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Our Lenten Journey in the Old Testament

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.


54 posted on 03/09/2014 8:21:34 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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Scripture Speaks: Face the Devil

 

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.

 


55 posted on 03/09/2014 8:23:12 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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