March 5, 2017

1st Sunday of Lent A Genesis 2: 7-9; 3: 1-7; Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4: 1-11 Today we begin the season of Lent, a preparation period leading us to the great feast of Easter. The readings during this season focus on two reflective questions for each of us: Why do we need salvation? And Who is this Jesus who has come to save us? The first and second readings spend time answering the first question and the second question the Gospel details Jesus’ life. It is good for us to focus on who is Jesus to me? Why did He come to tell me about the Trinity and continually leading me to their life in heaven? God loves us…Jesus continually shares His love, the Father’s love and the Spirit’s love. This is how the book of Genesis starts out with the themes of God’s love for all of humanity. In the first words from the Book of Genesis Moses shows how 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 God planted a garden in Eden and put man there. God made the garden beautiful with the trees and food and all. So often when we read these words we pass over them because we know them so well. Imagine being an artist, like a potter, or a poet, or a musician, or a writer and you used your specific gift to develop a masterpiece. You spend time…it is not a quick decision. You labor to find the right words or the beautiful melody or the perfect shape so that your masterpiece can be displayed for all to see and be valued. This is how Moses is describing the very beginnings. He takes time to see how God’s love is present and deeply involved in every aspect of man’s creation and the surroundings that will make him and each person realize God’s love. Take time to reflect on the circumstances of your birth, the people who surrounded you and how you were taught love. God is totally present in each one of His masterpieces. Then the devil, the master of deceit, the perpetual liar comes in to manipulate people into feeling that God just didn’t give them enough…the sin of pride. Paul’s letter to the Romans, I feel is one of his masterpieces, especially Chapter 8 where he describes what it means to be a Christian. Today’s passage presents numerous challenges. It is complex and difficult to read yet it is very rich and is at the center of Paul’s theology. Here Paul is drawing a comparison between Adam and Christ, they are polar opposites. Adam through his one act of disobedience was the leading ancestor of sin and death. Jesus became the leading ancestor of a history of grace and life through His obedience to the Father. Basically Paul is explaining the presence of evil in the world and how necessary it is for each of us be in solidarity with the ‘new Adam’Jesus versus the ‘old Adam’. The pain is that every day we must choose to live one way or the other. We live like the ‘old Adam’ when we feel that I am the most important…that the world revolves around me, making me the center of the universe. When I do this I forget the one who gave life. God who loves us…created us…cares and protects us and is leading each one of us daily to Himself and our ultimate goal—Life with Him. When we live life with God as our source, we naturally share how we’ve been touched, how we’ve been lead to be grateful for God’s love and by sharing this love so all get to realize and live in God. Frank J. Matera, a leading Pauline scholar from Catholic University in his book, Preaching Romans, Proclaiming God’s Saving Grace shares these great thoughts, “To be sure, believers are already in solidarity with Christ inasmuch as they have been baptized into His saving death. But even though believers are already justified, they are not yet finally saved. Consequently, in this period between present justification and final salvation (which will occur at the general resurrection of the dead), they must continually reaffirm their solidarity with Christ rather than with Adam.” I live with God in me! Next in Matthew’s gospel we begin with the temptations of Jesus. It is so interesting that the devil begins the first two with “…If you are the Son of God…” Now the devil does not believe that Jesus is the son of God. The devil does not have any faith which is required to believe that Jesus is who He says He is. The first temptation is to turn stones into bread but Jesus brings God’s Word which is the necessary nourishment for life. In the second temptation, the devil wants Jesus to put his life on the line…Jesus does this on the cross, not the devil’s way. The third temptation has to do with power, prestige, wealth and domination all totally opposite of a life of service. The devil loses each time, God wins. It is so interesting to view the scene of the readings today. In Genesis we have the beautiful Garden. We all want to live in beauty. We want to live in enjoyment of our surroundings and the people in our lives. Everything that God has created is beautiful. Yet when we look around at our world we can see much that isn’t beauty. We see how many are after a false beauty that involves one’s own living with possessions, power, pleasure, prestige as the goal. This always manifests itself in rejecting of the beauty of another person, or class of people maintaining that I am the ‘be all and end all’. God is, I’m not. And Jesus is tempted in the desert, the arid, hot and dry areas where the sun burns down and makes everything uncomfortable. This is really what sin does to each one of us. It pulls us to feeling to ‘take care of yourself…go ahead…you need to look out for you not to God’. It’s the same temptation that Adam and Eve encountered. We are pulled to the illusionary things the devil makes us feel are important rather than to trust in God. We choose the glitter of appearances, and lust for small and greater power rather than realize it’s about God’s love of and bringing each of us to Him. So I reflect on: • Where do I place trust in people, things or other directions rather than God? • When I admit my sins, I begin the path of realizing the truth of love and how this frees me and changes my life. So why do I fall backward? • Do I ever fall into the devil’s trap and act as a tempter to someone else? Why do I do this? • When do I feel that I am most easily tempted…when I’m anxious, bitter, lonely, etc.? • What helps me to say no to temptations? • When I choose sin, what am I usually seeking: Power or prestige? Comfort? Wealth? Possessions? Pleasure? Sacred Space 2017 states: “Our real hungers are fed by the meaning and the love of the word of God. One form of prayer is to allow ourselves to be addressed in the heart by the word of God. Let a phrase or word from this passage of Scripture echo in you mind today. That Jesus was tempted meant that He truly desired what the devil offered Him. Of course He was hungry. His body desired what it needed. In what ways might the devil use my legitimate, real desires to lead me astray? Open my eyes, Lord, so that I can recognize temptation when it comes.”