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.

Daily Readings for:March 09, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Grant, almighty God, through the yearly observances of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Pease Porridge

ACTIVITIES

o The Kaleidoscope of Lent

PRAYERS

o Prayer for the First Week of Lent

o Lent Table Blessing 1

o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1st Plan)

LIBRARY

o None

· Lent: March 9th

· First Sunday of Lent

Old Calendar: First Sunday of Lent

The scene of the temptation, which opens the public life of Jesus, declares in the Gospels in a very forceful manner the great change in our lives that He introduces into the world by His work of redemption. Where Adam fell, Christ, the new Head of humanity, triumphs over the power of Satan: at the time of His passion "the prince of this world" will be cast out. The Gospel of the temptation heralds Christ's victory in advance.

By appointing this Gospel for the beginning of Lent the Church proclaims that this victory should be ours also. In us, as all around us, it is Christ's temptation, Christ's struggle, Christ's victory which is prolonged; our effort is His and so is our strength; His will be our victory at Easter.

The Feast of St. Francis of Rome which is ordinarily celebrated today is superseded by the Sunday Liturgy.

Click here for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Stational Church

Sunday Readings
The first reading is from the Book of Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 and is about the creation and fall of man.

The second reading is from St. Paul to the Romans 5:12-19. He is speaking of some of the immediate effects of Christian salvation, as brought to mankind by Christ. St. Paul stresses the fact that Christ through his death not only conquered sin but poured out divine grace so abundantly and lavishly on mankind, making them his brothers and therefore sons of God, that there is no comparison between the world redeemed by Christ's death and the world of sin which prevailed up to then.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 4:1-11. This incident in our Lord's life, his forty days and nights of fasting followed by temptations, has been chosen as a reading for this first Sunday of Lent for our edification and encouragement. Lent is a period of preparation for the central Christian events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Christ, the Son of God in human nature, died the excruciating death of crucifixion on Good Friday, because of the sins of the human race. By this supreme act of obedience to his heavenly Father he made atonement for all our disobediences, and set us free from the slavery of Satan and of sin. In his resurrection his human nature was glorified by God the Father, and in that glorification we are all offered a share and given the right to an eternal life of glory, if we follow Christ faithfully in this life.

For every sincere Christian therefore, who appreciates what Good Friday and Easter Sunday mean for her or him, this period of preparation should be a welcome opportunity. The Church no longer imposes on us any obligatory daily fasting from food, but it urges us to find other means of mortifying ourselves, so as to show that we realize what Christ has done for us and what he has earned for us through his passion, death and resurrection. The example of Christ fasting from food for forty days, should move even the coldest Christian heart to try to do something to make reparation for past negligence and sins. Christ had no sin to atone for; it was for our sins that he mortified himself. We all have much to atone for. If, because of the demands of our present way of life, we cannot fast rigorously as our grandparents did, we can find many other less noticeable, but maybe nonetheless difficult, ways of subduing our human worldly inclinations. Where there is a will there is a way; the willing Christian will find ready substitutes for fasting.

The temptations, to which our Lord allowed himself to be submitted, are for us a source of encouragement and consolation. If our Lord and master under went temptation, we cannot and must not expect to live a Christian life without experiencing similar tests and trials. The three temptations Satan put to our Lord were suggestions to forget his purpose in life--his messianic mission of redemption. He was urged to get all the bodily comforts of life, all the self-glory which men could give him, and all the possessions and power this world has to offer.

Our basic temptations in life are the same: bodily comforts and pleasure, the empty esteem of our fellowman, wealth and power. There are millions of men and women on earth today—many of them nominal Christians—who have given in to these temptations and, are wasting their lives chasing after these unattainable shadows. But even should they manage to catch up with some of them, they soon find out that they are empty baubles. They will have to leave them so very soon.

Today, let each one of us look into his heart and honestly examine his reaction to these temptations. Do we imitate our Savior and leader, and say "begone Satan"? Our purpose in life is not to collect its treasures, its honors or its pleasures. We are here for a few short years, to merit the unending life which Christ has won for us. Would we be so foolish as to swap our inheritance for a mere mess of pottage (see Gen. 25:29-34)?

Lent is a golden opportunity to review our past and make sensible resolutions for our future.

Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

Things to Do:

Begin praying the prayer for the first week of Lent.
Make Pease Porridge (Split Pea Soup) for supper, a traditional dish for Sundays during Lent. Add some diced ham for more flavor and substance.
Today's Gospel speaks of the temptation of Jesus after his forty days' fast in the desert. After you go to Mass, discuss this reading with your children, emphasizing that temptation itself is not a sin, but we must use the Word of God to combat it, as Christ did. Read the Catholic Encyclopedia's explanation of the Temptation of Christ.

The Station today is at St. John Lateran. The Lateran is comprised of the Basilica, the Pontifical Palace and the Baptistry. The church is dedicated to the Christ the Savior. In the fifth century the titles of St. John Baptist and St. John the Evangelist were added. The Papal altar contains the wooden altar on which St. Peter is said to have celebrated Mass. This basilica is the mother of all churches and is the only church which has the title of Archbasilica.

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Matthew 4:1-11

1st Sunday of Lent

If you are the Son of God … (Matthew 4:3)

Imagine if Jesus came up to you today, embraced you, and said, “You are my greatest treasure!” Wouldn’t you be shocked and speechless? Well, during this Lenten season, you will have numerous opportunities for this to happen. Day after day, in prayer and in the Scriptures, you will have the chance to let Jesus show you your true dignity and identity as his beloved brother or sister.

In today’s Gospel, we read how Satan tried to get Jesus to question his identity. He prefaced his temptations by saying, “If you are the Son of God …” He knew that if Jesus became unsure of his Father’s love and wisdom, it was much more likely that he would walk away from the plan God had laid out for him. But Satan’s plan didn’t work. Jesus knew who he was, and he clung to the word of God so that he could stay focused on his Father.

God wants you to stand firm on the truth just as Jesus did. He wants to convince you that you belong to him. He wants to make it clear that he is completely committed to you. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? But we all can point to ways that the devil tries to knock us off our foundation in Christ. There seems to be no end to his attempts to discourage us and trap us in our fears and weaknesses so that we won’t bother to pray.

When these temptations come, follow Jesus’ example, and hold on to Scripture. You are God’s child, born of the incorruptible seed of his own word (1 Peter 1:23). You are part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (2:9). You have been made alive with Jesus (Ephesians 2:5) and set free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). Your heavenly Father will supply all your needs out of the riches of his own glory (Philippians 4:19).

There are so many promises. Hold on to them! Believe them—and watch the devil flee!

“Thank you, Lord, for claiming me as your own!”

