Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Lent. A time of introspection, prayer, and penance to prepare us for what we look forward to celebrating at Easter – the Resurrection of our Lord. As part of that preparation, we are called to ponder the areas where we have fallen short in our lives, to live out our Lord’s teachings, and to follow Him. Our readings today speak much of how sin and death entered the world, and the destruction they bring about even to this day; yet we also hear of hope, that which can come only through our Lord Jesus Christ’s victory over the same temptations that we are faced with.
Our first parents were the targets of Satan’s influence, and their failure in the Garden of Eden to heed God’s commands and instead be led astray by the half-truths and lies that Satan used in the guise of the serpent paved the way for sin to be in the world. We hear of the cunning dialogue he used to trick them, but what we do not always acknowledge is the seeming ease with which he did so. He used nothing oppressive in his approach; rather, he played upon the natural desires we all possess to try to excel and exceed our current place in life. He used the deceptive beauty of the fruit, and the innate desire to gain knowledge and power that he knew was part of us, to create a powerful temptation that was craftily designed to play upon our most powerful urges and desires and draw us in. The lure was cleverly disguised as something seemingly upright and beneficial, but with a cost that was cleverly side stepped, and then omitted from the rest of the conversation. By the time our parents realized what they had transacted, it was too late, and they felt the full weight of their choice in the nakedness they felt, and the vulnerability they had never known before, and the banishment from God’s familiarity that was now ahead of them.
Yet with all that had been lost through what had taken place in the Garden with Adam and Eve, there was already a plan of redemption in place that would erase the enmity that came from that and bring us back into intimacy with our Lord. We know that Jesus never sinned, yet we do not always acknowledge the temptation that He had placed before Him by the hands of Satan. When Satan took Him from his time of fasting in the desert, and tried to tempt Him, he walked through a litany of temptations beginning with the most basic. No one who had been fasting for forty days would not be hungry, and so his first attack played upon what he thought would be the most basic of human needs – food. Yet our Lord corrected him, and placed the lesson before us, that the most basic of needs is not satisfying bodily cravings, but rather to address the needs of the greater portion of our makeup – our souls, and specifically their need to be close to God. When that didn’t work, he played up basic safety and physical wellbeing by placing our Lord in a precarious position at the highest point of the temple, and daring Him to test what he already knew to be true, that God would not let harm befall Him. Our Lord again corrected the errors of this approach by not succumbing to pride by using God’s care as a demonstration and also by not being intimidated by the danger of the situation because He instead drew upon faith to see him through. Lastly, in desperation, Satan tried to play upon the same desires for power and position that played a role in the Garden of Eden and continue to so often corrupt those who seek to ascend to what they see as greater roles for their lives, rather than simply trusting in God’s plan for them. Yet this too failed miserably for Satan, as our Lord knew full well that nothing would ever eclipse the Father’s plan, and so did not fall into the trap of trying to obtain any benefit that God had not already chosen to bestow upon Him.
In this time of preparation and penance, we need to focus on re-learning and keeping before us that which will help us to avoid the same traps and consequences of sin. Now is the time to recall our failings, acknowledge them and pray for grace to avoid them in the future, and in doing so prepare ourselves to cling fast to God’s future plans for each of us.
The Deacons Bench 