{"id":1028,"date":"2020-02-25T10:35:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T10:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2020-02-25T10:35:13","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T10:35:13","slug":"1-march-2020-a-first-sunday-of-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1028","title":{"rendered":"1 March 2020 (A) First Sunday of Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A. The bible<\/em> as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.\nReflection & Dialogue:<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>Message of Lent: \u201cRepent and Believe in the\nGospel\u201d. Dying to Oneself in order to have life in Christ<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A.\nThe Bible as Guide in Life\nand Liturgy (Sunday Readings).\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Reading<\/em>\n(Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7). The creation and\nsin of our first parents. <\/em>The two short passages in this reading are\nintended to go with what Paul will say in today\u2019s second reading. We are first\ntold of the creation, or formation, of man or human person (in Hebrew adam<\/em>) from the dust of the soil (in\nHebrew adamah<\/em>), indicating the\nfrailty of human nature. God\u2019s creation, or formation, of man by  God is presented pictorially: a dust-man into\nwhom God breathes life. But God has great things in store for this his\ncreation. He created a garden of delights in an area called Eden, a locality not identifiable or intended\nto be. In later Jewish and Christian tradition Eden\nwould become more or less synonymous with the earthly or heavenly Paradise. Adam is put into this garden by God, to enjoy\nits fruits, with the exception of the fruit of the one tree, that of the tree\nof the knowledge of good and evil. His obedience to God is to be tested. The\nbiblical text also speaks of the creation of Eve, Adam\u2019s partner, in a text\nomitted in this reading, not to distract from the two points being made on\ncreation and sin of our first parents. The second part of the reading tells of\ntheir sin. In keeping with the pictorial nature of the presentation, the tempter\nis presented as the serpent. Later Jewish and Christian retelling of the story\nwill identify the serpent as Satan. Using human psychology, the tempter brings\nthe woman to believe him that the eating of the forbidden fruit will bring\nhidden knowledge, and that God was deceiving them. They both eat of the\nforbidden fruit, and disaster follows. They realise that disaster has occurred.\nBefore their sin, in their integrity, they were both naked, but felt no shame.\nNow they realise that they are naked, a realization of their sexuality, or of\ntheir human frailty. Through their sin, a new age of human frailty and sin had\nbegun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsorial\nPsalm <\/em>(Psalm 50[51]).\nHave mercy on us, O Lord, for we have\nsinned.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second\nReading <\/em>(Romans 5:12-19). However great the number of sins committed,\ngrace was even greater.<\/em> Reflecting on the biblical narrative of creation\nand the fall of humanity about the year 30 BC, the author of the Book of Wisdom\n(2:23-24) wrote that God made the human race for incorruption, and made us in\nthe image of his own eternity, but through the devil\u2019s envy death entered the\nworld, and those who belong to his company experience it. In today\u2019s reading\nPaul shares with us his reflection on the Genesis narrative with the first Adam,\nbut in the light of the remedy supplied to it by Christ, the Second Adam. Sin,\nspiritual and physical, entered the world through that primeval disobedience,\nthat attempt to acquire hidden knowledge. Sin is presented as a personified\nforce, pervading the entire human race. All humanity is presented as in some\nway involved in Adam\u2019s sin. One explanation of this connection of humanity with\nAdam\u2019s sin is through the doctrine of original sin. Whether that was clearly in\nPaul\u2019s mind is another matter. But all humanity, every individual, is connected\nwith Adam\u2019s sin through one\u2019s personal sins. Paul\u2019s chief interest, however, is\nthe contrasting of Adam\u2019s disobedience and sin with the remedy brought by\nChrist. Death personified reigned as a result of on man\u2019s (Adam\u2019s) sin. In\ncontrast Christ will make everyone who receives his grace reign in a new life\nof righteousness before God. Thus, as the reading ends, as by one man\u2019s disobedience,\nmany were made sinners, so by one man\u2019s obedience (that is Christ\u2019s) many will\nbe made righteous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel <\/em>(Matthew 4:1-11).\nJesus fasts for forty days and was\ntempted.<\/em> This is the first Sunday of Lent in which the Church\ninvites us to reflect during this period on Christian life, with its trials and\ntemptations, with Jesus Christ as our model and source of strength. We are at\nthe beginning of Christ\u2019s public life, immediately after his baptism by John\nthe Baptist. At his baptism, Matthew has informed us, the heavens opened and\nthe Spirit of God descended on him. And a voice, of God the Father, from heaven\nsaid: This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. This present\nreading tells us that it was this same Spirit that led Jesus into the\nwilderness to be tempted by the devil. The desert experience and the temptation\nwere all part of the divine plan. Mention of his period of fasting forty days\nand forty nights brings to mind Moses\u2019 forty days with the Lord on Mount Sinai\nand Israel\u2019s\nforty years in the wilderness, on the way to the Promised Land. Israel\nwas tempted in this wilderness and proved unfaithful. Jesus is the new Moses\nand the new Israel.