Reflecting on the incidents of human brutality during the American Civil War, our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, once spoke with hope that his countrymen would eventually choose to follow their “better angels” instead.
This points to how the human heart may follow either the impulses of those bad spirits or of those good spirits which can lead us to sin or to grace. In this fundamental choice lies the drama of the human life in its relationship with God. The readings for this First Sunday of Lent set the stage for this drama.
The first reading from the Book of Genesis recalls God’s essential love of His creation. In spite of the ancient legacy of sin in the world since the fall of Adam and Eve, God finds hope in their righteous descendent Noah. Through Noah, He establishes a covenant with the human race and all created beings. The waters of the flood which could destroy creation instead cleanse it anew, leaving the rainbow as a sign of the new harmony between heaven and earth. The flood becomes a foreshadowing of the waters of Baptism by which God creates a new covenant with humanity through Christ.
Love and Truth
Today’s psalm response speaks of this reconciliation between human beings and God. The ways of God “are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.” The psalm recalls the benevolence of God for the sinner who realizes that he has gone the wrong way but now seeks to follow God’s way again. God is his savior and restores their relationship.
Traditionally, the Church begins Lent by reflecting on the Gospel story of Jesus’ temptations in the desert. This year, we read from the Gospel of St. Mark. It is the shortest of the Gospel accounts, so much so that we do not have the three specific temptations related by Matthew and Luke. All Mark tells us is that following his Baptism, Jesus is immediately driven by the Spirit into the desert where He spends 40 days and is tempted by Satan. For all we know, He may be tempted more than three times.
“… temptation – as difficult as it is – is not itself sin. It is actually neutral: it can be the invitation to disobey God’s will … or the opportunity to grow in grace”
Extreme Choices
The evangelist’s brevity, though, tells us much. God, now in our humanity, undergoes temptation, which is the fate of all human beings in this world. The presence of wild beasts and angels in the desert reminds us of the extreme choices given to us when we are tempted. We can either give in to the savagery of sin or grow in the divine life of grace. Jesus is like us in all things but sin. The fact that God as man is tempted should encourage us to realize that temptation – as difficult as it is – is not itself sin. It is actually neutral: it can be the invitation to disobey God’s will and sin, or the opportunity to grow in grace by conforming our will to God’s.
We know that the temptation to do what is evil can pursue us like a wild beast. We can resist it, even repeatedly. We may think that it has left us, only for the Tempter to reappear, hounding us again on another occasion. The surrender to temptation by sinning can even seem to bring resolution of the conflict and relief, but with it comes the guilt that we have been unfaithful to God.
By facing temptation in the desert, Jesus shows us that human beings can refuse to sin. We can willfully choose the good and refuse the evil. God, in our tempted flesh, reveals to us that it is the natural destiny of human beings not to sin. This is the original way of life the Creator intended for us before we ever encountered the Tempter. To overcome temptation and be faithful to God is truly human. To sin, therefore, is not to be human.
The author of the First Letter of Peter reminds us that Christ, as the perfectly righteous man, has redeemed all spirits in this world and beyond that were disobedient to the will of God. As Noah navigates the waters of the flood, Christ establishes the waters of baptism to overcome sin and create a new beginning of goodness.
By His example in our human flesh, He shows us that we can be victorious over the Tempter as often as he may assault us.
It is by His overcoming the human temptation to sin that Christ reveals His glory as God. He thereby shows us how to follow our “better angels” in whom Lincoln trusted.
READINGS FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT:
Genesis 9: 8-15
Psalm 25: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
1 Peter 3: 18-22
Mark 1: 12-15
Father William A. McLaughlin, administrator of St. Fidelis parish, College Point, is an adjunct professor of theology at St. John’s University, Jamaica, and an instructor in the diocesan Pastoral Institute.
