10.02.2008 - 1st Sunday of Lent
- year A
First Reading: Gen 2,7-9;3,1-7 Psalm 51 Second Reading: Rom 5,12-19
Gospel Reading; Matt 4,1-11
Did God truly create everything? That is our faith which is denied by God's enemy. There are scientists who boast of some discovery or theory as if this could shake faith from our hearts. When they say that the hypothesis of a big-bang is sufficient to deny the existence of God and his creation they demonstrate their foolishness. But let us continue in their logic: if all began with an explosion, tell me "what exploded?". If something exploded, where was that something? Where did it come from? What were the scientific laws at the origin of this explosion? What other laws, physical or chemical, indicate why we are here now, listening and speaking? That "something" and "those laws", where do they come from? If these theories and any others that men and women are able to formulate, are true, they only convince me of a far greater wisdom and imagination; that of God's and he never ceases to amaze me! Faith in God the creator is absent in the beliefs of Oriental religions and philosophies. Since these beliefs are supported by ways to impart healthy living we readily accept them without discerning, but this, in the long term, effects our faith and our certainties. What are these oriental beliefs? I am not able to summarise them superficially. In the beginning there is a philosophical concept of the One, which poor people may also call God. This lost balance causing the origin of energy vibrations which, in solidifying, gave origin to matter, including my body. From these or similar affirmations it seems that God is not a person who can converse with us, but that everything is God, ourselves included! My individuality disappears like a drop of water in the great ocean that is God! If the universe is God, then there is no need of redemption or salvation, for I am a particle of God and therefore I cannot commit sin! It is perhaps better to deny God the creator for those who do not wish to recognise themselves as sinners and needy, therefore, of salvation!
Why do we celebrate a period of penitence such as Lent? Today's readings tell
us that we are all sinners and that sin has ruined our lives, made us suffer
and ruined our relationships. We need to recuperate our strength and abilities
which were lost through sin. But what is sin? Is there any sense in talking
about sin in a world that no longer uses this term and despises it? It is true,
no-one speaks in public about sin and men and women no longer feel responsible
before God. Sin has to do with our relationship with God, it is the loss of
faith in him in one of his children, in someone who believes in him. Only someone
who believes in God uses the word sin. Someone who believes in God and falls
into temptation and thinks that God has forgotten mankind or is no longer interested
in them, or that he no longer exists. Some other thought might occur that the
word God is childish and that it is better to act according to ones feelings
or ones own interests rather than what God would have us believe. And so these
thoughts distance man from God and make him a stranger. Men and women become
proud, become selfish and egocentric, This is sin, and it can take on many different
forms depending on whether it insinuates itself into economic affairs, sexuality
or social relationships, both private and public.
The first reading is about the sin committed by Adam and Eve, that is every
man and every woman's sin: it is the original sin from which all other sins
evolve, that of pride. Adam and Even feel that God cheated them, that he is
jealous of their freedom. And suddenly they are alone, far from God and they
feel ashamed and begin to accuse each other. There is no longer trust or serenity.
Isn't the distrust that reigns in society today a consequence of that sin?
The gospel reading says that no-one is spared temptation, no even the Son of
God. Jesus faces his thoughts with prayer and fasting. When they return he repeats
the Word of God. That Word is his certainty. He does not doubt the Father or
his love! And therefore, no temptation succeeds in distancing his heart from
God! Jesus overcomes his trials with obedience and a new mankind can begin,
that of his disciples who unite with him in obedience to the Father. This mankind
is formed of Adam's descendents who have been purified through baptism. They
receive justification and sanctification through Jesus, thanks to the victory
of Jesus which began with the forty days in the desert and concluded when Satan
returned to tempt him in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. We who were
weak, are now strong in Jesus' victory! Let us practice being close to him during
this Lent and substituting our thoughts for his!