During the season of Lent, the church invites us to examine our lives, to repent of our sins and do penance. By means of fasting, penance and prayers, the faithful obtain strength they need to overcome the sinful tendencies. The first reading of today introduces us to this Lenten theme by bringing us face to face with the concept of origin of sin. The Book of Genesis gives us the story of the creation of our first parents, their disobedience and the entry of sin into the world. God gave them all the good gifts but through their disobedience Adam and Eve turned away from God and accordingly lost their friendship with God. The passage from the Gospel of Matthew tells us of the victory of Jesus over the evil one in the desert. Led by the Spirit Jesus went into the wilderness, where he prayed and fasted for forty days. He was tempted three times and he resisted all the three temptations coming from the devil. These temptations indicate the victory of Jesus as he is told to be unfaithful to his mission. Matthew presents Jesus as the New Israel now in the desert. The Old Israel was tempted in the desert and failed but the new Israel came out victorious. The episode is the explanation of human temptations and with the grace of God we too can be triumphant in our battle against evil. In the second Reading Paul presents his dramatic contrast between Christ and Adam designed to highlight his central doctrine of Justification through Christ. Paul tells the Romans that sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam resulting in death but the justification of human kind came through the obedience of resulting in new life to humanity. May the good Lord grant us the grace to skip the temptations of the devil, because many times we are being tempted to do what we suppose not to do, then it results as disobedience to God and obedience to the devil. Ha¶¶y Sunday!
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 04:17:00 +0000
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