Catholic Caucus: Sunday Mass Readings, 03-01-20, First Sunday of Lent

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

KEYWORDS: catholic; lent; mt4; prayer;

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ Ping

Please FReepmail me to get on/off the Lenten Ping List.

From: Genesis 2:7-9, 15-25; 3:1-7

The Creation of Adam (Continuation)

[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. [15] The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. [16] And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; [17] 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.”

The Creation of Eve

[18] Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” [19] So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. [20] The man gave names to all, cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. [21] So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; [22] and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. [23] Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” [24] Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they be- come one flesh. [25] And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Temptation and the First Sins

[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 all 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 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 the Catholic Church”, 375).

From the outset, man is charged with cultivating the garden—working it, protecting 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,” St. J. Escriva said. ‘This not something that I have invented. It is enough to turn to the opening pages 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 the earth, and created for him and descendants this beautiful world we live in, “ut operaretur et custodiret illum” (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.

2:16-17. The fact that man had access to the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” means that God left the way open to the possibility of evil in order to ensure a greater good—the freedom which is man’s endowment. By using his reason and following his conscience, man is able to discern what is good and what is evil; but he himself cannot “make” something good or evil. So, God’s command to our first parents implies that they have a duty to recognize that they are creatures and have a duty to reverence and respect goodness, as reflected in the laws of creation and in the dignity proper to man as a person. Were man to want to decide on good and evil for himself, ignoring the good-ness God impressed on things when he created them, it would mean man wanted to be like God. Man is always being tempted towards absolute moral autonomy—and he gives in to that temptation when he forgets that there exists a God who is the Creator and Lord of all, man included.

“The tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” John Paul II comments, “was to express and constantly remind man of the ‘limit’ impassable for a created being” (”Dominum Et Vivificantem”, 36).

2:18-25. God continues to take care of man, his creature. The sacred writer conveys this by means of a human metaphor, depicting God as a potter who realizes his creation is not yet perfect. The creation of the human being is not yet over: he needs to be able to live in a full and deep union with another of his kind. The animals were also created by God, but they cannot provide complete companionship. So God creates woman, giving her the same body as man. From now on it is possible for the human being to communicate. The creation of woman, therefore, marks the climax of God’s love for the human being he created.

This passage also shows us man’s interiority: he is aware of his own aloneness. Although here loneliness is more a possibility and a fear rather than a real situation, we are being told that it is through awareness of being alone that man can appreciate the benefit of communion with others.

2:19-20. Like man, animals are created out of matter, but they are not said to have received from God the breath of life. Only man is given the breath of life, and this is what makes him essentially different from animals: man has a form of life given him directly by God; that is to say, he is animated by a spiritual principle which enables him to converse with God and to have real communion with other human beings. We call this “soul” or “spirit”. It makes man more akin to God than to animals, even though the human body is made from the earth and belongs to the earth just as an animal’s body does (cf. the notes on 1:26 and 2:7).

“The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the ‘form’ of the body (cf. Council of Vienne, “Fidei Catholicae”): that is, it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 365).

2:21-22. This sleep is a kind of death; it is as if God suspended the life he gave man, in order to re-shape him so that he can begin to live again in another way—by being two, man and woman, and no longer alone. By describing the creation of woman as coming from one of Adam’s ribs, the sacred writer is saying that, contrary to people’s thinking at the time, man and woman have the same nature and the same dignity, for both have come from the same piece of clay that God shaped and made into a living being. The Bible is also explaining the mutual attraction man and woman have for one another.

2.23 When man—now in the sense of the male human being—recognizes woman as a person who is his equal, someone who has the same nature as himself, he discovers in her the fit “helper” God wanted him to have. Now indeed the creation of the human being is complete, having become “man becomes the image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion” (John Paul II, General Audience, 4 November 1979).

The first man’s acclaim for the first woman shows the capacity both have to associate intimately in marriage. Man’s attitude to woman as it comes across here is that of husband to wife. “In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God’s intention: ‘It not good that the man should he alone; will make him a helper fit for him,’ and he makes his own the cry of Adam, the first husband: ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ Authentic conjugal love presupposes and requires that a man have a profound respect for the equal dignity of his wife: ‘You are not her master,’ writes St Ambrose (”Hexaemeron”, 5, 7, 19) ‘but her husband; she was not given to you to be your slave, but your wife [...]. Reciprocate her attentiveness to you and be grateful to her for her love”’ (John Paul II, “Familiaris Consortio”, 25).

2:24. These words are a comment by the sacred writer in which, having told the story of the creation of woman, he depicts the institution of marriage as something established by God at the time when human life began. As John Paul II explains, “this conjugal communion sinks its roots in the natural complementarity that exists between man and woman, and is nurtured through the personal willingness of the spouses to share their entire life-project, what they have and what they are: for this reason such communion is the fruit and the sign of a profoundly human need” (”Farniliaris Consortio”, 19).

By joining in marriage, man and woman form a family. Even the earliest translations of the Bible (Greek and Aramaic), interpreted this passage as meaning “the two will become one flesh”, thereby indicating that marriage as willed by God was monogamous. Jesus also referred to this passage about the origin of man to teach the indissolubility of marriage, drawing the conclusion that “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mt 19:5 and par.) The Church teaches the same: “The intimate partnership oflife and the love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws: it is rooted in the contract of its partners, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent. It is an institution confirmed by the divine law and receiving its stability, even in the eyes of society, from the human act by which the partners mutually surrender themselves to each other; for the good of the partners, of the children, and of society this sacred bond no longer depends on human decision alone. For God himself is the author of marriage and has endowed it with various benefits and with various ends in view” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 48,).

2:25. Here we can see how man and his body were totally in harmony, as were man and woman; this harmony will be broken due to the sin the narrative goes on to report.

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 command. 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 disobeyed 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” ([St] 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 modern age, when the atheistic 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 commandment. Genesis refers not to an apple but to a mysterious fruit: eating it symbolizes 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 truthfulness, and then yielding to one’s sensual appetites. This sin, Pope John Paul II also commented, “constitutes “the principle and root of all the others”. We find ourselves 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 presupposes “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).

From: Romans 5:12-21

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] sin 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 transgressions of Adam, who was a type of the One who was 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. [16] And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. [17] If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance 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 contrast 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 (especially 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 closely 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, counters 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 established, 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 everyone 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 Adam”: 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” (Colossians 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 immediately 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 solemnly by [Pope] 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 common to all men, is reduced to that condition in which it must suffer the consequences of that Fall [...]. Consequently, fallen human nature is deprived of the economy of grace which it formerly enjoyed. It is wounded in its natural powers and subjected 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 imitation 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 Revelation 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 period between Adam and Moses. In that period also people did sin against the natural 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 Apostle concludes, that death is due not to personal sins but to Original Sin. It is also proved, the Father 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. Genesis 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 involved the death penalty if broken (cf., for example, Exodus 21:12ff; Leviticus 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, woman 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. Moreover, the Christian faith teaches that bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned (cf. Wisdom 1:13; 2:23-24; Romans 5:21; 6:23; James 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 forever a life that is divine and free from all decay” (”Gaudium Et Spes”, 18).

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 (Optional Reading):

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 certain 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 battles 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 desert. Moses acted in the same way before proclaiming, in God’s name, the Old Law on Mount Sinai (Exodus 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 practice 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” ([Pope] 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 had fasted 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 performing the miracle is not part of His plan of salvation. In return for this trust, angels come and minister to Him (Matthew 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 outpourings 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, repeated 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, in 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 matters: “In many instances there exists a pressing need to reassess economic structures, but caution must be exercised with regard to proposed solutions which may be untimely, especially those which offer material advantages while militating 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 southern corner 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 Ioann. 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 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?”

To tempt God is the complete opposite of having trust in Him. It means presumptuously putting ourselves in the way of 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. Philippians 2:6-7). And so the Christian knows that all the 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 perfect 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 loving care: ‘because he cleaves to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My name’ (Psalm 90:14)” ([St] J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 62).

11. If we struggle constantly, we will attain victory. And nobody is crowned without having first conquered: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 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 energetically against the temptations of the devil. God has given us also powerful defenders against such temptations—our guardian angels, on whose aid we should call.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Violet.

First reading
Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7 ©

The Creation, and the sin of our first parents

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.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 50(51):3-6,12-14,17 ©