March 9, 2014

First Sunday of Lent

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 Ps 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17

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 Rom 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.

or Rom 5:12, 17-19

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 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 Mt 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.

From: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7

The Creation of Adam

[7] Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Man in Paradise

[8] And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put
the man whom he had formed. [9] And out of the ground the LORD God made
to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life
also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Temptation and the First Sin

[1] The serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God
had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree
of the garden’?” [2] And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden; [3] but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’
[4] But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. [5] For God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” [6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make
one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband,
and he ate. [7] Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

2:7. As far as his body is concerned, man belongs to the earth. To affirm this,
the sacred writer must have been always conscious of the fact that when a
person dies, his/her body will turn into dust, as Genesis 3:19 will in due course
tell us. Or it may be that this sort of account (a special one like the literary
genre of an these chapters) is based on the similarity between the word “adam”,
which means man in general, and “adamah”, which means “reddish soil”; and
given that the words look alike, the sacred writer may have drawn the conclusion
that there is in fact a connection between the two very things (unsophisticated
etymology goes in for this sort of thing). But the fact that man belongs to the
earth is not his most characteristic feature: as the author sees it, animals too
are made up of the stuff of the earth. What makes man different is the fact that
he receives his life from God. Life is depicted here in terms of breathing, because
only living animals breathe. The fact that God infuses life into man in this way
means that although man on account of his corporeal nature is material, his
existence as a living being comes directly from God, that is, it is animated by
a vital principle—the soul or the spirit—which does not derive from the earth. This
principle of life received from God also endows man’s body with its own dignity
and puts it on a higher level than that of animals.

God is portrayed as a potter who models man’s body in clay; this means that
man is supposed to live in accordance with a source of life that is higher than
that deriving from matter. The image of God as a potter shows that man (all of
him) is in God’s hands just like clay in a potter’s hands; he should not resist or
oppose God’s will (cf. Is 29: 16; Jer 18:6; Rom 9:20-21).

2:8-15. Here we have a scenario in which God and man are friends; there is no
such thing as evil or death. The garden is described as being a leafy oasis, with
the special feature of having two trees in the center, the tree of life and the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil—symbolizing the power to give life, and the
ultimate reference-point for man’s moral behavior. Out of the garden flow the four
rivers the author is most familiar with; these water the entire earth and make it
fertile. What the Bible is teaching here is that man was created to be happy, to
enjoy the life and goodness which flow from God. “The Church, interpreting the
symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New
Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were
constituted in an original ‘state of holiness and justice’ (Council of Trent, “De
Peccato Originali”). This grace of original holiness was ‘to share in...divine life’
(”Lumen Gentium”, 2)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 375).

>From the outset, man is charged with cultivating the garden—working it, protec-
ting it and making it bear fruit. Here again we can see that work is a commission
that God gives man from the start. “From the beginning of creation man has had
to work,” Bl. J. Escriva said. “This is not something that I have invented. It is
enough to turn to the opening pages of the Bible. There you can read that, before
sin entered the world, and in its wake death, punishment and misery (cf. Rom
5:12). God made Adam from the clay of the earth, and created for him and his
descendants this beautiful world we live in, “ut operaretur et custodiret ilium”
(Gen 2:15), so that we might cultivate it and “look after it” (”Friends of God”,
57). But man needs to recognize God’s mastery over creation and over himself
by obeying the commandment God gives him as a kind of covenant, telling him
not to eat the forbidden fruit. If man lost the original happiness he was created
to enjoy (the writer will later explain), it was because he broke that covenant.

3:1-24. “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms
a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.
Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is
marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (”Catechism of
the Catholic Church”, 390). The Bible is teaching us here about the origin of evil—
of all the evils mankind experiences, and particularly the evil of death. Evil does
not come from God (he created man to live a happy life and to be his friend); it
comes from sin, that is, from the fact that man broke the divine commandment,
thereby destroying the happiness he was created for, and his harmony with God,
with himself, and with creation in general. “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust
in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s com-
mand. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be
disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness” (”Catechism of the
Catholic Church”, 397).