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Psalm 51:3-6, 12-13, 17; Romans 5:12-19

Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion

(Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Psalm 51:3-6, 12-13,17; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11)

1. As we begin Lent this year the Church, in its first reading, takes us back to the origin of sin in the world, and the temptation we are still part of today: to “be like gods.” In what ways are there still areas in your life where you believe you really know what’s best and, thus, struggle to entrust these areas to God’s providential care?

2. In the responsorial psalm, David’s great prayer of repentance, he cries out, “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me” (Psalm 51:12). What do you think this means? Where in your relationship with God could you use a more “steadfast spirit”?

3. In the letter to the Romans, St. Paul tells us that through Jesus Christ “acquittal and life came to all.” All of us have been reconciled to God through “the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ.” And what is this gift we have received? It is “the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification.” What steps can you take this Lent to receive more fully these wonderful gifts?

4. In the Gospel, Christ uses the power of the “word of God” - the Scriptures - to defeat Satan’s temptations. During this Lent, what commitment are you prepared to make regarding your prayer time and Scripture reading? Are you willing to be accountable to someone for this commitment? If not, why not?

5. The meditation reminds us that when temptations come, we need to remember who we are in Christ and to use Scriptures “to stand firm on the truth just as Jesus did” and: “follow Jesus’ example and hold on to Scripture.” It goes on to provide some examples from Scripture of the “truths” of who we are in Christ. How would you describe these truths? How often do you turn to the Lord and to the truths of Scripture when you are tempted to sin? During the upcoming weeks of Lent, make a greater effort to turn to the Lord during times of temptation and ask for the power of his “Word” and the power of the Cross to overcome them.

6. Take some time to pray and ask the Lord for the grace and the strength to say no to the temptations that come at you during the day. Use the prayer at the end of the meditation as the starting point.

IT IS VITAL FOR US TO KNOW OUR ENEMY

(A biblical refection on THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT [YEAR A], March 9, 2014)

Gospel Reading: Matthew 4:1-11

First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9;3:1-7; Psalms: Psalm 51:3-6,12-14,17; Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19

The Scripture Text
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But He answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took Him to the holy city, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 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.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord You God.’” Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to Him, “All these I will give You, if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Begone, Satan! for it is written, You shall worship the Lord Your God and Him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. (Mt 4:1-11 RSV)

Why do you think the Gospel writers recounted this story of Jesus’ temptation? Do you think they wanted to show how Jesus heroically faced down the devil? Maybe they wanted to illustrate the opposition Jesus faced throughout His ministry. But maybe there’s something more than history here. Maybe they wanted to show us how the devil works so we can be wise to His ways today. Let us take a loser look.

“Command these stones to become bread.” Just as Satan wanted to convince Jesus that He really didn’t have to rely on God’s word for His life, the devil wants to convince us that we can become the source of wisdom for our lives. He wants to tell us we don’t have to submit to our Father’s commands or trust in His all sufficient, generous provision.

“Throw Yourself off the pinnacle of the temple. Surely God will save you.” Just as the devil wanted Jesus to presume upon God’s goodness, He wants us to take lightly the call to holiness. After all, God will always save us, even if we ignore Him and take Him for granted, won’t He? In big and small situations, the devil seeks to convince us that we won’t face any consequences if we decide not live in union with Jesus or follow His commands.

“All this splendor I will give You if You bow down and worship me.” How easy it can be to let the false glory of the world overshadow the true glory that is ours in Christ! This is exactly what Satan wants. There is nothing objectively wrong with money, possessions, or comfort. The problem comes when we let the devil convince us that we won’t experience refreshment, transformation, or hope as we bend our knees before the Lord in love, trust, and obedience.

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, it is vital that we know our enemy. How else will we know how to repel his attacks? Yet, even as we learn how to fight, we don’t have to be afraid. Jesus overcame Satan both in the wilderness and on the cross! All he asks if that we put on the armor of faith and surrender to God. Victory can be ours, to day and every day!

Prayer: Jesus, You are my Lord and Savior. Thank You for your victory over the devil! Teach me to recognize my enemy’s strategies and to overcome through faith and trust in You. Amen.

Sunday Scripture Study

Scripture studies for all of Sundays of Lent 2014 are available here.

First Sunday of Lent- Cycle A

March 9, 2014

Click here for USCCB readings

Opening Prayer

First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7

Psalm: 51:3-6,12-13,17

Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19

Gospel Reading: Matthew 4:1-11

As we begin the penitential season of Lent, this Sunday’s Gospel reading shows Jesus right after his baptism by John in the Jordan River being led into the wilderness to confront Satan.

Jesus’ forty days of trial in the wilderness recalls that of the Old Testament patriarch Moses (Exodus 24:18, 34:28) and of the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 19:5-8).

Jesus’ experience also reflects Israel’s forty year “testing” (temptation) in the desert (Exodus 17:1-9; Numbers 14:1-38; Psalm 95:8-11), the difference being that Jesus, in accepting God’s will, passes the test without rebelling against God. Jesus answers the devil with quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, which in part tells the story of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness (verse 4—Deuteronomy 8:3; verse 7—Deuteronomy 6:16; verse 10—Deuteronomy 6:13).

Jesus was tempted like us (Hebrews 4:15), but not like us (James 1:13,15; 1 John 3:5). In combating temptation, Jesus relied on his human will rather than his divine will; even so, the devil could only externally tempt him, so intent was he to do the will of God.

QUESTIONS:

In the 1st Reading, Eve, and then Adam, are tempted by Satan to disobey God. What do you think was the root cause of their sin?

In the 2nd Reading, what is the point St. Paul is trying to make? How does the sin of the first Adam compare with the grace given through the sacrifice of Jesus, the Second Adam?

In the Gospel, what links these temptations with the baptism of Jesus (verses 1, 3, 6)?

For each of these three temptations: (a) What is its nature, (b) what might potentially appeal to Jesus’ human nature, (c) what price would there be for him to yield, and (d) how does Jesus respond?

Inasmuch as Jesus, as a divine Person, could not sin, what was the point in tempting him? How do you relate this passage to the petition of Christ’s own prayer, “Lead us not into temptation”?

What spiritual benefit can be gained through temptation, and why would the Holy Spirit lead you (or allow you to go) where you would have to face it (James 1:2-4)?

What human need is at the heart of each of these temptations? How are these needs evident in your life? How does Satan use them to tempt you?

How have you tested God or presumed on his care for you? What do Jesus’ replies to Satan tell you about the attitude you should foster towards God’s care for you?

Closing Prayer

Catechism of the Catholic Church: §§ 538, 566, 2119, 1438

Occupy your mind with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be. -St. Thomas More

The Sacred Page

Overcoming Temptation: 1st Sunday of Lent

The Readings for this Sunday are exceptionally rich, so we will have to limit ourselves to following just a few themes

1. The First Reading is the account of the Fall, in which Eve, followed by Adam, gives in to temptation by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Reading 1 Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7

The classic scriptural formulation of the nature of temptation is found in 1 John 2:15-16:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.

