1st SUNDAY IN LENT (Cycle A)
Readings:
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Psalm 51:1-4, 10-13
Romans 5:12-19 or 5:12, 17-19
Matthew 4:1-11
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
The two Testaments reveal God's divine plan for humanity, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
Two very distinct liturgical omissions mark the Lenten season. We do not sing the "Gloria" hymn (Glory to God in the Highest) nor the "Alleluia" before the Gospel during the entire forty days of Lent (with a few exceptions). We don't sing the Gloria for two reasons. First, the Gloria hymn celebrates the coming of the Lord using the words of the angels announcing Christ's birth. The Church during Lent returns in spirit to a time when the people of God were in exile, waiting for the Redeemer-Messiah to come and save them. It is a similar season of expectation like Advent, but instead of awaiting Christ's birth from the womb of Mary, the Church anticipates Christ's second "birth" from the womb of the sepulcher. Second, following this same spirit of exile, the Church joins Moses and the Israelites as they wander in the desert for forty years before claiming their inheritance in the Promised Land. It is a time of struggle and purification where the faithful join together in saying, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land (Psalm 137:4)?
We also omit the "Alleluia" during Lent. The word "Alleluia" is rooted in the Hebrew expression Hallelujah, which means "praise God Yahweh." As a result, our focus in Lent is not in rejoicing, but in mourning our sins and reflecting on those things that prevent us from an authentic relationship with God. Once we have expressed sorrow for our sins and addressed their consequences in our lives through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can rejoice again at Easter because it is not only Christ's resurrection that we celebrate but our rebirth in our covenant relationship and fellowship with the Most Holy Trinity.
The Theme of the Readings: Temptation and Sin
Our first parents introduced temptation and sin into the
world (Gen 3:1-7). It was not God who tempted them to sin (Jam 1:17-15). But by
their free-will (Sir 15:11-14), they chose to willfully break the love relationship
with God by placing their selfish will over God's divine will for their lives.
It is the same circumstance of temptation and sin that plagues men and women throughout
salvation history. For most of us, those temptations that erode our relationship
with God come about through the daily routine of indifference toward God that
leads to failure in sin.
In the First Reading, we remember that God formed humankind from the soil of the ground. Humanity is both corporal (formed from matter) and spiritual (CCC 362). In the new Creation, Jesus instituted the seven Sacraments, which are also both corporal and spiritual since each of the Sacraments involves a corporal element. In the creation of the first man and woman, God placed them in a protected space that was the meeting place for fellowship with God. In the Garden Sanctuary was the Tree of Life; it was a symbol of immortality and the sign of God's covenant with our first parents. The "tree of life" becomes a covenant sign and a symbol of immortality again in the Cross of Jesus Christ that is the New Covenant "Tree of Life."
The theme of the Responsorial Psalm is that the confession of our sins opens us to God's mercy. In Psalm 51, attributed to David, we receive a beautiful example of genuine, heartfelt repentance, and the psalmist's confidence that God is merciful and will extend his forgiveness to the humbled and repentant soul.
The Second Reading and the Gospel Reading teach us about the consequences of sin and the power to overcome temptation. In the Second Reading, St. Paul addresses the origin of sin and death. He discusses the "original sin" of Adam, our human father, from whom we inherit "spiritual death" as a result of his sin just as we inherit our other genes and traits of human inheritance. Through our first parents, we are born physically alive but spiritually dead. It is our spiritual death that infects us with sin and the life-long struggle to resist Satan and the temptation to sin. The New Testament portrays Jesus as the "Second Adam" whose obedience and sacrificial death on the cross undo Adam's disobedience. After His baptism, Jesus faced Satan and experienced the same temptations to which the first Adam fell. Jesus, the Second Adam, triumphed over Satan. His self-sacrificial death and resurrection liberate us from the penalty of spiritual death and open the gates of Heaven to the baptized who believe in Him (Mk 16:16; CCC 536, 1026).
The First Reading Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 ~ The First Sin
7 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. 8
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed
there the man whom he had formed. 9 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. [...] 3:1 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?" 2 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.'" 4 But the serpent
said to the woman: "You certainly will not die! 5 No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it, you will be
like gods who know what is good and what is evil." 6 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. 7 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.