In his description of that original sin and its consequences, the sacred writer
uses symbolic language (garden, tree, serpent) in order to convey an important
historical and religious truth—that no sooner did he walk the earth than man dis-
obeyed God, and therein lies the cause of evil. We can also see here how every
sin happens and what results from it: “The eyes of our soul grow dull. Reason
proclaims itself sufficient to understand everything, without the aid of God. This
is a subtle temptation, which hides behind the power of our intellect, given by
our Father God to man so that he might know and love him freely. Seduced by
this temptation, the human mind appoints itself the center of the universe, being
thrilled with the prospect that ‘you shall be like gods’ (Gen 3:15). So filled with
love for itself, it turns its back on the love of God” (BI. J. Escriva, “Christ Is
Passing By”, 6).

3:1. The serpent symbolizes the devil, a personal being who tries to frustrate
God’s plans and draw man to perdition. “Behind the disobedient choice of our
first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall
into death out of envy (Wis 2:24). Scripture and the Church ‘s Tradition see in
this being a fallen angel, called ‘Satan’ or the ‘devil’. The Church teaches what
Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: ‘The devil and the other demons
were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own
doing’ (Fourth Vatican Council)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 391).

3:2-5. The devil’s temptation strategy is very realistically described here: he
falsifies what God has said, raises suspicions about God’s plans and intentions,
and, finally, portrays God as man’s enemy. ‘The analysis of sin in its original
dimension indicates that, through the influence of the ‘father of lies’, throughout
the history of humanity there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God,
even to the point of hating him: ‘ Love of self to the point of contempt for God,’ as
St Augustine puts it (cf. “De Civitate Dei”, 14, 28). Man will be inclined to see in
God primarily a limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and
the fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modem age, when the atheis-
tic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion causes the
radical ‘alienation’ of man, as if man were dispossessed of his own humanity
when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to man,
and exclusively to man! Hence a process of thought and historico-sociological
practice in which the rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his
‘death’. An absurdity, both in concept and expression!” (John Paul II, “Dominum
et Vivificantem”, 38).

3:6 And so both of them, the man and the woman, disobeyed God’s command-
ment. Genesis refers not to an apple but to a mysterious fruit: eating it symboli-
zes Adam and Eve’s sin—one of disobedience.

The sacred writer leads us to the denouement by giving a masterly psychological
description of temptation, dialogue with the tempter, doubt about God’s truthful-
ness, and then yielding to one’s sensual appetites. This sin, Pope John Paul also
commented, “constitutes ‘the principle and root of all the others’”. We find our-
selves faced with the original reality of sin in human history and at the same time
in the whole of the economy of salvation. [...] This original disobedience presup-
poses a ‘rejection’, or at least ‘a turning away from the truth contained in the Word
of God’, who creates the world. [...] ‘Disobedience’ means precisely going beyond
that limit, which remains impassable to the will and the freedom of man as a
created being. For God the Creator is the one definitive source of the moral order
in the world created by him. Man cannot decide by himself what is good and what
is evil—cannot ‘know good and evil, like God’. In the created world ‘God’ indeed
remains the first and sovereign source ‘for deciding about good and evil’, through
the intimate truth of being, which is the reflection ‘of the Word’, the eternal son,
consubstantial with the Father. To man, created to the image of God, the Holy
Spirit gives the gift of ‘conscience’, so that in this conscience the image may
faithfully reflect its model, which is both Wisdom and eternal Law, the source of
the moral order in man and in the world. ‘Disobedience’, as the original dimension
of sin, means the ‘rejection of this source’ , through man’s claim to become an
independent and exclusive source for deciding about good and evil” (”Dominum
et Vivificantem”, 33-36).

3:7-13. This passage begins the description of the effects of the original sin. Man
and woman have come to know evil, and it shows, initially, in a most direct way—
in their own bodies. The inner harmony described in Genesis 2:25 is broken, and
concupiscence rears its head. Their friendship with God is also broken, and they
flee from his presence, to avoid their nakedness being seen. As if his Creator
could not see them! The harmony between man and woman is also fractured:
he puts the blame on her, and she puts it on the serpent. But all three share in
the responsibility, and therefore all three are going to pay the penalty.