In the Christian tradition, this threefold love of the world—Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, and Pride of Life—is known as the threefold concupiscence, and lines up roughly with the sins of (physical) lust, avarice (greed), and pride.

We see this threefold pattern at work when Eve gives in to temptation:

The woman saw that the tree was (1) good for food,
(2) pleasing to the eyes, and (3) desirable for gaining wisdom.

“Good for food”—this is physical lust. “Pleasing to the eye”—this is avarice, the desire to have more, to possess things for their beauty or value. “Desirable for gaining wisdom”—this is pride, because the purpose for gaining wisdom is to make herself equal to God. As the serpent says, “You will be like God” (RSV).

Although Eve is the one tempted into sin according to the narrative, the biblical and post-biblical tradition often attributes the Fall just as much, or even primarily, to Adam, probably because he was considered “head of the family,” and should have known better. Our liturgical translation rightly renders: "her husband who was with her," implying that Adam was passive and complicit in the whole event. Some other English translations leave out this important phrase. Adam was give the role of "working and guarding" in the Garden in Gen 2:15. Apparently he hasn't been "guarding" very well, because there is a snake in the Garden. Snakes are never a good thing. So the responsibility for Original Sin may be laid squarely at the feet of Adam, the original "deadbeat dad" who didn't take responsibility for protecting his nascent family.

2. The Responsorial Psalm is Psalm 51, the most famous psalm of penitence in the psalter, recited every Friday in the Liturgy of the Hours:

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.

By tradition, David wrote this psalm after his sin with Bathsheba. David was a New Adam figure in his own right. He was a royal priest (wearing an ephod in 2 Samuel 6:14; see also Psalm 110) and king of creation (see Psalm 89:19-37). Like Adam and Eve of old, he fell to the threefold concupiscence (see 2 Sam 11), first ogling the beautiful Bathsheba (Lust of the Eyes), then sleeping with her (Lust of the Flesh), then being too proud to admit wrongdoing, but instead committing murder to hide his sin (Pride). Like Adam (Hosea 6:7), David was the recipient of a divine covenant (see 2 Sam 7:4-17; Ps 89:28, etc.), who promptly broke his covenant relationship by sin. David represents an advance over Adam, however, inasmuch as David repents with great contrition (2 Sam 12:13-16, Psalm 51). David prayers for a “clean heart” and a “new spirit” within him, which is an anticipation of the cleansing of our hearts by the Holy Spirit through baptism in the New Covenant (Acts 2:37-38). The sacrament was not available to David but he longed for its reality.

3. In the Second Reading (Romans 5:12-19), St. Paul explicitly sets up a typological relationship between Adam and Christ:

Reading 2 Rom 5:12-19

This passage illustrates what I said above about Adam being attributed primary responsibility in the Fall. Be that as it may, the Church is calling our attention to the parallel between the Fall and Christ’s victory over temptation.

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.

The “gift of justification” usually means different things to Protestants and Catholics. For many Protestants, “justification” is more or less synonymous with “forgiveness” or “acquital” in the divine court, i.e. justification is juridical. For Catholics, “justification” is an actual “making just,” a changing of our very nature, i.e. justification is ontological. So, just as Adam changed human nature by his sin, corrupting it and passing it down to his descendants, those who have faith in Christ experience an actual change in our nature (justification) which enables us to live lives of righteousness. We receive this justification first through Baptism (Rom 6:3-4).

St. Paul’s words in this passage remind us of how dependent we are on Christ for our Lenten observances to have any spiritual effect. By themselves, practices like fasting and almsgiving do not necessarily effect our souls. There are plenty of people, for example, who have experienced hunger and yet have remained bitter or selfish; likewise many have given away money, or had it taken away, without experiencing spiritual transformation. Our Lenten efforts are not effective by themselves. They are only effective when we unite our small, token efforts with the work of Jesus. His redemption infuses our humble efforts with meaning, value, and effectiveness.

4. We move now to the Gospel, where Jesus is tempted three times by Satan:

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.

The temptations follow the pattern of the threefold concupiscence. First, there is the Lust of the Flesh: “Turn these stones to bread!” Our Lord was certainly hungry after forty days of fasting. He was likely in physical pain as his body, having used up fat reserves, was beginning to break down his muscle tissue to stay alive. Fresh baked bread would sound very good to a starving man .... And yet Our Lord knew that the use of his divine powers to spare himself the suffering of the human condition was not the will of his Father.

Next is the Pride of Life. “Throw yourself down from the temple and let the angels catch you!” This was the temptation to perform a public stunt which would lead to fame and celebrity status. Jesus would be an instant national sensation. Yet Our Lord knew his mission was one of humility.

Finally comes the Lust of the Eyes. The devil “showed him all the kingdoms of their world and their glory (or ‘riches’).” So much could be gained with such a small act of worship—and think of the good Jesus could do as ruler of all these earthly kingdoms!

In each of these cases, Jesus opposes the temptation by quoted from Scripture, specifically the Book of Deuteronomy, the quintessential “Law of Moses.”

A subtheme of this passage—besides Jesus overturning, as it were, our first parents capitulation to the threefold concupiscence,—is the idea of Jesus as the new Son of David, one greater than Solomon.

Solomon was charged to keep the Law of Moses (1 Kings 2:1-4), which gave specified three prohibitions for the king to observe (do not multiply horses, gold or wives; Deut 17:14-17). Solomon later spectacularly broke the three prohibitions of the Law of Moses (see 1 Kings 10:14-11:8), which, by the way, correspond to the threefold concupiscence (Lust of the Flesh=wives, Lust of the Eyes=gold, Pride of Life=horses [i.e. military power and arrogance]). Jesus is the better Son of David, who upholds the Law of Moses three times to undo the threefold capitulation of the first Son of David.

We as Christians are called to overcome, as Jesus did, the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and Pride. Those in the religious life do so in a radical way, as they vow to follow the three “evangelical counsels”=poverty, obedience, and chastity. Chastity involves the putting to death (mortification) of Lust of the Flesh. Poverty mortifies the Lust of the Eyes. Obedience mortifies Pride—it’s hard to be proud when you are obeying someone else (in poverty, too, no less).

It strikes me as odd that Evangelicals do not practice the “evangelical counsels.” Despite the emphasis on “being Biblical” and even “taking the Bible literally” in some quarters of Protestantism, you find almost no Protestants taking literally Jesus’ call to celibacy (becoming a “eunuch” for the sake of the Kingdom; see Matt 19:12) or poverty (“sell all that you have and come, follow me ...”; see Matt 19:21). These words of Jesus are followed radically only by the religious within the ancient Churches (Catholic and Orthodox).