God formed Adam from the soil of the ground and breathed His divine life into him. Therefore, man is both corporal (formed from matter) and spiritual (CCC 362). In the new Creation, Jesus instituted the seven Sacraments, which are also corporal and spiritual. The application of each Sacrament employs an element of matter:
In Hebrew, there is wordplay between the words for "man" and "ground" in verse 1. This type of wordplay is common in the original languages of Sacred Scripture but often lost in translations. God formed the first "man" (in Hebrew 'adam) from the "ground" (in Hebrew 'adamah). The collective noun "man" in Hebrew will become the proper name of the first man, Adam. His name reflects his origin (Gen 4:25; 5:1, 3). God brought the man formed from the earth to life by blowing into his nostrils. The Hebrew verb "to blow" is nephesh, which is also the word for "soul." The Hebrew word for wind, breath, or spirit is ruah (Gen 1:2). "Nephesh" in its most literal sense means being animated or brought to life by ruah. Man is brought to life by the very Spirit/breath of God.
It is in Eden that God planted a Garden Sanctuary to be a home for Adam and Eve and the place of God's earthly dwelling. This protected space was the meeting place between God and His human children. The Tree of Life, a symbol of immortality, was in the garden Sanctuary. The Book of Wisdom tells us that God did not make death. Death came to humanity as the result of sin that entered creation after Adam and Eve fell from grace. God's plan was only to make creatures to exist/have life (Wis 1:13-14; 2:23-24). And yet, in some way, the Tree of Life sustained immortality. God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden Sanctuary after the Fall because they no longer had the blessing of physical immortality, and if they continued to eat from the Tree of Life, they would live in sin forever separated from Him (Gen 3:22-23).
In verse 9, the Hebrew word for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, eshadda't tob wara', is difficult to translate. Both "good" and "evil" are direct objects, and the ra' connotes not only moral evil but ordinary unfitness or "badness," as in "bad apple." The Latin word malum means both "bad" and "apple," which is how the apple became associated with the fruit of the forbidden tree (Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 6, page 656-57). If Adam is sinless and immortal, why did he need the Tree of Life, and what purpose did it serve? It was both the symbol of immortality and the sign of God's covenant with Adam. It became a covenant sign again when the Cross of Jesus Christ became the New Covenant "Tree of Life" and the path to immortality and eternal fellowship with God in the Promised Land of Heaven.
Genesis 3:1-7 ~ Free will put to the test
3:1 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?" 2 The woman
answered the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 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.'" 4 But the serpent said
to the woman: "You certainly will not die! 5
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it, you will be like gods
who know what is good and what is evil." 6
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. 7 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.
Notice the repetition of the verb "to eat," akal in Hebrew. This verb is repeated nineteen times from Genesis 2:16, when God first announced permission to eat of all the trees in the garden, followed by the prohibition of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, to Adam's judgment in 3:22. In verse 22, God pronounced Adam's judgment in the verdict that By the sweat of your face will you earn [eat] your food [bread] and he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and eat and live forever! (Gen 3:19, 22). For the repetitions of the verb "to eat" between Genesis 2:16 and 3:22, see Genesis 2:16, 17 (twice); 3:1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (twice), 11 (twice), 12, 13, 14, 17 (twice), 18, 19, and 22 (The Interlinear Bible Hebrew English, vol. I, pages 5-8). In the symbolism of numbers in Scripture, ten is the number of divine order, while nine is the number of judgment (see the document "The Significance of Numbers in Scripture").
3:1a Now
the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had
made.
In Hebrew, there is wordplay between the holy nakedness of
Adam and Eve, clothed in God's grace and glory, and the snake who is "subtle"
(also translated as "crafty" or "shrewd"). The Hebrew word is 'arom (naked) in
Genesis 2:25 and 'arum (subtle/crafty) in 3:1 (Brown-Driver-Briggs
Hebrew-English Lexicon, pages 736, 790). It is the serpent's craftiness that
compromised the holy naked state of our first parents, created to be clothed in
divine grace.
St. Ephraim wrote about our first parent's covering in glory contrasted with their condition after their fall from grace in his commentary on Genesis: "They were not ashamed because of the glory with which they were clothed. It was when this glory was stripped from them after they had transgressed the commandment that they were ashamed because they were naked" (St. Ephraim, Commentary on Genesis, 2.14.2; quoted from Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament, vol. I; Genesis 1-11, page 72).
The serpent is "the Satan," in Hebrew, "the adversary" (Rev 12:9). He is a spiritual being whose challenge to the sovereignty and authority of God (Is 14:13-15; Ez 28:14-16; CCC 391-92) resulted in his fall from an intimate relationship with God along with other angels who joined in his rebellion (Is 14:12-15; Ez 28:16; Rev 12:7-10). Scripture also calls him the devil (from the Greek diablos), and Lucifer, which means "daystar" (Latin). He has wisdom, but his wisdom is the wisdom of evil. Jesus called the abode of Satan that is the Hell of the damned Gehenna (Mt 5:22, 29; 10:38; Mk 9:43, 45, 47; Lk 12:15), the eternal fire (also called the fiery pit and the lake of fire) created for Satan and his demons (Mt 25:41). Although cast down from his place of intimacy with God (Is 14:12, 15), Satan still has access to the border of the heavenly court where he accuses humans of their sins (Job 1:6). He continually attempts to lure humankind away from fellowship with God to indulge in sin (Gen 4:7; Lk 22:31; 1 Cor 7:5; Eph 6:11-13; 1 Pt 5:8), because he is deeply envious of man's relationship with God (Wis 2:24).