“The harmony in which they found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now
destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered;
the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions (cf. Gen 3:7-16), their
relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is
broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man (cf. Gen 3:17,19).
Because of man, creation is now subject ‘to its bondage to decay’ (Rom 8:21).
Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true:
man will ‘return to the ground’ (Gen 3: 19), for out of it he was taken. “Death
makes its entrance into human history” (cf. Rom 5:12)” (”Catechism of the
Catholic Church”, 400).

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Romans 5:12-19

Adam’s Original Sin

[12] Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men because all men sinned — [13] sinned indeed was
in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
[14] Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were
not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one to come.

[15] But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s
trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that
one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. [17] If, because of one man’s trespass,
death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abun-
dance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man
Jesus Christ.

[18] Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s
act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. [19] For as by one
man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by One Man’s obedience many
will be made righteous. [20] Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more, [21] so that, as sin reigned in death,
grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

12-21. Four important teachings are discernible in this passage: 1) Adam’s sin
and its consequences, which include, particular death (verses 12-14); 2) the con-
trast between the effects of Original Sin and those of the Redemption wrought by
Christ (verses 15-19); 3) the role of the Law of Moses in relation to sin (especial-
ly verses 13, 20), anticipating what is explained more elaborately in Chapter 7;
4) the final victory of the reign of grace (verses 20-21). These teachings are clo-
sely connected by one single idea: only Jesus Christ can justify us and bring us
to salvation. The Apostle refers to Adam as a “type of the One who was to come”,
that is, Jesus, the Messiah, who is the true head of the human race; and he also
stresses that Christ, by His obedience and submission to the Father’s will, coun-
ters the disobedience and rebellion of Adam, restoring to us — superabundantly —
the happiness and eternal life which we lost through the sin of our First Parents.

Here we can see the clash of the two kingdoms — the kingdom of sin and death
and the kingdom of righteousness and grace. These two kingdoms were estab-
lished, the first by Adam and the second by Christ, and spread to all mankind.

Because the superabundance of Christ’s grace is the more important factor,
Adam’s sin is referred to in no great detail. St. Paul takes it as something every-
one is familiar with. All Christians have read about or been told about the account
of the Fall in Genesis (Genesis 3) and they are familiar with many passages in
Sacred Scripture which confirm and explain something which is self-evident —
that all men are mortal and that the human race is subject to a whole series of
afflictions (cf. Sirach 25:33; Wisdom 2:23-24; Psalm 51:7; Job 14:4; Genesis
8:21; etc.).

12-14. This passage can be elaborated on as follows: just as sin entered the
world through the action of a single individual man, so righteousness is attained
for us by one man — Jesus Christ. Adam, the first man, is a type of the “new A-
dam”: Adam contained within himself all mankind, his offspring; the “new Adam”
is “the first-born of all creation” and “the head of the body, the Church” (Colos-
sians 1:15, 18) because He is the redeeming Word Incarnate. To Adam we are
linked by flesh and blood, to Christ by faith and the Sacraments.

When, in His infinite goodness, He raised Adam to share in the divine life, God
also decreed that our First Parent would pass on to us his human nature and
with it all the various gifts that perfected it and the grace that sanctified it. But
Adam committed a sin by breaking God’s commandment and as a result he im-
mediately lost the holiness and righteousness in which he had been installed,
and because of this disloyalty he incurred God’s wrath and indignation and, as
consequence, death — as God had warned him. By becoming mortal and falling
under the power of the devil, Adam “was changed for the worse”, in both body
and soul (cf. Council of Trent, “De Peccato Originali”, Canon 1). From then on
Adam and his descendants pass on a human nature deprived of supernatural
gifts, and men are in a state of enmity with God, which means that they cannot
attain eternal beatitude.

