The obedience of Jesus overcomes the disobedience of Adam!
Homily preached February 26, 2023
by Monsignor Michael Deering

You may know that the Church choses the readings for each Sunday Mass ...

such that the First Reading that is typically taken from the Old Testament ...

is related to ... the Gospel passage taken from the New Testament.

Today, the First Reading from Genesis ... and the Gospel passage from Matthew ...

are surely a study in contrasts!

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

Whereas, in Matthew’s Gospel, we see Jesus alone, in the barren desert … having just fasted 40 days and He’s hungry ... and He resists three temptations of the Devil!

The contrast is even greater when we see ...

that Jesus faced the same temptations as Adam and Eve did!

1. Adam and Eve chose to eat what the devil tempted the to eat …

     while Jesus chose not to eat what the devil tempted the to eat!

2. The serpent convinced Adam and Eve to doubt God’s faithfulness, 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.

3. Adam and Eve gave in to 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 God-Man , reversed the pattern of sin ...

that had plagued mankind ever since Adam and Eve committed the 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 He would win over sin for us all ... by dying 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 to consider from Pope Benedict XVI of happy memory ...:  “God is not jealous or threatened 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.”

The Devil 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 He calls us to become like Him!

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

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

And then Jesus said in Matthew: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

Yes!     God wants us to become like Him!

And we accomplish this … becoming God-like … not by following our way  …

   but by obeying  God’s way.

Adam & Eve’s model of listening to the devil and acting on their 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 for 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 ... Your will be done.” And He carried out the will of the Father to their glory.

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 from his letter to the Romans

where he points out that sin is the greatest evil and it leads us to eternal 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.  Just 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 just did in our Responsorial Psalm ...  praying 5 times:

“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. It’s 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 exactly 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 you 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 of our sins

so that we can stay in the Garden ... 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 all of Lent is:

“Repent ... and believe in the Gospel!”

Take this season of prayer and penance ... to grow strong in God’s grace.

So you can say ... “no” to the devil ... and ... “yes” to God.

Don’t 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 you any good either.

There’s no way to hide from God.

Rather, obey God ... recognize when you fall away from Him in sin.

Go to Him and confess them and ask for His forgiveness.

Trust in God and strive to become like Him ... perfect and holy.

It’s then that you’ll merit to be with Him forever in Heaven.