As a result of his envy of humanity, Satan introduced sin and death into God's perfect Creation (Wis 1:13). It is a death that is spiritual (separation from God) with physical death as its consequence, and he works against God's divine plan to bring humanity back to eternal salvation (CCC 2851-52). However, Satan's powers are limited. Sin places man within Satan's grasp (Jam 4:7). God sent the Virgin Mary and her son to destroy the work of Satan (1 Jn 3:8) and to undo the sin the first woman and man brought into the world. Jesus' sacrificial death and Resurrection united to His Gospel of salvation that defeats Satan (Lk 10:17-20; Rm 16:20; Heb 1:1-4; 1 Jn 3:8; 14:30; CCC 2853).
Jesus' victory over sin and death on the Cross and His Resurrection from the grave, defeated Satan, but he will not be utterly destroyed until Christ's return in glory in His Second Advent (Rev 20:10). In the meantime, Christians are the adopted children of the Virgin Mary (Jn 19:25-27; Rev 12:17). She is the "new Eve" and the symbol of the Church (CCC 411; 507) who continues to battle against Satan in spreading the Gospel of Salvation across the face of the earth in obedience to Jesus' command (Mt 28:19-20; Rev 12:17; CCC 2853). In Christian baptism, each candidate for baptism (or one's parents and godparents) makes a solemn vow to renounce Satan and his works, and those attending the rites of the Sacrament also participate in repeating their renunciation of Satan (CCC 1237).
1bThe serpent asked
the woman: "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the
garden?" 2 The woman answered the
serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 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.'"
Ironically, the serpent/Satan (Rev 12:9) used the gift of
language that separated Adam from the beasts and gave him a higher level of
communication with his bride and helper against him. The serpent subverts this
blessing and uses it to confuse and tempt our first parents into disobedience.
The crafty serpent began by testing the woman's understanding of the covenant
prohibition by twisting the command not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil (Gen 2:17) and using half-truths. He avoids mentioning God's generosity
in providing for the woman and her husband and instead focuses on the one
prohibition, employing the subtle suggestion that God's ban is unreasonably
harsh and restrictive.
The woman's answer indicates that she is already succumbing to Satan's half-truths. In her reply, she minimizes God's generosity in giving dominion over every creature and every fruit-bearing tree except for the one tree, and she misstates the prohibition, making it more restrictive and, therefore harsher: You shall not eat it, or even touch it (underlining for emphasis). She does, however, clearly understand that the punishment for disobedience is death.
4 But the serpent
said to the woman: "You certainly will not die! 5 No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it, you will be
like gods who know what is good and what is evil."
The serpent overcomes the woman's fear of God's punishment
for disobedience. When the woman identified the penalty, he immediately
countered her statement with a denial, contradicting the word of God and
offering a reward for disobedience which is superior knowledge and wisdom. It is
the same enticement to every sin. Satan whispers: God doesn't really mean that
what will give you pleasure is wrong, and you won't suffer from grasping what
you desire; those were restrictions for another age (drugs, adultery, abortion,
sexual sins, etc.). God does not want to keep man from experiencing wisdom and
knowledge. The problem is the kind of knowledge man would receive from eating
the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve do know what is good; God has judged
everything in Creation to be "good"
(Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). Therefore,
it isn't practical knowledge for living a good life that entices the woman.
What Satan offers and what she finds appealing is the power that comes from
knowledge which can be used for evil and well as for good.
6 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.
The woman's first act of rebellion was in "seeing that the
tree was good." Until this point in the narrative, it is only God who "sees"
and judges a thing in Creation as "good" (seven times in Gen 1:4-31), and He already
judged the fruit of this tree "not good" for them (Gen 2:17).
What about Adam? What was his response, and what should he have done instead? He stood next to her in silence (Gen 3:6b). He was not obedient to the covenant commands God gave him in Genesis 2:15 to guard/protect (samar) the garden Sanctuary and everything in it (including his bride, Eve), and to work in serving (abad) it in obedience to the will of God. He should have been willing to die to protect his bride. Instead of protecting and defending Eve, Adam followed her in the sin of rebellion against the will of God for their lives. It will take another Bridegroom (Jesus) who will be willing to die for His Bride (the Church) to undo the sin of Adam that separates humanity from God's divine presence in heavenly eternity (CCC 536, 1026).