The fact of Original Sin is a truth of faith. This has been stated once again solemn-
ly by Paul VI: “We believe that in Adam all have sinned. From this it follows that,
on account of the original offense committed by him, human nature, which is com-
mon to all men, is reduced to that condition in which it must suffer the consequen-
ces of that Fall [...]. Consequently, fallen human nature is deprived of the econo-
my of grace which it formerly enjoyed. It is wounded in its natural powers and sub-
jected to the dominion of death which is transmitted to all men. It is in this sense
that every man is born in sin. We hold, therefore, in accordance with the Council
of Trent, that Original Sin is transmitted along with human nature, “not by imita-
tion but by propagation”, and is, therefore, incurred by each person individually”
(”Creed of the People of God”, 16).

Our own experience bears out what divine Revelation tells us: when we examine
our conscience we realize that we have this inclination towards evil and we are
conscious of being enmeshed in evils which cannot have their source in our holy
Creator (cf. Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 13). The obvious presence of evil in
the world and in ourselves convince us of the profound truth contained in Reve-
lation and moves us to fight against sin.

“So much wretchedness! So many offenses! Mine, yours, those of all mankind....

“Et in peccatis concepit me mater mea!” In sin did my mother conceive me!

(Psalm 51:5). I, like all men, came into the world stained with the guilt of our First
Parents. And then...my own sins: rebellions, thought about, desired, committed....

“To purify us of this rottenness, Jesus chose to humble Himself and take on the
form of a slave (cf. Philippians 2:7), becoming incarnate in the spotless womb of
our Lady, His Mother, who is also your Mother and mine. He spent thirty years
in obscurity, working like everyone else, at Joseph’s side. He preached. He
worked miracles.... And we repaid Him with a cross.

“Do you need more motives for contrition?” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way of the
Cross, IV, 2).

13-14. Both the commandment imposed by God on Adam, and the Mosaic Law,
threatened the transgressor with death; but the same cannot be said of the pe-
riod between Adam and Moses. In that period also people did sin against the na-
tural law written on every person’s heart (cf. 2:12ff). However, their sins “were not
like the transgression of Adam”, because the natural law did not explicitly bind
under pain of death. If, nevertheless, they in fact had to die, this proves, the Apo-
stle concludes, that death is due not to personal sins but to original sin. It is al-
so proved, the Fathers of the Church usually add, by the fact that some people
die before reaching the use of reason, that is, before they are capable of sinning.

Death is a consequence of original sin, because that sin brought with it the loss
of the “preternatural” gift of immortality (cf. Gen 2:17; 3:19). Adam incurred this
loss when, through a personal act of his, he broke an explicit, specific command
of God. Later, under the Mosaic Law, there were also certain precepts which in-
volved the death penalty if broken (cf., for example, Exod 21:12ff; Lev 24:16). In
the period from Adam to Moses there was no law which stated: If you sin, you
shall die. However, people in that period were all subject to death, even those
who committed no sin “like the transgression of Adam”, that is, what is termed
“actual sin”.

Therefore, death is due to a sin — original sin — which attaches to each man, wo-
man and child, yet which is not an “actual sin”. This original sin is the cause of
death, and the fact that everyone dies is the proof that everyone is affected by
original sin. The Second Vatican Council sums up this teaching as follows: “The
Church, taught by divine Revelation, declares that God has created man in view
of a blessed destiny that lies beyond the limits of his sad state on earth. More-
over, the Christian faith teaches that bodily death, from which man would have
been immune had he not sinned (cf. Wis 1:13; 2:23-24; Rom 5:21; 6:23; Jas 1:
15), will be overcome when that wholeness which he lost through his own fault
will be given once again to him by the almighty and merciful Savior. For God has
called man, and still calls him, to cleave with all his being to him in sharing for
ever a life that is divine and free from all decay” (”Gaudium Et Spes”, 18).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus Fasts and is Tempted

[1] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. [2] And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry.
[3] And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command
these stones to become loaves of bread.” [4] But he answered, “It is written ‘Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God.’”

