Homily:
1st Sunday in Lent – Cycle A
Have
you ever followed some bad advice, only to regret it deeply later? You know, like when you set a rule for
yourself, but then let somebody else’s suggestion lead you to break that rule,
and then find yourself suffering because of it?
A famous example for me is this: When I traveled to Guatemala to study
Spanish, I was told, “Don’t eat food from street vendors. You will probably get sick from it.” All of us seminarians were told that. Yet, one of the seminarians in our group, on
the suggestion of another tourist, ate food from one of the street vendors and
became very ill. The seminarian knew
better, but instead of listening to and following the wise rule given to him,
he listened to a voice whose wisdom was questionable and suffered the
consequences. (He survived the ordeal,
by the way.)
As
we reflect on the Scriptures today, we see that a similar dynamic is playing
out. In the first reading, the serpent (“the
most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made…”) tests his cunning
on the woman, Eve, by playing a word game with her. “Did God really
tell you not to eat from any of the
trees in the garden?” Eve knew the rule
and so quickly responded, “[Actually,] We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; it is only about the fruit of the
tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even
touch it, lest you die.’” Then, the
cunning animal, the serpent, tries to convince her otherwise, saying: “You
certainly will not die! No, God knows that the moment you eat of it your eyes
will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is
evil.” This cunning animal was using a
marketing tool, “speaking with conviction”, to try to convince the woman that
the rule God gave was wrong. We see that
Eve “took the bait”, so to speak.
The
author of the book of Genesis then gives us an insight into Eve’s thinking: “The
woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable
for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it…” After listening to the serpent, Eve started
listening to her own voice, which convinced her of even more reasons why God
must have been wrong about the consequences of eating the fruit from this
particular tree. Thus, “she took some of
its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.” Eve listened to bad
advice (and Adam with her), only to regret it deeply soon after.
Contrast
this with the Gospel reading. Jesus
(who, by the way, had just been declared “Son of God” by the Father at his
baptism in the Jordan River), goes to a deserted place to fast and pray for 40
days and nights. Then, in Jesus’
weakness, the devil approaches him to tempt him. Notice that the first thing the devil does is
to challenge what the Father said about him: “If you are the Son of God, [do this]”. Jesus, imitating Eve in her response to the
serpent, could have said, “I am the Son of God, the Father said so!” and then
foolishly used his divine power to prove it by turning the stones into bread. Instead, Jesus turned back to the voice of
the Father, quoting the Torah (that is, the wise rule given to the people) and said,
“It is written, ‘One does not live on
bread alone…’” Jesus commits himself to
listening to the voice of the Father, whose wisdom is well known, instead of the
voice of the devil, who lacks wisdom.
In
the second temptation, the devil tries to turn the table on Jesus, using
Scripture as his argument to trick Jesus into foolishly proving that he is the
Son of God. Jesus counters again with
Scripture, “It is written, ‘You shall
not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”
Finally, seeing that challenging Jesus’ identity is getting nowhere, the
devil tempts Jesus to take worldly power and prestige for himself by agreeing
to a deal in which Jesus must bow down to the devil. Here, we do not get any insight into Jesus’
inner thoughts. In other words, the
author of the Gospel doesn’t say, “Jesus looked at the magnificence of all the
worldly kingdoms and saw that it they were ‘good for food, pleasing to the
eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom…’”
Rather, he writes: “At this, Jesus said to him, ‘Get away Satan! It is written: {The Lord, your God,
shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.}’” And so, at the end, we see that Jesus remained
aware of whose voice he was listening to and never let himself respond to any
voice other than the Father’s.
Friends,
as we enter fully into these holy days of Lent, our liturgy presents us with
the question, “Whose voice am I listening to?” It then also proposes the question, “Whose
voice should I be listening to?” Because our human nature is marred by sin,
the answer to those to questions are often different. As we prepare to renew our baptism at Easter,
Lent invites us to slow down and to answer these questions. Then, if (when) we find that our answers are
different, Lent gives us time and space to start to turn back from following
the voices of the ones without true wisdom (by turning away from the destructive
behaviors that they suggest to us) and towards the voice of the one with true
wisdom (who is Wisdom himself), God the Father.
Remember
also, that when Eve turned from the voice of God, she listened not only to the
voice of the serpent, but to her own voice, as well. The seminarian in Guatemala not only listened
to the voice of the other tourist, but his own voice, too. As we identify those voices from outside ourselves
that have been leading us astray, let us not forget to recognize how our own
internal voices can be just as guilty of leading us astray. Therefore, a healthy distrust of ourselves is
necessary: one that reminds us to seek divine guidance always.
Finally,
as we embrace this good and holy work, let us not forget the great joy that
Saint Paul shares with us in the second reading: that even though sin entered
the world through one man, thus condemning all to death, still through one man would
grace, in an even more abundant way, overcome sin in its limitless multitudes
along with its consequences. Thus, we
can courageously embrace this work, trusting that God’s grace will restore and
renew us through it.
Okay,
then. Are we ready to roll up our
sleeves and do this good work? What do
the people of God say? Amen? AMEN?
Good! May the grace of this
Eucharist sustain us in this good work and transform us into the sons and
daughters of God that we are.
Given in Spanish and English at Saint Paul Parish: Marion,
IN
February 25th, 2023
Given in Spanish at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish: Carmel,
IN
February 26th, 2023
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