All sin is rebellion against the will of God for our lives (CCC 215, 397-98, 431, 1850). The Church calls the personal sin of Adam "originating original sin," and it is passed on to his descendants, except for the Virgin Mary (CCC 490-93) and Jesus (1 Jn 3:5; Heb 4:15, CCC 612). Original sin is not personal sin but is instead "transmitted" sin; it is what is meant by "originated original sin." Adam's sin affected the whole human family by depriving them of the supernatural life they would have received at birth were it not for Adam's fall from grace. A consequence of original sin is the inherited tendency to sin called "concupiscence." The definition of concupiscence according to the Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Etymologically, "concupiscence" can refer to any intense form of human desire. Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the "flesh" against the "spirit." Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to commit sins" (CCC # 2515). For St. Paul's teaching on the flesh versus the spirit, see the Galatians 5:16-24 and Ephesians 2:1-3; also see the documents of the Council of Trent: DA 1515.
The Sacrament of Baptism destroys original sin, but as long as the body has not been "clothed with immortality" as it was before the Fall, sin may still find a way to reassert itself in a mortal body (see 1 Cor 15:54; Rom 6:12-14; CCC 405; 978-980, 1264; 2520). The baptized person must continue to fight evil through "good will, humility, and abandonment to the providence of God" (CCC 2554) empowered by the Holy Spirit and called by Christ's Bride, the Church, to conform to the image of Jesus Christ and to live in perfect communion with the Most Holy Trinity (Mt 4:48, 19:21; Jn 17:23; CCC 2559-60).
The judgment between what is good for man and what is evil is God's prerogative. For Adam and Eve to usurp that knowledge was to challenge God's authority and sovereignty over humanity. Challenging God's sovereign authority was the same sin Satan committed in the test of free will in the rebellion and defeat of Satan when a third of the heavenly host fell with him in his battle with St. Michael and his loyal angels (Rev 12:3-4, 7-9).
7a Then the
eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked
Before the Fall, Adam and his bride only saw the good of
Creation. Now, with their eyes opened to sin, their perception of each other becomes
distorted; love and respect became contaminated by lust. Sin stripped Adam and
Eve of their covering of grace and divine son/daughter-ship, and they are
spiritually naked. St. Ephraim wrote: "They were not ashamed because of the
glory with which they were clothed. It was when this glory was stripped from
them after they had transgressed the commandment that they were ashamed because
they were naked" (St. Ephraim, Commentary on Genesis 2.14.2;
quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament, vol I, page 72).
There is a difference between the Hebrew word for naked before and after the Fall. In Genesis 2:25, The man and his wife were naked (arom), yet they felt no shame when Adam and Eve existed in a state of grace. But the Hebrew word changes for their nakedness after they failed their covenant obligations to love and serve God in obedience in Genesis 3:7 ~ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked (erom). The Hebrew word erom repeats three times in Genesis 3:7, 10, and 11. It only appears one other time in the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) where the same word describes the condition of the first generation of Israelites who suffered divine punishment for their failure to be obedient to God's covenant. Yahweh condemned the first generation of His covenant people to wander in the wilderness for forty years and to die in the wilderness, never to enter the Promised Land because they did not trust and obey their God: For not having joyfully and with happy heart served Yahweh your God, despite the abundance of everything, you will have to serve the enemy whom Yahweh will send against you, in hunger, thirst, lack of clothing (naked = erom) and total privation. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you (Dt 28:47-48 NJB). (Brown-Driver-Briggs, page 735-36; #s 6174 = arom; 5803= erom).
The subtle difference of the Hebrew meaning "naked/arom" before the Fall and the selected use of the word "naked/erom" after the Fall in Genesis 3:7-11 and in Deuteronomy 28:48 is not so subtle a message to the people of the Sinai Covenant who received this sacred text. The warning is to be "naked" through the introduction of sin is to fall under God's divine judgment. Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, failed their covenant ordeal and test of free will in obedience to God and were "cast out" of Eden into the wilderness never to return to the garden Sanctuary. Israel's first generation also failed their covenant ordeal of obedience, and they were "cast out" into the wilderness never to enter the Promised Land which was to be a "new Eden" for the people of God. The unmistakable message is that to fail to love God, as expressed in covenant faithfulness and obedience, will result in judgment (also see Ez 16:39 and 23:29). The message for those of us in covenant with Yahweh in the New Covenant in Jesus Christ is that temporal judgments that do not lead one to repentance and forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation can lead one deeply into mortal sin and the possible loss of salvation: exclusion from the "Promise Land" of the Heavenly Eden (CCC 1033, 1452, 1854, 1859-61).