But the mortification of the threefold concupiscence is not just for monks, nuns, and priests. According to our state in life, all of us have to overcome this temptation to sin. Our traditional Lenten disciplines (Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving) are intended to help us in this. Fasting mortifies Lust of the Flesh. Almsgiving mortifies Lust of the Eyes (greed, avarice). And prayer mortifies Pride, by acknowledging our dependence on God (“give us our daily bread ...”; Matt 6:11) and submitting our will to His (“Thy will be done ...”; Matt 6:10). Let’s unite our efforts to Jesus powerful work of redemption by faith, and let his Spirit work in us this Lent through the means our Lenten disciplines.

First Sunday of Lent -- Our Desert

(Ivan Kramskoi)

". . . and afterwards he was hungry . . ."

The Word for Sunday: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/030914.cfm

Gn 2: 7-9; 3: 1-7
Rm 5: 12-19
Mt 4: 1-11

Now and then we all have days in which something just doesn’t go right. In fact, it may be a series of events that just seem to snowball one after the other which causes us frustration and disappointment until they finally even out. So often in ministry we find that interruptions are the norm rather than the exception. One works hard at certain arrangements and in the end you find that “plan B” is necessary. It may be something small like a glitch in the sound system or a scheduled person who cannot show up at the last minute or something far more serious that may cause you to cancel an event all together.

As we begin this First Sunday of Lent we hear a well-known story from Genesis that indeed something went wrong with humanity not long after God created us. Things did not work out as originally planned. God “blew into his (Adam’s) nostrils the breath of life . . .” God then created Eve and set these two first human beings in a Garden, rich with beautiful trees and abundant fruit. Then, the snake appears and both man and woman believe the serpent’s lie and take to themselves their own will over that of God. That original sin of disobedience which caused shame and guilt to enter, exhibited by the embarrassment of their nakedness, now needed to be corrected. A savior would need to obey – a new Adam must come for we could not save ourselves from our own sin.

St. Paul in Romans reminds us that through one man (Christ Jesus), “the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” Through Christ Jesus, “the many will be made righteous.” So, rather than a garden, a desert would be the place to confront evil and its source again.

St. Matthew’s Gospel passage is rich with drama as we see Jesus, “led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” Here our new Adam must now face the sin of all humanity which he had taken upon himself. In the most vulnerable time of his desert experience, the tempter approaches for after forty days and nights of fasting, Jesus “was hungry.” We could assume he was weak and thirsty as well. In his weakness, the devil approached and near slithers up to Jesus like the serpent in the garden.

As the first sin was the result of food, so now the first temptation addresses physical hunger: “. . . command these stones become loaves of bread.” Unsuccessful, the tempter moves to the human desire for self-rule: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” God will catch you. Lastly, the final temptation confronts our hunger for pride, power, and prestige. As Jesus is shown “all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,” he demands that Jesus bow before the tempter and he can have them all: worldly fame, money, and all the advantage the world can bring. All three temptations together are essentially a means to grab the easy way, the way of my will above that of God’s and essentially for Jesus to abandon his mission of death and resurrection for which he was sent among us to break through the wall and power of sin (death) which estranged us from God. We all know he did not succumb to the devil’s attempts.

Thereby, Lent is an invitation to find our spiritual desert where we confront the truth of our lives. Here we may find something that upsets us, something we know has to change, or something for which we are grateful yet still need more help. Yet, the greatest gift is to know that we are not alone in the desert of isolation because we can and should call upon our Lord to come with us. To believe that God is greater than our sin and more powerful than the forces of evil around us is to know that his mercy and forgiveness is here to call us to a new direction and a new life.

Whenever the moment arrived and reflecting glass provided a mirror, much better than staring into a pond of water, I wonder what the first reactions were like. Once we could see ourselves as we are did we like what we saw? Much more likely we could see the many imperfections – a wrinkle here, a gray hair there, a little too chubby here, a nose or ear not proportioned properly, lips too thin, forehead too wide, etc. We could all go on and on. The cosmetic industry spends billions of dollars fixing the outside of us but Lent is not cosmetic surgery.

In the Lenten desert we should see ourselves as we are and turn to the grace of God to correct the faults of our souls and lead us to holiness and virtue which is true beauty. May the grace of God lead us to a healing desert in these weeks ahead of us. The sacraments of Reconciliation and the holy Eucharist are powerful tools provided by Jesus our Divine Physician who showed us how we might be “made righteous” before God in this ancient desert time.

Grant, almighty God,

through the yearly observances of holy Lent,

that we may grow in understanding

of the riches hidden in Christ

and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.

(Collect of Mass)

Fr. Tim

Insight Scoop

A Cross-less Christianity is a lie of the devil

"The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain" by Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca. 1308-1311)

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, March 9, 2014 | The First Sunday of Lent | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7
• Psa 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
• Rom 5:12-19
• Matt 4:1-11

“He that seeks not the cross of Christ,” wrote St. John of the Cross, “seeks not the glory of Christ.” Put another way, a cross-less Christianity is a lie of the devil. Lent, which leads us to Holy Week and the crucifixion, is a challenging reminder of this difficult but ultimately glorious truth.

The first Adam, shaped from dust by the Creator, walked and talked with God. But then he was tested and fell in the garden. Having listened to the serpent, he succumbed to the temptations of self-will and self-love, rejecting the will and love of God. Seeking his own glory, he was banished to the dust and dryness of the world, separated from friendship with God.

Through Adam, St. Paul explained to the Christians in Rome, “sin entered the world, and through sin, death.” Sin and death have ever been with us ever since; the temptation to seek our will is constantly with us.

Severed from God’s life, what could mankind do? Look to God’s gracious gift, “the one man Jesus Christ”, the new Adam. The co-eternal Word was not created, but “begotten”, having no beginning. But although all things were created for him and through him (Col 1:15-17), he chose to be born into the fallen, desperate world of man. After being baptized in the Jordan (Matt 3:13-17) and revealing his divinity, he was then led by the Spirit into the desert to walk and talk and be fed by the Father.

Then, after forty days, he was tested by the devil. Would he, like the old Adam, listen? Would he, like the first man, give in to the lures of the tempter?

He did listen, of course. The fact is, in this world it is impossible to escape temptation. And Jesus, being fully man, really was tempted: “For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb 2:18; cf. 4:15). But while the old Adam did not refute the words of the serpent (and so opened himself to disaster), the Word-made-flesh rebuked the father of lies. He knew what he was facing, and he did not hesitate or second guess when the devil misused Scripture. Jesus went into the desert to battle, to fight and renounce the devil and the passing glories of this world. He knew that true glory is not found in power, but in obedient, faithful sonship.

Much has been rightly made of how Jesus rejected the same temptations—hunger, selfishness, rebellion—that had overwhelmed the Israelites in the desert (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, par 538-40). But the Gospel shows how Jesus emphatically distinguished himself from the many self-proclaimed messiahs, false prophets, and political zealots so common in first-century Palestine.