\nHe will be tempted and will overcome Satan, the tempter. Jesus will be tested\nand tempted during his public life, tempted by Peter not to undergo the\nsuffering of the cross, to which Jesus\u2019 replied by calling Peter Satan, the tempter,\nand to get behind him. Peter\u2019s thoughts were human, not in keeping with Jesus\u2019\nmission. Satan takes up the voice of the Father at the baptism that Jesus is\nGod\u2019s beloved Son. The substance of his temptation is that Jesus take advantage\nof his status and work miracles to allay his hunger. He also tempts him to work\nan outstanding miracle by jumping from the top of the Temple, to astound the crowds, here citing\nScripture for his purpose. The most daring temptation of all is promise of\nuniversal dominion if Jesus bows down and worships him. To each of these three\ntemptations Jesus replies by a Scripture citation from the Book of Deuteronomy,\ntexts regarding Israel\nin the wilderness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The purpose\nof the temptation reading is to remind us that Jesus is fully one of us. At the\noutset of his mission he experienced what it would take to act as God\u2019s Son,\ntruly human. His mission, and that of all his followers in the Church, would be\nvictory over the temptations of Satan and forces contrary to Jesus through\nprayer and self-denial. This for Jesus, and the Church from earliest times,\nincluded fasting, not to force God\u2019s hand, but to unite us with Christ and the\nChristian mystery. The question is raised today whether we should forget Lenten\nfast and Lenten exercises. Civil society may discuss this in its own way.\nChristians would do well to have some personal form of self-denial, in union\nwith Christ, for instance of Fridays, whether abstaining from meat or in some\nother way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

B. Reflection & Dialogue:<\/em> Message of Lent: \u201cRepent and\nBelieve in the Gospel\u201d. Dying to Oneself in order to have life in Christ<\/em>.<\/em> Lent is not a time for mere externals, sackcloth and\nashes. It is a period of forty days in which to reflect on the Christian\nmystery, on Christian life in Christ, on the dignity and dangers to the human\nperson and on God\u2019s message through Christ regarding all these truths. All this\nis done with reference to Christ, the New Man, the New Adam. During his forty\ndays in the wilderness Jesus must have reflected on these truths, and the temptations\nagainst accepting his Father\u2019s understanding of the human person and God\u2019s\nresponse to this through Christ\u2019s own life, his self-emptying, death and\nresurrection. An ancient hymn, in\nPaul\u2019s letter to the Philippians,  says\nthat although in the form of God, Jesus did not think equality with God as\nsomething to be used for human advantage. Instead he humbled himself and willed\ninstead to be found, and recognized, in human form. The reference is probably\nnot to Jesus\u2019 divine form, divine nature. The hymn, rather, is probably making\na contrast between Christ and the First Adam in the garden. Eve was told by the\nserpent, the tempter, that if she and Adam asserted their autonomy by eating\nfrom the forbidden fruit, disobeying God\u2019s command, they would become like God,\nknowing good and evil (Genesis 3:1-5). Adam, in human form, succumbed to the\ntemptation to take on divine form, with disastrous consequences. Christ would\nhave similar temptations but resisted, and became and an example for his\nfollowers, and a source of their salvation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The drama of the first Adam and Christ, the second Adam, has\nbeen played out down through history, a drama still being enacted in our own\nday. Christianity and much of modern life have contrasting views of the human person\nand what fulfilment of human desires is. There is a tendency in a widespread\nmodern worldview to regard the human person, and humanity, as one dimensional,\nautonomous, with a requirement to live and develop one\u2019s own personal and\nsocial life without any input from outside, from God or Church. This is quite\nthe opposite of the New Testament and biblical teaching. Central to this is\nthat God is love, that God loves the world, and has sent his Son to bring this\nmessage of love to humanity. Christ came so that believers in him, and\nhumanity, have life and have it abundantly (see John 10:10). Christ is the\nsource of life, but also its model. But Jesus also clearly tells us that\nfinding the life he brings entails dying to self in a number of things; life in\nhim entails taking up one\u2019s cross and following him (Mathew 9:35-47). Jesus\nstresses the values of the human person. What does it profit anyone to gain the\nwhole world and forfeit the integrity of one\u2019s own person? What can be given in\nreturn for one\u2019s self? (see Matthew 16:26). In its reflection on the role of\nthe Church in the Modern World <\/em>(paragraphs\n40-44) Vatican II has treated of this question very sensitively: on the mutual\nrelationship of Church and world (no. 40), what the Church offers to\nindividuals (no. 41), what the Church offers to society (no. 42), what the\nChurch offers to human activity through its members (no. 43). The text is\navailable on the internet. It merits reading and reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            <\/strong>Lent is a call to turn away from false values and turn\nto the Gospel message. The period calls for reflection and devotion. Faith is\nnourished by devotion, personal and collective, whether in parish or family.\nDevotion need not be ostentatious. It can be personal and quiet, for instance\nreflecting on Fridays on Jesus\u2019 call to follow him, and in honour of his\nPassion abstaining from meat (by use fish or otherwise) at the main meal. And\nthere are many other ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A. The bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings) B. Reflection & Dialogue: Message of Lent: \u201cRepent and Believe in the Gospel\u201d. Dying to Oneself in order to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-readings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1029,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/1029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}