St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople (d. 407 AD), compared the naked condition of God's first children before the Fall with the state of those who are reborn as children in the family of God through the Sacrament of Baptism. In a description of the Sacrament of Christian Baptism for adults in the late 4th century AD, St. John wrote: "After stripping you of your robe, the priest himself leads you down into the flowing waters. But why naked? He reminds you of your former nakedness, when you were in paradise and you were not ashamed. For Holy Writ says, "Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed." Until they took up the garment of sin, a garment heavy with abundant shame" (St. Chrysostom, Baptismal Instruction 11.28; quoted from Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament, vol I, Genesis 1-11, page 72).
God created human beings in His "image and likeness" (Gen 1:27). The spiritual result of humankind's Fall from grace is that humanity becomes disfigured by sin and death. Men and women remain in the image of God, but sin deprives them of the glory/grace of God's likeness. See Rom 3:23; CCC 705 and 2809.
Deeply aware of their loss of grace, they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Adam and Eve attempted to "cover" their loss of innocence with foliage from the fig tree. No one knows what fruit the forbidden tree bore. S mentioned earlier, the word malum in Latin has the double meaning of "apple" and "bad," which branded the apple tree as the forbidden fruit. However, it is more likely that the fig was the forbidden fruit. In Sacred Scripture, the fig tree became a symbol for the Old Covenant people of God. A fruitful fig tree was a symbol of Israel in covenant union with Yahweh, but a fruitless fig tree represented the people of God in rebellion and under God's judgment (see Jesus' curse on the fig tree that did not bear fruit in Mt 21:18-22; Mk 11:12-16; and His parable in Lk 13:6-9).
Responsorial Psalm 51:1-4, 10-13 ~ Confession of our Sins Opens us to God's Mercy
The response is: "Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned."
1 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.
Response:
3For I acknowledge my
offense, and my sin is before me always: 4
"Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight."
Response:
10 A clean heart
create in me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 11 Cast me not out from your presence, and your
Holy Spirit take not from me.
Response:
12 Give me back the
joy of your salvation and a willing spirit sustain in me. 13 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall
proclaim your praise.
Response:
In this psalm, attributed to David, is a beautiful example of genuine, heartfelt repentance and the psalmist's confidence that God is merciful and will extend his forgiveness. Was David thinking of King Saul's sins that resulted in the loss of the protection of God's Spirit (1 Sam chapter 15)? It was an experience that left Saul an empty and tormented man. The Prophet Samuel's condemnation of Saul's unworthy offerings in 1 Samuel 15:22-23 can be compared to the definition of true sacrifice in Psalm 51:16.
In the opening verses, the psalmist feels the weight of his sins. He cries out to God for mercy and forgiveness (verses 1-2). In verse 3, the psalmist demonstrates his true repentance by taking responsibility for his sins that he says are an offense to God. Accepting responsibility is a necessary act of genuine repentance. In verses 10-11, the psalmist's plea for mercy extends beyond his confession of sin. He begs God to renew his inner being so that he can return to fellowship with God and to knowing the blessing of God's Spirit being with him. In verse 12, the psalmist speaks of God's salvation; it is the gift of life that God possesses and bestows through His Spirit. It is a gift that the prophets write about and a gift that is in the New Covenant that God will make with his people (Jer 24:7; 31:33; Ez 25-27) in the Age of the Messiah. Finally, in verse 13, the psalmist expresses his joy in proclaiming praise of the Lord for delivering him, sustaining him, and restoring him.
The Second Reading Romans 5:12-19 or 5:12, 17-19 ~ Adam and Jesus
12 [Well then,
it was] Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus
death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned; 13 for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though
sin is not accounted when there is no law. 14
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. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 In conclusion, just as through one
transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act,
acquittal and life came to all. 19 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.
In the Greek translation, Paul begins this passage with the words "well then" or "therefore;" it is a summing up of what he has discussed in chapters 1-5:11. In Romans 5:12-21, Paul addresses the origin of sin and death. He begins by addressing Adam's sin. Adam is humanity's physical father from whom we inherited spiritual death as a result of his sin, just as we inherit our other genes and traits of human inheritance. Through our first parents, we are born physically alive but spiritually dead. It is our spiritual death that infects us with sin and the life-long struggle to resist Satan and the temptation to sin.