Turning stones into loaves of bread would have not only satisfied his hunger, but been evidence of magical powers—a most attractive quality for anyone seeking worldly attention. And commanding God to keep him from harm if he threw himself from the temple parapet would have marked him as a powerful prophet or visionary able to control the will of God. The third temptation was the most direct and blatant. If Jesus had given up everything for political power, he would have shown himself to be a political revolutionary intent only on earthly glory and temporal power. “The devil,” writes Craig S. Keener in his commentary on Matthew (InterVarsity, 1997), “offered Jesus the kingdom without the cross, a temptation that has never lost its appeal.”

But Jesus is not a magician, a self-serving prophet, or a political zealot. He is the Son of God who came to do the Father’s will (Jn 6:38-40). The new Adam, in the garden of Gethsemane, prayed that the Father’s will would be accomplished. Tested in both desert and garden, he was glorified by and through the cross—the instrument of death which is, wrote Pope St. Leo I, “the true ground and chief cause of Christian hope.”

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the March 13, 2011, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Vultus Christi

Cum Ipso Sum in Tribulatione

Sunday, 09 March 2014 08:16

Nestling Under the Shadow of God

Today the sacred liturgy transports us into the desert: an arid wilderness, uncharted, inhospitable, and haunted by evil spirits. This being said, the tone of today’s Mass is reassuring and full of confidence. Psalm 90 (Qui habitat) runs through the Mass of the First Sunday of Lent from beginning to end. “He will give thee the shelter of his arms; under his wings thou shalt find refuge, his faithful care thy watch and ward” (Psalm 90:4-5). The desert is, paradoxically, the very place where, cut off from all else, we experience the closeness of God. The opening verses of Psalm 90 have, in the translation of Ronald Knox, a note of intimacy that may escape us in more familiar translations:

Content if thou be to live with the Most High for thy defence,
under his Almighty shadow nestling still,
him thy refuge, him thy stronghold thou mayst call,
thy own God, in whom is all thy trust” (Psalm 90:1-2).

Christ Praying in Us

Today’s Holy Mass places Psalm 90 in the mouth of Christ. Psalm 90 is the prayer by which Our Lord exorcises the desert, cleanses it, and sanctifies it. The liturgy places the same psalm in our mouths. We repeat it; we pray it; we sing it; we allow it to inhabit us. Held in the heart, Psalm 90 becomes Christ’s own prayer for us, and with us, and in us, to the Father. Psalm 90 functions today as a sacrament of the prayer of Christ. It is that by which we are efficaciously united to the prayer of the Christ in His temptations. It is the means by which Christ’s own prayer to the Father can inhabit all our moments of temptation, loneliness, and fear.

A Psalm for Lent Penitents

Without counting the references to it in the Gospel itself, Psalm 90 occurs no less than five times in today’s Mass — in the Introit, Gradual, Tract, Offertory, and Communion. Psalm 90 is is clearly the great prayer of the day; it is the Church’s principal Lenten meditation. By placing Psalm 90 on the First Sunday of Lent, the Church would have us understand that it contains all that is needed for us to complete the Lenten journey. Psalm 90 is among the most salutary Lenten penances that a confessor can give his penitents. I would, in fact, recommend that priests who hear many confessions have on hand printed copies (in a prayer card format) of the text of Psalm 90, so as to give them to their penitents.

A Psalm in Spiritual Combat

Psalm 90 is like a mother’s provision for the son going off to war. “Take this,” she says, “keep it close to your heart, and when, all around you, the battle rages repeat it, knowing that I am praying it with you.” “Though a thousand fall at thy side, ten thousand at thy right side, it shall never come next or near thee” (Psalm 90:7). Psalm 90 is one of the few psalms that we find used universally in both East and West on a daily basis. When we discover that the practice of the Church is to pray a given psalm every day, it must be because that psalm has, in the light of experience, been found indispensable.

The Noonday Devil

In the East Psalm 90 was assigned every day to the Sixth Hour, that is noon. This particular choice was inspired by verse 6: “Thou shalt not be afraid of . . . the arrow that flieth in the day . . . or of the noonday devil” (Psalm 90:5-6). The fathers and mothers of the desert identified the noonday devil as the evil force that attacks those who are “burned out” and weary. The noonday devil insinuates thoughts of dejection and of disgust for prayer and the things of God. The noonday devil whispers dark thoughts and plants them in the mind: discouragement, despondency, and despair. “Give it up. What’s the use? Why go on? It all means nothing. You’ve been taken in, deceived. There is nothing on the other side. There is no hope for you. Your life is a failure. You are beyond redemption. You are not salvageable.” These are the classic temptations of desert-dwellers from Saint Anthony of Egypt to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, tempted to suicide during her final illness.

The Terrors of the Night

In the West, thanks to the Rule of Saint Benedict, Psalm 90 was assigned to Compline, the last prayer before going to bed. While Eastern Christians focused on the “noonday devil,” Western Christians were more struck by the references to darkness. “Nothing shalt thou have to fear from nightly terrors . . . from pestilence that walks to and fro in the darkness” (Psalm 90:5-6). The terror of the night: what child has not known the terror of mysterious evil beings lurking in dark closets, hanging behind the curtains and hiding under the bed? What city streets are not haunted at night by demons of violence, addiction, loneliness, and lust? How many people lie awake at night tormented by anxieties, ruminating old hurts, and fearing new ones? The ancient Compline hymn resonates with the psalm: “From all ill dreams defend our eyes, / From nightly fears and fantasies; / Tread under foot our ghostly foe, / That no pollution we may know” (Te lucis ante terminum).

Beasts and Angels

Besides the noonday devil and the terrors of the night, there are in Psalm 90 two other images that we find also in today’s Gospel: wild beasts and angels. The psalm says, “He has given charge to his angels concerning thee, to watch over thee wheresoever thou goest; they will hold thee up with their hands lest thou shouldst chance to trip on a stone” (Psalm 90:11-12). Angels! Now, the beasts: “Thou shalt tread safely on asp and adder, crush lion and serpent under thy feet” (Psalm 90:13). In a single sentence Saint Mark evokes the mysterious reality of the Son of God set around with wild beasts and angels. Jesus, he says, “lodged with the beasts, and there the angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:12). Saint Mark’s wild beasts are those named in Psalm 90: the asp and the adder, the lion and the serpent.

Malign Influences

The wild beasts of the Gospel and of the psalm are figures of the fallen angels, the demons who haunt our desert wildernesses. Cassian explains that “one is called a lion because of his wild fury and raging ferocity, another an adder because of the mortal poison that kills before it is noticed” (Conferences 7.32.5). Saint Peter speaks of the devil as a lion in a text that the traditional Office of Compline associated with Psalm 90: “Be sober and watch well; the devil who is your enemy, goes about roaring like a lion, to find his prey, but you, grounded in the faith, must face him boldly” (1 Peter 5:8).