[5] Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the
temple, [6] and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for
it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ‘On their hands they will
bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”’

[7] Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your
God.”’ [8] Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; [9] and he said to him, “All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” [10] Then Jesus said
to him, “Begone, Satan! for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.”’ [11] Then the devil left him, and behold, angels
came and ministered to him.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

1. Jesus, our Savior, allowed himself to be tempted because he so chose; and
he did so out of love for us and to instruct us. However, since he was perfect,
he could only be tempted externally. Catholic teaching tells us that there are
three levels of temptation: 1) suggestion, that is, external temptation, which we
can undergo without committing any sin; 2) temptation, in which we take a cer-
tain delight, whether prolonged or not, even though we do not give clear consent;
this level of temptation has now become internal and there is some sinfulness in
it; 3) temptation to which we consent; this is always sinful, and, since it affects
the deepest part of the soul, it is definitely internal. By allowing himself to be
tempted, Jesus wanted to teach us how to fight and conquer our temptations.
We will do this by having trust in God and prayer, with the help of God’s grace
and by having fortitude.

Jesus’ temptations in the desert have a deep significance in salvation history.
All the most important people throughout sacred history were tempted—Adam
and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the chosen people themselves. Similarly with
Jesus. By rejecting the temptations of the devil, our Lord atones for the falls of
those who went before him and those who come after him. He is an example
for us in all the temptations we were subsequently to have, and also for the bat-
tles between the Church and the power of the devil. Later Jesus teaches us in
the Our Father to ask God to help us with his grace not to fall at the time of
temptation.

2. Before beginning his work as Messiah, that is, before promulgating the New
Law or New Testament, Jesus prepares himself by prayer and fasting in the de-
sert. Moses acted in the same way before proclaiming, in God’s name, the Old
Law on Mount Sinai (Ex 34:28). Elijah, too, journeyed for forty days in the desert
to fulfill the Law (1 Kings 19:5-8).

The Church follows Jesus’ footsteps by prescribing the yearly Lenten fast. We
should practise Lent each year with this spirit of piety. “It can be said that
Christ introduced the tradition of forty days fast into the Church’s liturgical year,
because he himself ‘fasted forty days and forty nights’ before beginning to teach.
By this Lenten fast the Church is in a certain sense called every year to follow
her Master and Lord if she wishes to preach his Gospel effectively” (John Paul
II, “General Audience”, 28 February 1979). In the same way, Jesus’ withdrawal
into the desert invites us to prepare ourselves by prayer and penance before
any important decision or action.

3. Jesus has fasted for forty days and forty nights. Naturally he is very hungry
and the devil makes use of this opportunity to tempt him. Our Lord rejects the
temptation and in doing so he uses a phrase from Deuteronomy (8:3). Although
he could do this miracle, he prefers to continue to trust his Father since perfor-
ming the miracle is not part of his plan of salvation. In return for this trust, angels
come and minister to him (Mt 4:11).

Miracles in the Bible are extraordinary and wonderful deeds done by God to
make his words or actions understood. They do not occur as isolated outpour-
rings of God’s power but rather as part of the work of Redemption. What the devil
proposes in this temptation would be for Jesus’ benefit only and therefore could
not form part of the plan for Redemption. This suggests that the devil, in tempting
him in this way, wanted to check if Jesus is the “Son of God”. For, although he
seems to know about the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, he cannot see
how the Son of God could be hungry. By the way he deals with the temptation,
Jesus teaches us that when we ask God for things we should not ask in the first
place for what we can obtain by our own efforts. Neither should we ask for what
is exclusively for our own convenience, but rather for what will help towards our
holiness or that of others.

4. Jesus’ reply is an act of trust in God’s fatherly providence. God led him into
the desert to prepare him for his messianic work, and now he will see to it that
Jesus does not die. This point is underlined by the fact that Jesus’ reply evokes
Deuteronomy 8:3, where the sons of Israel are reminded how Yahweh fed them
miraculously with manna in the desert. Therefore, in contrast to the Israelites
who were impatient when faced with hunger in the desert, Jesus trustingly leaves
his well-being to his Father’s providence. The words of Deuteronomy 8:3, repea-
ted here by Jesus, associate “bread” and “word” as having both come from the
mouth of God: God speaks and gives his Law; God speaks and makes manna
appear as food.

Also, manna is commonly used in the New Testament (see, for example, Jn 6:
32-58) and throughout Tradition as a symbol of the Eucharist.