13 for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. 14 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. Returning to his theme in Romans 2:12, Paul insists that the presence or absence of the Law does not make a fundamental difference since sin and its by-product "death" comes to everyone through the legacy of sin that we inherited from our original parents. It is our fate whether we are Gentiles who live outside the Law of Moses or Jews who live with the Law, and it is for this reason that Paul writes 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.
The New Testament portrays Jesus as the "Second Adam" whose obedience and sacrificial death on the cross undo Adam's disobedience. Jesus, the Second Adam, triumphed over the same temptations to which the first Adam fell into sin. St. John identified these temptations as the lusts of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life in 1 John 2:16 (see CCC# 411 & 504).
15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. 19 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.
In Romans 5:15-19, Paul offers a contrast between Adam and Christ as "alike" but "unalike":
| ADAM AND CHRIST ALIKE | ADAM AND CHRIST UNALIKE |
| Both Adam and Christ affected the whole human race. | Sin and death came from Adam, while righteousness and life came from Christ. |
| Both endured the temptation of Satan. | Adam failed and Christ was victorious. |
| Through both Adam and Christ, humanity receives an "inheritance." | Through Adam's failure, humanity inherits death, original sin and personal sin becomes a plague on humankind. Through Christ's victory, humanity inherits adoption into God's family and the promise of eternal life. |
| Both were human men. | Jesus was both human and divine. |
| Both the acts of Adam and Jesus invoke a divine verdict. | Satan stood behind the act of Adam while the grace of God stood behind Christ; the verdict behind Adam's act is judgment while the verdict behind Jesus' is acquittal. |
| Both Adam and Jesus exercised their free will. | Adam willingly fell from grace, and Jesus willingly laid down His life in sacrifice for all humanity. |
| Both were born into the world as sinless and immortal beings. | Adam lost his immortality when he fell from grace while Jesus remained pure and sinless. Through His sacrifice and Resurrection, Jesus made God's gift of immortality once again available to man. |
| Michal E. Hunt © copyright 2006 | |
The Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11 ~ The Temptation of the New Adam
1 At that
time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted for forty days and forty
nights, and afterwards he was hungry. 3 The
tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that
these stones become loaves of bread." 4 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.'" 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him
stand on the parapet of the Temple, 6 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.'" 7 Jesus answered him, "Again it is
written, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'" 8 Then the devil took him up to a very
high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
9 and he said to him, "All
these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me." 10 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.
After Jesus' baptism, He crossed the Jordan River from Perea
into Judea, and the Holy Spirit led Him into the Judean desert, where He fasted
for forty days and nights. The number 40 is recognized as a
significant number in Scripture on account of the frequency of its occurrence
and the uniformity of its association as both a time of consecration and as a
period of trial and testing. At the end of His ordeal of fasting and prayer,
Jesus was hungry like any man. Recognizing His physical weakness, Satan saw an
opportune time to test Jesus to see if He was indeed the promised Messiah.
3 The tempter
approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these
stones become loaves of bread."
Satan is not certain that Jesus is the Messiah; therefore,
he tests Jesus and begins by asking Him to give proof that He is the "Son of
God." In His encounter with Satan, Jesus, the Son of God, is enacting both
Adam's temptation by the Serpent in the Garden of Eden and Israel's temptations
in the desert after leaving Egypt as God's "first-born son" among the nations
of the earth (Ex 4:22-23). St. Paul called Jesus the "last Adam"
(1 Cor 15:21-22, 45-47), and the Fathers of the Church called Him the "new Adam" and
the "second Adam" (CCC 359 and 504). St. John the Apostle wrote: Do not love the world or the things of
the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a
pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world (1 Jn 2:15-16).
St. John summed up the temptations of the world into three categories: sensual lust (desires of the flesh), enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life (1 Jn 2:15-16). Comparisons can be made between the temptation of Adam and the temptation of Jesus, and how John's list of the world's temptations compare to Satan's testing of both Adam and Jesus:
| Temptations |
The first Adam Genesis 3:1-6 |
Jesus, the new Adam Matthew 4:1-10 |
| The devil's invitation to rebellion | "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees...?" | The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God ..." |
| Hunger, a desire of the flesh | The woman saw that the tree was good for food | ..."command that these stones become loaves of bread" |
| Enticement for the eyes: |
pleasing to the eyes and |
the devil ... showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence |
| The pride of a pretentious life (power) | desirable for gaining wisdom | "If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down ... He will command his angels concerning you" |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2011 (Jesus' temptations are in the order found in Lk 4:1-13) | ||
Comparisons can also be made between the desert testing experiences of Jesus, the "Son of God," and the Israelites, the "sons of God."