While the lion seeks to intimidate by roaring, the viper is silent and deadly, striking quickly and without warning. The attacks of evil spirits on us are real. Saint Paul says: “It is not against flesh and blood that we enter the lists; we have to do with princedoms and powers, with those who have mastery over the world in these dark days, with malign influences in an order higher than ours” (Ephesians 6:12).

Ministering Angels

In the fray of spiritual combat and the wastelands of sin, the angels too are present. They watch over us, ready at every moment to rescue us from the treacherous lures of evil. The angels sent by the Father to minister to Christ in his temptations are sent to minister to us in ours. I am struck by this ministry of angels to the tempted and suffering Christ. Saint Mark points to their presence in the desert; for Saint Luke, it is in the garden of Gethsemane, that “an angel from heaven appears to Jesus, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43).

It is good, at the beginning of this Lenten season to recall that while we are tempted and attacked by the noonday devil and the terrors of the night, the holy angels speak to us of the sheltering hand of God, the hand by which we are protected, nourished, and even caressed.

Promises of Glory

In the last part of Psalm 90 we hear the promises of the Father to His beloved Son, suffering and tempted. These are just as truly the Father’s promises to each of us in our hour of testing. “He trusts in me, mine it is to deliver him; he acknowledges my name, from me he shall have protection; when he calls upon me, I will listen, in affliction I am at his side, to bring him to safety and honour. Length of days he shall have to content him, and find in me deliverance” (Ps 90:16).

Driven by the Holy Ghost into the Lenten desert to be with Christ, we are full of confidence. Already the brightness of the Holy Resurrection shines on the horizon, filling us with hope. We will celebrate the sacrament of Lent, as the liturgy calls it, with worthy minds if, beginning today, we fill our days and our nights with the prayer of Christ, a prayer given us in Psalm 90, and made perfect in us by our partaking of the adorable and life–giving Body and Blood of the Lord.

Vultus Christi

Saint Francesca of Rome

Sunday, 09 March 2014 08:25

This painting, attributed to Antonio da Viterbo the Elder (1450-1516), depicts Saint Francesca being clothed by the Blessed Virgin in the great white veil that, even today, characterizes the Olivetan Benedictine Oblates of Mary she founded in 1433. Our Lady wears a golden mantle, which Saint Paul at the left wraps around Francesca Romana. Saint Paul also holds a scroll. The mystical scene takes place on a cloud; fiery Seraphim accompany the Madonna and Child. Saint Mary Magdalene, in red vesture, and Saint Benedict, in the foreground, drape a protective mantle around twenty Oblates. Note the angel below the Gothic windows at left. He is busy carding golden threads with a warp and loom. Nearby are two frisky dogs and two cats. Francesca’s Oblate Congregation, it is said, was woven together by heavenly graces and harassed by evil spirits in the form of cats and dogs. The grace of Christ prevailed and the Oblates flourished.

In addition to being the First Sunday of Lent, today, February 9th, is the feast of Saint Francesca Romana. Saint Francesca is the patroness of Benedictine Oblates; she is a model of married life and of motherhood, of an active charity and of devotion to liturgical prayer. Loving feastday wishes to our own Oblate Sister Francesca in Oklahoma, to Oblate Sister Françoise–Romaine in California, and to Mrs. Frances Calkins in Pittsburgh. May their patroness obtain for them an abundance of heavenly blessings.

Married Life and Monastic Conversion

Saint Frances of Rome (1384-1440), more properly called by her own name, Francesca, is the patroness of Benedictine Oblates. The Collect for her feast tells us why. The Church has us pray:

O God, Who in Saint Frances of Rome, hast given us a model of holiness in married life and of monastic conversion, make us serve Thee perseveringly, so that in all circumstances we may set our gaze upon Thee and follow Thee.

It is not often that we mention both married life and monastic conversion in the same Collect. Francesca is there to tell us that it can be done. Another Collect for Saint Francesca highlights the privileged relationship she enjoyed with her Guardian Angel:

O God, Who among other gifts of Thy grace, didst adorn Thy handmaid Francesca with the familiar companionship of an Angel; grant, we beseech Thee, that helped by her prayers, we likewise may deserve to enjoy the company of the Angels.

Patronness of Rome

The Romans are extraordinarily proud of their Francesca, even to the point of considering her their special patron. Although they lay claim to Saints Peter and Paul, and to the spiritual richness of innumerable martyrs and glorious Popes, they remain attached to Francesca, a married woman, a servant of the poor, a mother to the sick, a spiritual daughter of Holy Father Benedict, and a mystic.

Enthusiasm for Holiness

Saint Francesca did nothing by half-measures. Being Roman, she lived life with a kind of reckless enthusiasm — not for the usual things Romans get excited over — but for holiness! Her life was extraordinary in some ways. She went in for fasting, austerities, and almsgiving in a huge way. The devil bothered her continually, not as he bothers most of us with boring, nagging temptations, but with spectacular assaults. Francesca was in the same league as Saint Anthony of Egypt and the Curé d’Ars.

Intensely Alive

For me, Francesca’s appeal is in her warm and very human personality. She was no dried up prune of a saint. She was intensely alive to everything human and capable of the grand passions without which life is bleak and dreary. She suffered struggles, endured sorrows, and bore with every manner of disappointment and hurt. One cannot say that Francesca’s holiness was of the tidy sort. One might even say that Francesca’s life was a mess. Her desire to serve God and live for him was continually frustrated by persons and circumstances. It was precisely in the midst of these conditions that Francesca grew in holiness, “setting nothing before the love of Christ” (RB 4:21), and “never despairing of God’s mercy” (RB 4:74).

Married at Thirteen

As a young girl, Francesca did not want to marry. She lived, after all, in the city of the Church’s shining virgin martyrs: Agnes, Cecilia, and so many others. Like them she wanted to consecrate her virginity to Christ, but her parents had other plans for her. The first big decision in her life was out of her hands. At the age of thirteen she gave in to her parents and married Lorenzo Ponziano, the wealthy nobleman they had chosen for her. Francesca was expected to be the perfect socialite, charming, beautiful, witty, and worldly as only Romans know how to be worldly. In her heart she longed for the cloister, but the will of God had placed her, concretely, in a setting far removed from it.

They Never Once Had A Quarrel

Lorenzo, Francesca’s husband treated her always with love and respect. He accepted that he had married an unusual woman, that she would never be like other Roman wives, and that there was something in her that he, try as he might, would never be able to satisfy. Francesca loved Lorenzo. She recognized his qualities and accepted that loving Lorenzo was part of God’s plan for her. It is said that through all their married life, Francesca and Lorenzo never once had a quarrel. For that alone they should both be canonized!

