Homily originally presented March 1, 2020

The obedience of Jesus overcomes the disobedience of Adam!

You may know that the Church has chosen the readings for Sunday Mass such that the First Reading is related to the Gospel whereas the Second Reading can run as parts of a series, from week to week. The Responsorial Psalm is selected as a prayerful response to the First Reading.

Well, today, the First Reading and the Gospel are surely a study in contrasts!

In the passage from Genesis, we see Adam and Eve surrounded by the beauty of the Garden of Eden … they’re surrounded by “various trees that were delightful to look at and good for food” … and yet, they give in to the temptations of the serpent.

Whereas, in Matthew’s Gospel, we see Jesus alone in the barren desert … He’s just fasted 40 days and He’s hungry and He stands fast against the temptations of the Devil.

The contrast is even greater when we see that Jesus faced the same temptations as Adam and Eve did.

Adam and Eve chose to eat forbidden fruit …

while Jesus chose not to eat ... by not turning stones into bread.

The serpent convinced Adam and Eve that God was not dealing honestly with them saying, “No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened” … while Jesus trusted God and refused to        question His faithfulness.

Adam and Eve were moved by the false promise of power & grandeur and sinned … while Jesus chose to humbly submit Himself to the Father and did not sin.

What a contrast: Jesus resisted temptation where Adam and Eve fell to temptation.

In doing so, Jesus, the eternal Son of God, reversed the pattern of sin that had plagued mankind ever since Adam and Eve committed this Original Sin.

Jesus resisted … He rebuked the devil … and He triumphed.

Not even for a moment did He waver.

And His victory here at the start of His 3-year public ministry was just a foretaste of the complete victory over sin that He would win for us all on the Cross.

Today and every day, Jesus stands with us ... offering us a share in His victory. He is right beside us in every temptation … telling us how important we are to God.

His is the voice we need to hear when the Devil tempts us to sin.

And here’s an insight that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI invites us to consider:

God will not be jealous at the prospect that we “will be like gods”.

Recall how the Serpent prompted Eve to distrust God saying, “God knows well that the moment you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods.”

He says it as if God would never want that … for us to be like Him.

And yet it is God Himself who plants that hope and desire in our hearts!

We’re not in competition with God!

God is not threatened by us becoming like gods.

He made us in His image and likeness and calls us to become like Him!

Just last Sunday, we heard God speak through Moses saying:

“Be holy, as I the Lord your God, is holy”.

And Jesus said in Matt. Gospel: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

We accomplish this … becoming God-like … not through self-seeking …

but through obedience.

Adam’s model … listening to the devil and striving on his own … didn’t work!

Adam and Eve responded to temptation with disobedience.

Jesus responded to temptation with obedience.

Jesus gave us the model that always works ... being obedient to the Father!

It was out of great love and great obedience to the Father

that Jesus went to the Cross and won salvation for all souls.

Recall His words: “Father, if it be possible, let this Cup pass me by. But not my will ... but Your will be done.”       And He carried out the will of the Father!

Jesus calls all of us to obey and carry out the will of the Father ...

to overcome temptations and carry our cross to win salvation of our own soul.

This was St. Paul’s insight in our Second Reading. In his letter to the Romans, where he points out that sin is the greatest evil and it leads us to death.

As Paul saw it, sin enthroned death. But Jesus, the Son of God unseated death!

And all who put their trust in Him will be acquitted of death’s sentence.

Jesus shows us in our Gospel today and always … that evil can be defeated!

Jesus triumphed over evil … in the Desert and on the Cross.

How? By turning away from the temptations of the devil …

and trusting in the care and protection of God.

God is always with us … urging us to trust Him and obey Him.

What’s more, He’s pouring divine grace into us, giving us the power to say no.

Think of the saying we tell our kids regarding drugs, “Just say no!”

Well that applies to absolutely everything the devil has to offer, “Just say no!”

There’s nothing the devil has that we want … say no to his every temptation.

Every time we say yes to the devil … we sin …

and sin either wounds or breaks our relationship with God.

wounding is called venial sin ... breaking is called mortal sin.

And yet we sin; don’t we? We sin because of ignorance, weakness or indifference.

Either we don’t know to say no, we’re too weak to say no or we don’t care to say no.

Sadly, all of us are sinners. So all of us have to turn to God and say we’re sorry.

Which is exactly what we did in our Responsorial Psalm that we prayed, saying,

“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”

Of all the 150 Psalms, Psalm 51, that we prayed today, is one of the most humble admissions of our sinfulness. Priests and Religious pray this Psalm every Friday in the Liturgy of the Hours. This is the Psalm that King David wrote after Nathan accused him of committing adultery with Bathsheba. When David recognized how offensive his sin was to God, he cries out for God’s mercy.

Have mercy on me, O God, in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.

For I acknowledge my offense and my sin is always before me

Against you alone I have sinned, what is evil in your sight I have done.

This is what we must do when we sin … we must repent!

Unless we repent of our sins, we risk being separated from God forever!

Listen to the warning and the guidance of the Prophet Joel

that we heard proclaimed at Mass on Ash Wed.

“For great is the day of the LORD, and exceedingly terrible; who can bear it?

Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.”

So what are we going to do … run and hide from God like Adam did?

It didn’t help Adam and it won’t help us.

God sees everything. He knows our every sin.

Yet in His great love for us, His eternal desire is to forgive us for our sins

so that we can stay in the Garden of His Heart.

But to receive His forgiveness, we have to ask for His forgiveness.

The Church gives us the Holy Season of Lent to help us in this process.

Now would be a powerful time to go to Confession.

Growing closer to God is greatly aided by having a clean soul.

Confession is ever available … it is a true gift from God.

God loves us and He is only too anxious to forgive us when we sin,

but we have to ask for His forgiveness.

And there’s an urgency to this.

We don’t know when the day will come when God will call us home.

Therefore it’s to our advantage to be in the state of grace every day.

The message of Ash Wednesday and of all of Lent is:

“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel!”

Let’s use this time of prayer and penance to grow strong in God’s grace.

So we can say no to the devil and yes to God.

Let’s not make the same mistake of Adam and Eve. They tried to hide from God.

It didn’t do them any good!      And it won’t do us any good either.

There’s no way to hide from God.

Rather, let’s obey God ... and when we fall into sin ...

acknowledge our sins and quickly repent of them.

Let’s trust in God as we strive to become like Him

so that we can merit to be with Him forever in Heaven.