| Israel | Jesus |
| Israel is God's "first-born son" from among the nations of the earth (Ex 4:22-23). | Jesus is the Son of God (Lk 1:32; Mt 3:17). |
| The Israelites were baptized by passing through the waters of the Red Sea and then, accompanied by God's spirit in the pillar of cloud and fire, they went into the desert (Ex 13:21-22; 14:21-22; 15:22; 1 Cor 10:2). | After Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, the Spirit of God led Jesus into the desert (Mt 4:1; Mk 1:12; Lk 4:1). |
| The Israelites were in the desert for forty years where they suffered from hunger (Ex 16:2-3). | After forty days and nights in the desert, Jesus was hungry (Mt 4:2; Lk 4:2). |
| God tested Israel (Ex 16:4; Dt 8:2). | God allowed Satan to test Jesus (Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:13). |
| The Israelites continually failed their tests of covenant obedience and loyalty, even to the point of worshiping a golden idol (Ex 32:1-6). | Jesus passed His tests. He remained faithful and obedient to God, and He refused to bow down to worship Satan (Mt 4:10; Lk 4:8, 13). |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright ©2011 | |
Satan is Jesus' great adversary. Jesus describes the devil as "a murderer from the beginning" who "does not stand in truth because there is no truth in him" (Jn 8:44). Jesus' mission is not only to free humanity from bondage to sin and death but to "destroy the works of the devil;" the most heinous of his works was to lead man to disobey God (1 Jn 3:8, CCC 394).
In Jesus' contest with Satan, the devil addressed Jesus three times, quoting Scripture once from Psalm 91:10-12 and using the formula statement, "it is written" (verse 6). In reply, Jesus quotes Scripture three times from Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, and 6:13, using the formula "it is written" twice in verses 4 and 7.
All Jesus' quotes from Scripture are from the Book of Deuteronomy, where Moses recalls Israel's testing in the desert journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai. In Jesus' temptations, He faced three similar tests:
Satan gave Jesus three similar tests. However, unlike the Israelite "sons of God," Jesus, the obedient and faithful Son, passed His three tests:
| Israel | Jesus |
| 1. Israel was tested when the people complained of hunger; God gave them manna (Ex 16:3, 4). | 1. Jesus was hungry when Satan challenged Him to make bread out of stones (Mt 3:2-3). |
| 2. Israel put God to the test at Massah and Meribah to prove God was with them (Ex 17:7). | 2. Jesus refused to put God to the test when Satan challenged Him to prove He was the Son of God (Mt 3:6). |
| 3. Israel yielded to the temptation to commit idolatry in the sin of the Golden Calf (Ex 32:1-6). | 3. Jesus refused to bow down and worship Satan (Mt 3:9). |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright ©2011 | |
Jesus will not fail as the Israelites failed. He will fulfill all His obligations as an obedient Son of God during His covenant ordeal.
Test #1: 3 The
tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that
these stones become loaves of bread." 4 He
said in reply, "It is written: 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every
word that comes forth from the mouth of God.'
In the first test, Satan approached Jesus to test Him to see
if He would reveal Himself as the divine Messiah by commanding a rock to turn
into bread to feed His hunger. No ordinary human "son of God" would have that
power over the natural world. Jesus responded to Satan's test by quoting from
Deuteronomy 8:3. In that passage, Moses tells the children of Israel:
Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your
journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether
or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He, therefore, let you
be afflicted with hunger and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and
your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but
by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD (Dt 8:2-3; underlining
added for emphasis).
During the years in the wilderness, God tested the Israelites to see if they would be obedient to His commandments by allowing them to be afflicted with hunger and then showed them His faithfulness to provide for their needs by feeding them manna, bread from heaven. Moses continued his address to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8:7-9. In that passage, Moses told the people if they are faithful that God will give them the land He promised them. Then Moses describes the Promised Land as a new "Eden," where God will provide everything they need.
In the first test, Jesus rejected Satan's taunt; He did not come to serve His fleshly desires but to do the will of the Father. Jesus' reply to Satan is that it is not material bread which nourishes the physical body that ultimately gives life: it is the Word of God. In the Old Covenant, "life" meant obedience to the Law of God, but there is more in what Jesus responds to Satan than the meaning of "life" in the Old Covenant. The irony is that Jesus is Himself the "Living Word," and He is the "Living Bread come down from heaven." Jesus ultimately gives life that lasts to eternity, and the "bread" that He will provide for eternal life is not like the manna that only gave temporal life. His "manna" is His Body, "the Living Bread" of the Eucharist given for the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:26-28). Jesus' Body becomes the true Tree of Life that sustains humanity's immortality like the Tree of Life in Eden. In the Eucharist, Jesus will continue to give His faithful the necessary spiritual nourishment on the journey to the new Eden that is Heaven.
