Lent begins forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving/good deeds.  It is a time of preparation that has a focus.  We look toward the great mystery of faith that we celebrate on Easter.

First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7

The Book of Genesis is a story of beginnings.  It provided a framework for telling the story of the Chosen People of God.  It also was a lesson in God’s immediate attention and presence to His creation.

In Hebrew, the word for mankind is ’adam.  It became a proper name, Adam, when the Old Testament was translated into Greek.  The word was not translated into Greek, but transliterated – using the same sounds in a different alphabet.  There is a poetic association of mankind from “the ground” from which God formed mankind.  In Hebrew, the word for ground/earth is ’adamah, the feminine ending.  The relationship between the two words is that the root meaning for both words refers to “skin” or “surface.”  Mankind was formed from Mother Earth, to which each person returns at their death and burial.  It explained the Jewish preference for burial in the earth, rather than cremation, as some of the surrounding cultures.  It also shows strong relationship between the earth and mankind, thus providing an argument for environmentalists about mankind’s responsibility for caring for the earth.

“Garden” is translated as “paradise” in the later Greek version.  The importance in Hebrew is that it is in the East, the direction of the sunrise, a direction that is associated with creation and life.  It is like the new day in which God creates once again.  In Egypt, the temples for the dead Pharaohs were on the west bank of the Nile.  That was symbolic for death, the “sundown” of life and the end of the day.

The “fall” of man and woman is told within a story of transgression and the penalty for disobedience.  This is a result of the justice, the righteousness, of God.  It will also explain the losses of the people over their history.  It is not so much the loss of a gift from God, as it is the result of human disturbance of the order that God had established in creation.  The disturbance of creation brings about the rise of chaos in life.

The “breath” of God is also the same word for spirit or wind.  The breath of God into the nostrils of mankind shows a very close, almost affectionate relationship that God had with mankind.

Our music director and his young wife just had a baby.  There is something about newborn life that has a strong attraction.  The child is passed around to all the choir, who take turns holding and cuddling the infant, when he is brought to practice.  Once, the parents handed him over to me.  It is always an awesome experience for me to feel the breathing of a child against my breast, as I hold him.  There is a sacredness about that young one’s life, which is expressed by its trustful breathing, as he relaxes in my arms.

It also reminds me of a time when our family took its frequent trip to visit relatives in Buffalo.  I was just a young child and sat in the middle seat in front.  It was late in the evening, and I leaned on my father’s side, because I was tired.  His arm was around me, and I could hear his heartbeat and feel his breathing, as I drifted off to sleep.  I felt fully secure.  I think of moments like that, when I hear this story of creation.  It is the story of the creation of each one of us by the breath of our Father in Heaven.

Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19 (short version: Romans 5:12,17-19)

Paul compares Jesus to the First Man, Adam.  He contrasts the sin of Adam, which brought about death/sin for humankind, with the obedience of Jesus Christ, which not only changed the destiny of future generations through the grace of God, but also acted retroactively.  It was able to work back to the beginning of the human race, while the effects of the transgression of Adam only worked forward into the future.  There is a great emphasis on this difference, since Paul uses “one man” ten times in this passage!  He also opposes the actions of “one” with the effects on “many.”

Paul strongly emphasizes the goodness of God.  The “many transgressions” should merit greater punishment, especially since death cam about through “the transgression of the one.”  But God counters the effect of sin with a “gracious gift. . .overflow for the many. .acquital. . . abundance of grace. . .acquittal and life.”  There is an overwhelming abundance offered to everyone through Jesus Christ.

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11

The Temptation of Jesus begins the Sunday Lenten Gospel readings.   The Spirit initiates this beginning in the ministry of Jesus.  It was the “spirit of God” that began the work of creation at the start of the Bible.  Jesus is the New Adam, who succeeds against the temptation of evil, where the First Man failed.  Jesus “fasted for forty days and forty nights,” just like Moses and Elijah in the Old Testament (see Ex 34:28; 1 Kg 19:8).  “Forty” signified a time of preparation for a mission.  It is used frequently in the Bible.  Jesus meets the challenger to God’s plan, but the devil is no match for Jesus as the Son of God.  Jesus quotes from the Book of Deuteronomy three times (8:3, 6:13, 13:16).  Even the devil quoted from the Scriptures, too, using Ps 91:11a,12.  But Jesus demonstrates a knowledge of the context of Scripture, not just verbiage.

Jesus gives the command: “Get away, Satan!”  This same command will appear in Mt 16:23, when Peter questions Jesus’ prediction of His Passion.  At the end of the temptation, the tempter departed and the angels, the “messengers” from God, “ministered to Him.”

The order of the three temptations is also an important interpretive element in this text.  The final temptation is when Jesus is taken “up to a very high mountain.”  The first discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, begins on “the mountain” (Mt 5:1).  The last scene in the Gospel, the commissioning of the eleven disciples, takes place on “the mountain” (Mt 28:16).  The response of the disciples is that “they worshiped [Him].”  Jesus sends them to “all nations.”  Jesus offered a different Kingdom from the ones that the devil showed Him.

The days of our preparation have begun.  We follow Jesus through the temptations and distractions of life along the way.

Fr. Richard C. Macey is pastor of Our Lady of the Woods Parish, Woodhaven.