The Second Vatican Council points out another interesting aspect of Jesus’
words when it proposes guidelines for international cooperation in economic mat-
ters: “In many instances there exists a pressing need to reassess economic and
social structures, but caution must be exercised with regard to proposed solutions
which may be untimely, especially those which offer material advantage while mili-
tating against man’s spiritual nature and advancement. For ‘man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”’ (”Gaudium
Et Spes”, 86).

5. Tradition suggests that this temptation occurred at the extreme southeast cor-
ner of the temple wall. At this point, the wall was at its highest, since the ground
beneath sloped away steeply to the Cedron river. Looking down from this point
one could easily get a feeling of vertigo.

St Gregory the Great (”In Evangelia Homiliae”, 16) says that if we consider how
our Lord allowed himself to be treated during his passion, it is not surprising that
he allowed the devil also to treat him as he did.

6. “Holy Scripture is good, but heresies arise through its not being understood
properly”(St Augustine, “In loann. Evang.”, 18, 1). Catholics should be on their
guard against arguments which, though they claim to be founded on Scripture,
are nevertheless untrue. As we can see in this passage of the Gospel, the devil
can also set himself up at times as an interpreter of Scripture, quoting it to suit
himself. Therefore, any interpretation which is not in line with the teaching
contained in the Tradition of the Church should be rejected.

The error proposed by a heresy normally consists in stressing certain passages
to the exclusion of others, interpreting them at will, losing sight of the unity that
exists in Scripture and the fact that the faith is all of a piece.

7. Jesus rejects the second temptation as he did the first; to do otherwise would
have been to tempt God. In rejecting it, he uses a phrase from Deuteronomy (6:
16): “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test”. In this way he alludes also
to the passage in Exodus where the Israelites demand a miracle of Moses. The
latter replies, “Why do you put the Lord to the proof?” (Ex 17:2).

To tempt God is the complete opposite of having trust in him. It means presump-
tuously putting ourselves in the way of an unnecessary danger, expecting God
to help us by an exceptional use of his power. We would also tempt him if, by
our unbelief and arrogance, we were to ask him for signs or proof. The very first
lesson from this passage of the Gospel is that if ever a person were to ask or
demand extraordinary proofs or signs from God, he would clearly be tempting
him.

8-10. The third temptation is the most pseudo-messianic of the three: Jesus is
urged to appropriate to himself the role of an earthly messianic king of the type
so widely expected at the time. Our Lord’s vigorous reply, “Begone, Satan!” is
an uncompromising rejection of an earthly messianism—an attempt to reduce
his transcendent, God-given mission to a purely human and political use. By
his attitude, Jesus, as it were, rectifies and makes amends for the worldly views
of the people of Israel. And, for the same reason, it is a warning to the Church,
God’s true Israel, to remain faithful to its God-given mission of salvation in the
world. The Church’s pastors should be on the alert and not allow themselves to
be deceived by this temptation of the devil.

“We should learn from Jesus ‘ attitude in these trials. During his life on earth he
did not even want the glory that belonged to him. Though he had the right to be
treated as God, he took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Phil 2:6-7). And so
the Christian knows that all glory is due to God and that he must not make use
of the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or
human ambitions.

“We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in per-
fect balance with the greatness of his unique mission as the beloved Son of God
who takes flesh to save men [...]. And the Christian, who, following Christ, has
this attitude of complete adoration of the Father, also experiences our Lord’s lo-
ving care: ‘because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him,
because he knows my name’ (Ps 90:14)” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”,
62).

11. If we struggle constantly, we will attain victory. And nobody is crowned with-
out having first conquered: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown
of life” (Rev 2:10). By coming to minister to Jesus after he rejects the temptations,
the angels teach us the interior joy given by God to the person who fights energe-
tically against the temptation of the devil. God has given us also powerful defen-
ders against such temptations—our guardian angels, on whose aid we should call.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

First reading

Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7 ©

The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.

Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ The woman answered the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, “You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death.” ‘ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.’ The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.

Psalm

Psalm 50:3-6,12-14,17 ©