Test #2: 5 Then
the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the
temple, 6 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.'" 7
Jesus answered him, "Again, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God,
to the test.'"
In the second test, Satan took Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem
and quoted from Psalm 91:10-12. This passage is proof that even the devil can
quote Scripture and twist it to his advantage. Satan's taunt is for Jesus to
demonstrate He is God's Son by testing God's promise to deliver His elect: Whoever
clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high (Ps 91:14). For a second time, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy, this time from 6:16,
refusing to "test" God by demanding a supernatural show of power, unlike the Israelites.
In Deuteronomy 6:16, Moses told the people: You shall not put the LORD, your God, to the test, as you did at Massah. He was referring to the events in Exodus 17:1-7, where the Israelites quarreled there and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD in our midst or not?" (Ex 17:7). The Hebrew word "Massah" means "testing" (Ex 17:1-7 and Dt 9:22-23). At Massah, the thirsty Israelites challenged God to provide them with water, behaving rebelliously instead of with faith and trust. Moses' message to the Israelites was that rather than testing God, Israel should be loyal, diligent and obedient. Yahweh's promised blessings in the Promised Land were conditional upon Israel's obedience. Jesus is God's faithful and obedient Son. Jesus' second test recalls the Israelites' failure at Massah. Jesus' response to Satan is that He will not test God; He will put His trust and faith in His Father's promises.
Test #3: 8 Then
the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world in their magnificence, 9 and
he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself
and worship me." 10 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.'
In the last test, the devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms of
the earth if He will bow down and worship him. The question is, does Satan
have the authority to make this offer? Apparently, he did have that authority;
from the time of humanity's Fall from grace, when Adam and Eve rejected God's
sovereignty over them, Satan has been the "prince of the earth" (see Jn 12:31).
Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy Chapter 6 again, as He did in
the second test, this time from verse 13. In Deuteronomy 6:12-13, Moses told the Israelites: be careful
you do not forget Yahweh who has brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of
slave-labor. Yahweh your God is the one you must fear, him alone you must
serve, his is the name by which you must swear (NJB).
In Moses' statement, serving Yahweh stands in contrast to
the fact that they had once served the Egyptian Pharaoh (worshiped as a
god-king) as vassals (Dt 8:12). The statement "his is the name by which you
must swear" suggests a loyalty oath of allegiance to Israel's new king who is
also Israel's God.
Unlike the Israelites, who were the "first-born sons of God" among the nations of the earth (Ex 4:22), and unlike Adam, God's firstborn son in the human family, Jesus is the true Son. His allegiance cannot be swayed by hardship like the Israelites (who lost faith and worshipped the Golden Calf) or by Satan's promises of self-glorification to which Adam submitted himself when Satan promised Adam he would be god-like if he disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. Jesus' loyalty and His obedience belong to God the Father alone.
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. After completing His covenant ordeal, the angels of the heavenly court came to minister to Jesus. St. Luke has a slightly different order for the three tests and concludes Jesus' ordeal with the statement: Having exhausted every way of putting him to the test, the devil left him, until the opportune moment (Lk 4:13, NJB). Jesus' last test of obedience and Satan's last "opportune moment" came as Jesus prayed alone in the Garden of Gethsemane and made His final act of obedience and submission to the will of God the Father when He said, "My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done!" (Mt 26:42).
When sin tempts you, follow Jesus' example: cast Satan and his temptations away from you using the words of Jesus: "Get away, Satan!" and quote a favorite Scripture passage. Ask God for the strength you need to resist, and remember His promise given by St. Paul: No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor 10:13).
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Genesis 2:7-9 (CCC 362, 369*, 703*);
2:8 (CCC 378*);
3 (CCC 390*, 2795*);
3:1-5 (CCC 391*);
3:3 (CCC 1008*);
3:5 (CCC 392, 398*, 399*);
3:6 (CCC 2541, 2847);
3:7 (CCC 400*)
Psalm 51:1-4 (CCC 431*, 1850)
Romans 5:12-19 (CCC 388*); 5:12 (CCC 400*, 402, 602*, 612*, 1008); 5:18-19 (CCC 605*); 5:18 (CCC 402); 5:19 (CCC 397*, 402, 532*, 615, 623*)
Matthew 4:1-11 (CCC 394*, 2848*); 4:4 (CCC 2835); 4:10 (CCC 2083, 2135); 4:11 (CCC 333*)
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2014, revised 2020 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.