1st Sunday of Lent: Year A, 2017

May the good Lord grant you the necessary graces to prepare adequately for the celebration of the Great Solemnity of Easter. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE  AND  FAITH

(Genesis  2, 7-9; 3,1-7; Rom 5, 12-19; Matt 4, 1-11; 1st  Sunday of Lent:  Year A,  2017)

              The Holy Mother, the Church, instituted the Lenten period as a fitting preparation for Easter, the Solemnity of Solemnities, in which we celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This paschal mystery is the foundation of our faith and the source of our Christian life. That is why, as the mother Church reasons, we have to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus in a very dignified manner, in a lively faith and intimacy with Christ. It is expected that the celebration of this mystery will help us break contact with sin, victorious over evil and initiate a spiritual rebirth that make us always conform to the risen Christ. 
              The first reading of today narrates the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, into sin. On account of this fall, sin spread into the world, as St Paul holds in the 2nd reading, and through sin, death entered into the world. Sin is a sad and tragic reality that stares us in the face every moment. We, therefore, need to know what sin consists of, what it produces and how to overcome it’s temptation . From the first reading narrative, we know that sin consists of a free act by which a person cuts himself from God and His will. Adam and Eve were free to make their choice and they did it against the will of God. Sin is also an act of insubordination to God through which one declares his wish not to depend on God and not to be subordinate to God. Sin is also an act of pride, or rather a wish to be like God, autonomous, independent, and a judge in matters of what is good and evil. It is also an attitude of placing no confidence in God who imposes laws and rules that limit the liberty and self-realization of the person. These are various aspects of the sin of Adam and which serve as a paradigm to any type of sin especially mortal one. The profile of a sinner would look thus: A person who legally got back his right to do what he wants, who places himself outside the plan of God or the path which He (God) has traced, who believes his capability to affirm his liberty and realize his independence from the law of God and places himself against God’s will and law. I pray and hope that my and your profile do not resemble the above! One would ask: What does sin do to the sinner? Following the first reading narrative, after they had sinned, Adam and Eve, realized that their eyes were opened and that they were naked. In plain language it occurred to them that they were deprived of their dignity as well as the preternatural gifts (harmony and equilibrium; immunity from pains, etc) they had from God. They lost the exclusive intimacy with God. The sin of our first parents, like any other sin, gave rise to folly and illusions. When one thinks that through sinning he would be affirming and realizing himself/herself, he/she rather finds himself/herself naked and nude, in misery and he experiences the incapacity to do any good; in short, he finds himself in an awkward situation. How can one come out of this situation of sin? Salvation from sin is through Jesus Christ. Paul writes in the 2nd reading of today that just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam, in the same way the righteous action of one man, Jesus, justifies everyone. Christ was able to justify us through the events of his death and resurrection. He, concretely, does so through the sacraments especially through Baptism by which he makes us participate in his victory of evil and by which we recover our dignity as the children of God. Jesus also does so by teaching us the best strategy to overcome temptation to sin, as today’s gospel reading demonstrates in his own temptation. Jesus first strategy is decidedness and firmness. Confronted with any temptation there should be no room for indecision. There should be absolute no room for any dialogue. The fall of Adam and Eve started when they began to dialogue with the devil, listening to him and even encouraging him to speak. Jesus on the other hand conceded the devil neither minimal space nor confidence to speak. The second strategy which Jesus wishes that we imbibe is to refer to the word of God and to use it to throw light to our situation. Adam and Eve inevitably started losing the battle when they began doubting what God had told them; they did not believe his word. Jesus, on the other hand, responded and challenged Satan by making reference to the word of God. The word of God should be both the basis and the orientation of our lives. However, it has to be well interpreted according to the directives of the Magisterium. If not, there would be the danger of wrongly citing the Scriptures just as Satan did. Jesus still teaches us another strategy for overcoming temptation and inclination to evil. This is the use of two very powerful, almost infallible means: prayer and mortification. Jesus prepared the battle against Satan by the forty days he stayed in the desert, a place apt for silence and prayer, harsh and austere place. It is here, without doubt, that Jesus fasted uninterrupted for forty days and forty nights. It all means that if we want to take precautions against temptations, we should strengthen ourselves spiritually and fortify ourselves by creating time and space for silence and reflection on the word of God, dedicating more time to prayer and communion with God, engaging ourselves in voluntary mortification, depriving ourselves of even legitimate rights and conducting an austere, sober and evangelical life. This is what is always required of us as disciples of Christ and in a special way during this period of Lent. 

I wish you a successful and grace-full Lenten period. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye.

GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE