Reflection on the First Sunday in Lent"

Sunday Mass Readings

I had just finished with the Ash Wednesday service at St. Helen. It was a long day and I was ready to go home, have a bite to eat, and crash into bed. Except for this young man in his twenties, who walked up to me and asked me for the schedule for confessions. I asked him if would like to make his confession right away. I must admit, I was hoping he would say, “No!” Instead, he said “If it is alright with you.” I sat with him and he shared with me how he felt that God was speaking directly to him during the homily and how he had decided to make his confession. For three years, this young man had tried to convince others and himself that God did not matter. Sitting in the confessional this young man was making a choice. Right there and then he turned his life over to God. As I placed my hands over him and said the prayer of absolution, he wept. He hugged me in the end, told me that I can share his story and he left. I don’t know if I will ever meet this man again. But that does not matter. God had met him and he had met God. That is all that mattered. I would like to reflect on today’s reading from the context of the choice between good and evil. Like this young man, today’s first reading and the gospel reading present us with other people who also made choices. Whereas Adam and Eve made a choice in favor of godlessness and evil, Jesus made a choice in favor of God. Let me offer a brief commentary on the scriptures before I go further.

When God made human beings, he made them with the most consequential gift that God could have ever given human beings – the gift of freedom. God created human beings so radically free that they even had the choice to freely choose God or to freely make godless choices. God did not create us like our pets that we own. Our pets did not choose us. We choose our pets. And during all of its life it is never given the choice to belong to us or not. God made us free and part of the freedom implied creating the freedom to freely choose God (good) or to freely choose godlessness (evil). Without that possibility then we are not really free. Adam and Eve freely chose evil on that day. They freely chose to rebel, to disobey, and to become like God. With that choice came all the consequences of their choice - Lies, deception, fear, betrayal, killing, death, struggle, injustice, hatred.

But if this was where the story of human beings ended we would be a very hopeless people. The hope of our fallen state, the hope in the midst of our inclination for evil, the hope in the midst of our sin and misery and death is Christ. The crucial difference between the story of Adam and Eve in the first reading and the story of Jesus in the desert is that whereas Adam and Eve freely chose evil, Jesus freely chose God.

It would be tragic if we reduce the temptations of Jesus to just his experience in the desert. By being tempted to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger, Jesus, like any of us was being tempted to give into sins of the body – not just for those forty days but all through life. By being tempted to test God, Jesus was being tempted like Adam and Eve to put his will above God’s will – not for just forty days but all his life. By being tempted with the world and all its kingdoms, Jesus was being tempted to the trappings of power, wealth and glory – not just for forty days, but all his life. During those forty days and all through his life, even in the face of death and to the last painful breath, Jesus freely chose God. In the midst of pain and suffering he opened the eyes of all of humanity to a radically different possibility: the possibility of freely choosing God.

My dear friends it is important for us to understand the implication of that choice. On Christ’s free choice depended our salvation. As Jesus is tempted in the desert, he freely said ‘no’ to the possibilities of evil and revealed the possibility of good. Single-handedly, he reversed the choice that Adam and Eve had made for all humanity.

Let me offer three practical implications from today’s readings:

1. This Lent, let us make the choice between good and evil our special focus. The meaning of Lent cannot be captured in trivial choices such as abstaining from chocolate, or coffee or beer. Lent is about understanding the real battle between good and evil. Lent is about understanding the horror of evil and the consequences of the choices we make. Each day these forty days, then, try to freely make choices in favor of God.

2. Paying attention to our choices is important because our choices tell us about who we really are. It was Christ’s choice during each of his temptation that set him up above the Evil One. It was in his choices that he lived up to be the Messiah. Lent is a good time for us to as evaluate our lives and ask ourselves if we are contented with who we are. Our choices are a good indicator of who we are. This Lent let us pay attention to this aspect of our lives.

3. Lent is about realizing that our choices have consequences beyond our actions. Today’s second reading brings this point out rather clearly. As St. Paul would say, “Through one man sin entered the world… through one man’s obedience the many were made righteous” (Rom 5: 12-19). The choice Adam and Eve made resulted in a negative effect on all of humanity. Christ’s choice helped humanity find God. The choices we make are not personal choices. They almost always have a wider effect. Whether it is simple choices like a lie or a serious choice like taking another life, the effects of our choices are rarely limited to the individual. Lent challenges us to make choices that are salvific, both for ourselves and for others.

Let me conclude by saying that this Eucharist is the result of a choice that Jesus made to break himself for the salvation of humanity. He did so in free obedience to God. Let our participation in the Eucharist help us to make choices that will bring salvation to us and to the world. Amen.

- Fr. Satish Joseph