forms of temptations. Make this Lent to be a time to firmly say, ‘Away with you Satan’! This Lent should makes each one of us to sincerely profess that I believe in One God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth and Jesus Christ his only Son Our Lord and my saviour. Fr Paulino Mondo