First Sunday of Lent

Dominica I in Quadragesima C
9 March 2025

 I think we would all agree that the Sacred Scriptures, being the inspired Word of God in written form, are of immense value for our instruction, for our correction, and for training in holiness (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16).  One of the blessings you can discover when you study and pray with the Scriptures is how much more there is than just the word on the page, as valuable as that is.  In addition to the words on the page, you see literary techniques and characteristics that open endless riches by which we can come to know God and by which we can come to see our lives in the plan of salvation.  By way of example, it is fascinating to understand that Old Testament figures can serve as types of what will be fulfilled in the New Testament.  Such is the case when we read about Isaac in the Old Testament, the beloved son of his father Abraham, who carries the wood for the sacrifice on his shoulders, much like what is fulfilled when Jesus, the beloved Son of God, carries the wood of the cross and is given in sacrifice by the Father for our sins.  Sometimes the literary device allows you to see mirror or inverse images between biblical events.

 On this first Sunday of Lent I suggest we should have in our minds the blessings of the Garden of Eden and mankind’s fall by giving in to the temptations of the devil.  We know about the garden from the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  God created all good things and made man in His own image, giving him authority over creation and placing him in that garden of blessing.  By taking and eating from the forbidden tree, man’s disobedience introduced sin, caused man’s expulsion from the place of blessing, and carries with it the inherited sin that we each receive and which weakens us in the face of temptation.  With that lesson from Genesis in mind, we have the inverse in the gospel selection from St. Luke.  Just one verse before today’s selection, Jesus is revealed in St. Luke’s genealogy as the “son of Adam, the Son of God”.  This reference to Adam bolsters how the gospel scene is an inversion of the garden, for Jesus is the new Adam, and like him, he is tempted by Satan.  But given that sin has entered the world, Jesus is led to, or placed in, the desert, far from the garden of blessing.  There, in that place of desolation that speaks so clearly of lack of blessing, Jesus, the new Adam, is victorious.  In this way, we have a summary of the temptations faced by Adam and Eve.  These temptations are relived, so to speak; they are recapitulated in Jesus.  But, this time, the new and perfect Adam, Jesus, is victorious; and, since he is both God and man, this means our own human nature, our flesh, has hope for victory in Jesus over what has caused our fall.

Genesis tells us of a threefold temptation in the Garden.  When Satan tempts Eve, the Scripture says that Eve saw that “the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise” (Gn. 3:6).  Christianity has developed a tradition of seeing in this scene from Genesis a threefold concupiscence, meaning a threefold way that is comprehensive for how we are inclined to sin.  You can see this tradition on display moving from Genesis to the opposite end of the Bible in the First Letter of St. John (chapter 2, verse 16).  He writes: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world”.  Let’s make the connection from the threefold concupiscence to how this has developed in Christian tradition.  Eve saw that the tree was good for food, which corresponds to the Christian tradition of referring to our tendency toward sin due to the lust of the flesh.  Lust is a disordered attachment to things.  The lust of the flesh, refers to a disordered attachment to food and drink and sexual pleasure, things that are pleasurable to the flesh.  Second, Eve saw that the tree was a delight to the eyes, which corresponds to the Christian tradition of referring to our tendency toward sin due to the lust of the eyes.  The lust of the eyes refers to a disordered attachment by which we see things and desire to possess and take them, to make them ours.  Eve saw that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, to make one like unto God, which corresponds to the Christian tradition of naming the pride of life as a source by which we fall to sin.  The pride of life is a disordered attachment to being exalted, to raising oneself up in esteem, to be powerful, to seek glory, to be in the know, to seek to occupy the place of God.

Jesus recapitulates this threefold temptation, this triple concupiscence, in the gospel selection, which presents us an inversion of the Garden of Eden.  Satan’s temptations correspond to this triple concupiscence.  Jesus, led to the desert by the Spirit, has undergone serious fasting and he was very weak in his human nature.  The devil, being the most cunning of all the creatures, seizes upon the moment to bring temptations, and St. Luke’s very ordering of the three temptations highlights the triple concupiscence that I have been describing.  The devil tempts Jesus to command that a stone become bread.  That’s an expression of the lust of the flesh, to make something that would be pleasurable, that would feed a desire of the flesh, that would fill a longing of the flesh.  The devil tempts Jesus by showing him all the kingdoms of the world and promises that he will hand them over to Jesus, that he may possess them.  That’s an expression of the lust of the eyes, to see all the power associated with earthly kingdoms and mankind, and to desire to possess it, to take control of it.  Finally, the devil tempts Jesus by placing him in full sight at the pinnacle of the temple and urges him to throw himself down so that God’s promise of protection can be displayed.  That’s an expression of the pride of life, to display his power, to make a show of himself, and to be exalted before the world as the one sent by God the Father.

 And so, with the lesson of Genesis and the threefold concupiscence, it makes total sense that our standard Lenten practices – fasting, almsgiving, and prayer – are remedies for these precise areas of weakness.  Where we suffer from lust of the flesh, we fast to train ourselves against a disordered attachment to food, drink, and bodily pleasure.  We need to rely on fasting more, and not only in Lent.  Don’t think that simply because the Church requires fasting only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, that those are the only days we should fast.  No, if you want to master the tendency to weakness in the flesh then adopt fasting.  In Lent, our use of a such a tool should be intensified.  Where we suffer from the lust of the eyes, we engage in almsgiving.  Where we might tend to fall prey to amass possessions, to take things and hold onto them for ourselves, we give things away to those who are needy and at the same time we train ourselves to maintain better control over this desire.  Where we are sort of tugged by the pride of life, wanting attention, or to be seen as an influencer, or to be wise, to be seen as powerful and noteworthy, we practice and develop a life of prayer.  By prayer we recognize our need for God.  We enter relationship with Him.  And immediately, humility is required because we can’t help but be honest in that relationship that we are not God, but in humility must rely upon Him and His love for us.  To make a minor adaptation of St. John the Baptist’s words in reference to Jesus: We must decrease and He must increase.

 Jesus has recapitulated the events of man’s sin and has been victorious over what separates us from God.  Thus, in Lent, we seek to be more greatly conformed to Christ so that, united more deeply with our Head, we who are members of the Body of Christ may share more fully in his victory.  Lent is not a time for superficial spiritual practices, but a serious engagement with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that the Lord’s power may come more fully into the weakness that ails us.  The Lord did not come in our flesh and die for our sins so that we can  give up trivial things for Lent.  That might be okay for children, but not for us adults.  He came to undo the power of our triple concupiscence.  Now is the time for serious battle to weaken the disordered attachments that keep us bound.