Devotion in a Married Woman

Francesca is best known for a sagacious remark, one that two centuries later Saint Francis de Sales would echo. “Devotion in a married woman,” she said, “is most praiseworthy, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. Sometimes she must leave God at the altar, to serve Him in her housekeeping”. An indication of Francesca’s Benedictine vocation was in her devotion to the Divine Office. One day in praying the Hours she was interrupted five times in succession. Each time she closed her book, attended to what was asked of her, and then returned to her prayer. After the last interruption she found the words of the antiphon she had been trying to pray written in letters of gold. God rewarded her patience as much as her zeal for the Divine Office.

Her Guiding Light

If you have ever seen a painting of Saint Francesca, you may have noticed a little angel standing near her. Francesca lost her little eight-year-old boy, Evangelista, to the plague. After his death he appeared to her announcing the death of yet another child, her daughter Agnese. Francesca’s grief is like described by the prophet Isaias: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you” (Isaias 49:15). Francesca never forgot the little ones taken from her by death. In exchange for these terrible losses, she was given an unusual grace: that of always seeing her guardian angel. Her angel took on the appearance of a little boy of about eight years (like her son Evangelista); he wore a dalmatic like the deacon at Solemn Mass. Francesca’s guardian angel was with her visibly at every moment, assuring her of the love of Christ, giving her counsel and providing her, even visibly, with a guiding light as she made her way through Rome’s dark streets at night on errands of charity. It was this fact that made Pope Pius XI declare Francesca the patroness of motorists!

Rival Popes

Francesca lived in troubled times. There were two rival Popes, making for schism and Civil War. Lorenzo was wounded fighting on behalf of the true Pope. In the aftermath of the conflicts, he lost his estates. Their home was destroyed and their one surviving son taken hostage. As if that were not enough Rome was beset with looting, famine, and plague. And we think we have troubles!

Mother of the Poor, the Sick, and the Brokenhearted

Francesca rose to the occasion. She fixed up the ruins of her home and opened a hospital. With poor and suffering people all around her, Francesca became a kind of Mother Teresa, compassionate and wonderfully effective. She fed and housed the poor sick picked up on the streets. She arranged for priests to minister to the dying. She reconciled enemies and calmed the rage of those plotting revenge. After the troubles caused by the schism in the Church, Lorenzo came home to her, but he was a broken man both physically and mentally. Francesca cared for him with every tenderness.

Benedictine Oblates

Francesca’s activities did not go unnoticed. Other Roman ladies, many of them war widows, were drawn to her. Little by little a new form of Benedictine life emerged: women living under the Rule of Saint Benedict, not as enclosed nuns, but as Oblates of the Roman monastery of the Olivetans at Santa Maria Nuova. Francesca’s Oblates were free to go out to serve the poor and sick. Their life was shaped to a great extent by the first part of Chapter Four of the Holy Rule, the Instruments of Good Works:

To relieve the poor, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick, to bury the dead, to give help in trouble, to console the sorrowful, to avoid worldly behaviour, and to set nothing before the love of Christ (RB 4:14-21).

Francesca’s Oblates survive to the present day, not only in Rome, but also at Le Bec-Hellouin in France, at Abu-Gosh in Israel, and elsewhere. Most of them wear unchanged the distinctive black habit and long white veil dating from the time of Saint Francesca.

Lorenzo’s Deathbed Declaration of Love

Lorenzo died in 1436. His last words were for his darling Francesca. They are worth quoting. “I feel,” he said, “as if my whole life has been one beautiful dream of purest happiness. God has given me so much in your love.” A husband’s deathbed confession of undying love! No wife could ask for more.

The Angel Beckons

After Lorenzo’s death, Francesca was free to take a fuller role in the Benedictine community she had established. Her sister Oblates elected her prioress. Four years later, on the evening of March 9th her face became radiant with a strange light. “The angel has finished his task,” she said; “he beckons me to follow him”. Francesca was 56 years old. Her death plunged all of Rome into mourning. Miraculous healings abounded. Rome had another saint.

Acceptance of Things As They Are

Francesca’s life tells us that the plan of God for our holiness us unfolds in ways that often contradict our own projects and desires. Our endless planning can be no more than an attempt to control life, to manipulate people and events. Francesca challenges us to detachment from life as we would have it be, and to the acceptance of things as they are. Each of us has unexpected elements that, thrown into the mix, unsettle our plans, making life untidy and somehow bearable at the same time. And each of us has a guardian angel, a light in life’s obscurity, a faithful friend and spiritual counselor.

Our Lenten Journey in the Old Testament

Dr. Mark Giszczak

First Sunday of Lent
First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/030914.cfm

Here at the beginning of Lent, the Church confronts us with the problem of sin. The drama of humanity’s fall is retold in this Sunday’s reading from Genesis 3.

Man Made from Mud

First, the Lectionary sets the stage by beginning with a few verses from Genesis 2 that describe Adam’s creation from dirt. After having being reminded on Ash Wednesday that “you are dust and to dust you shall return,” this part of the reading drives the message home: God made us from mud. In fact, he made the trees and plants from mud too. It is easy for us to think much of ourselves, to consider ourselves to be a “big deal,” but our origin from dirt reminds us to think twice before having too high an opinion of ourselves.

The “One Rule” of the Garden of Eden

After Adam’s creation, we are told about the Garden of Eden—a place full of delights in which God places two significant trees: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. The Lectionary skips over much of Genesis 2, where we hear God’s command to Adam not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (This skipped section also tells of Adam’s role in taking care of the Garden and the special creation of Eve.) God commands him “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen 2:17 RSV). Adam and Eve are free to enjoy the Garden, and God gives them only one rule to follow.

Sometimes people object to the “one rule” asking why God would even give Adam and Eve an opportunity to sin. Why not just remove the Tree completely? The trouble is the nature of human freedom. We are not robots who can be programmed to behave in a certain way. Robots can do lots of tasks, but ultimately, they cannot love. Love is impossible without freedom. God wanted to create beings able to love him, so he had to grant them freedom not to love him, including opportunities to express that non-love. The “one rule” he prescribes offers Adam and Eve a stark choice—to love God by obeying him or to reject God by breaking his one rule. Sadly, they choose to reject God.

The Serpent’s Twisted Words

The serpent enters the Garden to tempt Eve. The serpent embodies Satan—a liar, a tempter, an accuser. Indeed, we can’t trust the things that come from the serpent’s mouth. He speaks twisted words. His statements to Eve are tainted with deception. First, he questions her: “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” But this is not a fair question. God didn’t say anything of the sort. In fact, God gave Adam permission to eat of all the trees in Eden, save one. Eve, at this point, is morally innocent in a way that we will never be. She has never heard a lie before, never encountered evil, never witnessed sin in any form. She corrects the serpent’s “mistake” and dutifully recites God’s command concerning the tree back to the serpent.

