Today is the first Sunday of the great\npenitential season of Lent. A few days\nago we observed Ash Wednesday where we were marked with ashes as a sign of\nrepentance, and we embraced fasting and abstinence in preparation for our 40\nday journey to Holy Week and Easter. \nThese 40 days of prayer, penance, and charity are symbolic of the 40\ndays Our Lord spent in the desert preparing for his public ministry. At that time, he fasted and was tempted by\nthe devil. Following in his footsteps,\nwe embrace fasting and prepare ourselves for spiritual combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our first reading recounts another one of\nSatan\u2019s temptations. It is the story of\nour first parents, Adam and Eve, and their disastrous meeting with the devil. But in the beginning it was not so. After creating man, God places him in a\ngarden, a land rich with abundant food, trees, and life, all of which are to be\nenjoyed and used according to God\u2019s design. \nGod gift\u2019s mankind with \u201cevery tree that is pleasant to the sight and\ngood for food\u201d (Gen 2:9). Out of his\ngoodness, God gives man permission to enjoy all the good things creation has to\noffer. His only command is not to eat of\nthe fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We often get hung up on this restriction,\nforgetting all the good things we are allowed to enjoy. To be clear, God is not trying to suppress\nhuman knowledge or keep us in slavish bondage to his arbitrary commandments. God is Goodness itself, Truth itself, and\nBeauty itself. Knowledge of good and\nevil belong to him, and him alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enter the serpent, the craftiest of all\nbeasts. The serpent tries to usurp the\ndivine prerogative of knowledge of good and evil, and he does so in a cunning\nand conniving way. He tempts Eve with a\nhalf-truth, something plausible enough to be believed, but which is ultimately\nan empty lie. \u201cDid God say, \u2018you shall\nnot eat from any<\/em> tree in the\ngarden?\u2019\u201d the serpent asks Eve (Gen 3:1). NO! That is not what God said. Nevertheless, his plan succeeds, and Eve and\nAdam eat of the forbidden tree. They\ntake the knowledge of good and evil into their own hands. They make their own ideas of right and wrong\ninto their own personal Truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our age is not so different. Relativism and individualism have made it so\nthat everyone\u2019s own opinion is his or her own truth. Whatever I want to be true is True for me,\nand whatever you want to be true is True for you. When we decide for ourselves what is true,\nwhat is good and evil, what is right and wrong, we only increase suffering, sow\nconfusion, and detach ourselves from reality. \nRather, when we follow God \u2013 Truth itself \u2013 who has ordered his creation\naccording to his goodness, and who only wants good things for us, we become\nmore fully alive, and more who we are meant to be. During this season of Lent, let us refocus\nand turn ourselves back towards God\u2019s Truth. \nMay his kingdom come, and his will be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthe Gospel, we have a similar story, this time with Jesus being tempted. Unlike Adam and Eve, he prevails over the\ndevil. Notice again how the devil uses\nhalf-truths, especially when quoting the Scriptures. Satan quotes Psalm 91:11 to try to tempt\nJesus to test God. He accurately quotes\nthe Psalm, but misconstrues the meaning. \nPsalm 91 is all about faithfully trusting God, but Satan makes it seem\nlike it is about putting God to the test. \nLet this be a reminder to us that not everyone who quotes the Scriptures\ndoes so with pure motives or correct interpretation. Thanks be to God for his gift of Tradition\nand the Church\u2019s magisterium, who is authoritatively led by the Holy Spirit to\ninterpret God\u2019s word correctly and fruitfully. \nReturning to the Gospel, we see Our Lord catch the devil\u2019s trick and\nrebuke him with a correctly interpreted verse from Deuteronomy: \u201cDo not put the\nLord your God to the test\u201d (Mt 4:7). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lord Jesus is trustworthy and does not lead\nus astray as the devil is so wont to do. \nTherefore, at the beginning of the Lenten season, let us recommit ourselves\nto the Lord\u2019s teaching. Let us retreat\ninto a deserted place and draw near to him so as to learn from his wisdom. Let us shut out the world and willingly\nembrace prayer, fasting, and charity, so that by the Lord\u2019s gently guidance we\nmight be made ready to enter the garden of life he has prepared for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kevin Ponte<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Thomas Vitali\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1st Sunday of Lent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[109,142],"class_list":["post-2214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider","tag-i-sunday-of-lent","tag-kevin_ponte"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n