Doctrine and faith First Sunday of Lent Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Ps 50 (51); Rom 5:12-19; and Mt 4:1-11

The passage of Genesis (cf. 2:7-9; 3:1-7) contains at least three teachings that remain relevant today. Regardless of the linguistic form, it could be a passage written today.

First: Man is captured in his transience and his greatness, especially in his drama. He is taken from the earth and destined to return to the earth: thus the circle opens (cf. Gen 2:7) and closes ("You are dust, and to dust you shall return," Gen 3:19). Yet man comes from God and is loved by God: God is faithful to him; here lies all His dignity and hope. Man struggles with a seemingly irresolvable contradiction: on the one hand, there are many signs that assure us that God is good and that He created man and the world according to a wise plan; on the other, the spread of evil, violence, and death. Faced with the many forms of evil, we must not blame God, our own actions testify; the responsibility for sin lies with man. Evil has a historical origin, not a metaphysical or cosmic one; it depends on man's freedom. History is full of contradictions because man persists in wanting to create it by disobeying the Lord.

Second: Sin - that of Adam and that of all others - does not remain locked within man, but spreads outward, translating into mentalities and habits, creating culture, bonds and conditioning, fossilizing in structures. In short, there is a solidarity in sin from Adam to us. His sin conditions us, and ours, in turn, conditions future generations. And to highlight this history of sin, the first accounts of the Bible unfold according to a genealogical pattern: one sin depends on another, the sin of Cain depends on the sin of Adam, and so on.

Third: Adam's sin is not only the first sin, but also the model for every other sin. In his temptation, we see our own temptation photographed. As the dialogue between Eve and the serpent shows, the strength of temptation lies in doubting God, in believing that he imposes a law to prevent us from becoming like him (therefore, to humiliate us and preserve his privileges), rather than to prevent us from dying (that is, for our own good). The temptation lies entirely here: believing that God's law is alienating and that man lives better outside of it. A very current temptation that seems to describe - in a sort of prophecy - the mentality of modern man, who, in obedience to the Lord and listening to his word, fears diminishing himself, losing freedom and autonomy. It is not for nothing that many people try to present atheism as humanism. And yet, the opposite is true, says our passage, which is both the fruit of revelation and experience: when man transgresses his limits and poses himself as a master, and wants to build a story on his own, it is then that freedom is lost and violence is generated, and man is reduced to an instrument.

The temptation of Jesus (cf. Mt 4:1-11) that we find in the Gospel essentially re-proposes the same temptation of Adam. On the surface, the temptations are many, but at the root there is always only one: To follow the messianic path indicated by God (the way of the cross) or to choose one's own path according to the judgments of men (the path of prestige, success, dominion)? Twice (v. 3 and v. 6) Satan addresses Jesus, saying: "If you are the Son of God..." For Jesus, being a son is expressed in radical obedience and total dedication to the Father. For Satan, however, being a son means being able to use divine power at one's own will and for one's own glory. Unlike Adam, Jesus chose obedience, thus also showing us the path of return.

In perfect contrast to Adam's attitude, Christ's final response to the tempter is: "For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve'" (v. 10). It is a response that every man must make his own. And let no one forget Satan's sincere admission: "All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me" (v. 9). It is true: all those who abstain from God to do things alone and to set themselves up as masters of the world are in reality forced to worship Satan. They do not want the true Lord and find another, tyrannical. A tyrant who has many names (money, success, power), but only one face: he is against man.

Happy Sunday!

†John I. Okoye

Bishop of Awgu

DOCTRINE AND FAITH Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

READINGS OF THE DAY: Is 58:7-10; Ps 111 (112); 1 Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5:13-16

 

The prophetic passage of Isaiah (cf. 58:7-10) takes a stand against a religiosity based entirely on rites and practices and devoid of any concern for humanity. The inspiration comes from the practice of fasting, which was required on certain days and on certain liturgical occasions.

 

But God wants something else, insists the prophet, meticulously listing three times the behaviours that constitute true fasting, the kind that pleases the Lord. One might object that our current situation has profoundly changed from the one that gave rise to the prophet's polemic; ours is no longer the time of frequent fasts, numerous ritual practices, and frequent prayers offered for ostentation. However, if the prophet's polemical framework has lost its relevance, the most important core of his discourse has not: what pleases God is your good attitude toward your fellow man or woman. This is the core of the prophet's discourse, which retains its modernity intact. The God of the prophets never ceases to amaze us: rather than being concerned primarily with what his faithful do for Him, this God is concerned first with what his faithful do for other people.

 

Among the concrete ways of helping others, two are closest to the prophet's heart. The first is "untying the chains," breaking the yoke of oppression, restoring freedom to prisoners - in a word, liberation. Certainly, the prophet here reflects the experience of Israel, which in exile understood the meaning of the lack of freedom. Helping individuals and peoples to regain freedom is more pleasing to God than practices of personal mortification. The second is sharing one's bread with the hungry. The prophets know well how hunger can humiliate a man. Liberation from slavery and the fight against hunger are the two things the God of the prophets expects of his people. Indeed, he is a God concerned about the ever-growing multitude of the disinherited, and he speaks of them to anyone who comes to the temple to meet him.

 

In the Gospel (cf. Mt 5:13-16), the two comparisons used by Jesus - the disciple must be like "light" and like “salt” - are clear and should be taken in their literal sense. The brief discourse is addressed to the group of disciples (the verbs are plural), not to the individual. Being salt, being light must apply to the group, to the community, and not simply to individual Christians. The discourse is therefore addressed to the entire community.

 

The two images (salt and light) are expressed in the indicative form ("you are"), and this shows a fact, a reality: Jesus affirms, with great force and simplicity, that the disciples must be a point of reference, of purification, of transformation, under penalty of complete uselessness (for what good would salt have served if it becomes tasteless, or of what use is a hidden light?). If the disciples lose the strength of the salt that should be always in them, they are useless ("thrown out") and even despised ("trampled underfoot”).

But what does it mean, then, to be salt, and to be light? And what are the concrete good works to be displayed, or good works capable of inducing men to glorify the Lord? The prophetic reading comes to our aid once again, which agrees with the Gospel in its response: breaking chains and sharing bread with the hungry, these are the works to be displayed to the world, works capable of inducing men to glorify the Lord and capable of transforming those who perform them into a light that illuminates and salt that gives flavor, that is, into a point of reference that attracts, stimulates, and encourages.

Happy Sunday!

 †John I. Okoye

Bishop of Awgu