Then the serpent deceives Eve with a sinister lie—that eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will not cause you to die, but it will divinize you, make you like God himself! God said the tree would cause death, but the serpent says it will bring about life, a greater life than Adam and Eve are currently experiencing. Rather than rejecting the false words of the serpent and relying on God’s command, Eve allows herself to listen to him. The next verse describes her temptations: that the tree was “good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom” (Gen 3:6). The New Testament uses these three dynamics to encapsulate the temptations we experience in this world: “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16 RSV). After allowing herself to be seduced by the serpent’s lies and enticed by the desirability of the Tree, Eve succumbs to temptation and eats the forbidden fruit.

The Fall Destroys Harmony

Suddenly, after the fatal moment, we realize that Adam was standing with her the whole time. He too was taken in by the lies of the serpent and fails to rely on the word of God. Together, our first parents reject God and eat the death-inducing meal that will change the course of human history: The Fall occurs. From this point on, a wedge is driven between God and man. The original harmony which Adam and Eve enjoyed with God, nature, and each other is irrevocably broken (CCC 400). Their rightly ordered persons, body and soul, are plunged into the darkness of sin, where disintegration, disorder, and conflict are the norm. Originally, they had been free of concupiscence—the inward movement of the heart toward sin—but now they and their children will be afflicted by the false desires it prompts.

After their Fall, Adam and Eve come face to face with the horror of their guilt. They see that they are naked—physically, spiritually bankrupt. They have broken the “one rule” God had given to them, rejected his plan and embarked on a fool’s journey away from God. Their search for autonomy, for “being like God,” ends in a tragic reversal. Their new sinful state is far further from Godlikeness than they ever could have imagined. Shame and guilt consume them. And out of desperation, they hide themselves from God. The reading ends on a sour note of shame, yet this humiliation could and should lead eventually to repentance. The journey of Lent starts with recognizing our humble, muddy, sinful beginnings, but it points to a far more glorious destination than even the Garden of Eden.

Scripture Speaks: Face the Devil

Gayle Somers

Jesus faces God’s enemy and ours, the one who has hated us from the beginning.

Read:
Matthew 4:1-11
Gen. 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Ps. 51:3-6, 12-14, 17
Romans 5:12-19

The Gospel reading begins with the phrase, “At that time,” to describe this scene of Jesus’ temptation by the devil. At what time? In the previous chapter, Jesus had just been baptized in the Jordan River, even though John protested. Jesus insisted that He be treated like all the others there seeking a renewal in their relationships with God. When He came up out of the water, a Voice from heaven spoke, saying, “This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased” (Mt. 3:17). It was on the heels of His public solidarity with sinners and His Father’s expressed pleasure in Him that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

This would be a strange order of events if we didn’t understand that just as Jesus identified Himself with His brothers in baptism, He was also identifying with them in facing the test of His love for the Father. Our First Reading recounts the original test of man in the Garden of Eden. There a “cunning” serpent questioned the authority of God’s Word. “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees of the Garden?” We are surprised that God allowed His enemy into the Garden in the first place. Clearly the serpent wanted the humans dead. Through lies (“You will certainly not die”) and distortions of the truth, he seduced them into sin. Why would God give His enemy this opportunity?

We can’t fully answer that question, but we do know that God made man in His own image and likeness, so man would be free and would have to choose to love and obey His Creator or not. The serpent’s temptation forced that choice, but the need for the choice was always God’s plan. Making a free decision to love God is part of what it means to be fully human.

The man and woman chose badly, but the serpent’s choice to tempt them ended even more badly. In the next few verses of Genesis (not in today’s reading), we find that God’s punishment of His enemy would come from the very kind of flesh and blood upon whom he had preyed. “A woman and her seed” would someday appear on the horizon of human history. “He will bruise your head [a fatal wound for a serpent], and you shall bruise his heel [painful but not mortal for a man].” There would be another time of testing of man by God’s enemy, but this time, the enemy would be defeated.

Thus, our Gospel passage begins, “At this time.” The time for the showdown has arrived. This was God’s timing, not the devil’s. It was the Spirit who led Jesus out for this battle. See how the devil is unable to lie and distort God’s Word in this temptation, although not for lack of trying. Jesus faced every attack by reciting Scripture, cleaving wholeheartedly to God’s precise words (as Adam and Eve had not done). The forty days of fasting prepared Jesus to be entirely focused on being God’s Son in God’s way, through the appearance of human weakness and complete dependence on His Father. In the end, He was able to say to the devil, “Get away, Satan!” All the bluff and cunning of the tempter fell to dust as Jesus resolutely refused to turn away from serving God, no matter what the cost. He had taken His first, irreversible step towards the Cross.

The psalm is a plaintive cry for God’s mercy—a recognition of the devastating effect of the fall in the Garden. King David wrote this psalm after his sins of murder and adultery. David was Israel’s brightest star, “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:13-14), yet even he fell victim to the rebellion that lurks in our hearts and makes us so vulnerable to the Tempter. Jesus, the new and eternal King of Israel, makes God’s mercy abundantly available to us. He is the answer to David’s prayer and ours: “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”

In the Second Reading, St. Paul explains what the two accounts of temptation mean for us. Adam’s transgression meant death for us all. The choice he made was for himself and all his children. Are we tempted to think that isn’t fair? If so, we need to read on, because St. Paul shows us that just as Adam’s disobedience, in which we had no personal part, was counted for us, so Jesus’ obedience, in which we likewise had no personal part, also counts for us. Sometimes we’re tempted to think we should each be given our own shot at obedience, that we could perhaps have done a better job than Adam. That could be dangerous, however. If we refuse to let another’s behavior count for us, what happens if, in our one moment of glory, when we must choose for or against God, we botch it like Adam did? If he could fail, so could we. If we refuse to let another’s behavior count for us, then Jesus’ obedience won’t help us at all. We are left with our own choices and no chance for redemption. God’s way is much better!

Possible responses after the lectionary readings:

Gospel:

Jesus, lead me in the way of obedience, which always disrupts and defeats the devil.
Lord, help me use the forty days of Lent to strengthen me against my enemy.

First Reading:

Thank You, Lord, for breathing Your own life into man.
Help me resist the lies of the tempter, who suggests I can do better without You.
Remind me that the beautiful, good things of this world should lead me to, not away, from You.

Psalm:

I am utterly dependent on You for mercy and forgiveness.
It’s pointless to pretend I haven’t sinned—“I acknowledge my offense and my sin is ever before me”
Please give me a “willing spirit,” as mine is so often unwilling.

Second Reading:

Thank You, Lord, that Jesus undid for me the damage done by Adam.
Help me remember that Your grace is more abundant than sin.

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