Who would have thought that we would experience such turmoil from a lowly virus?  A rogue nation shooting a dirty nuclear bomb or a cyber attacker crippling our electrical power grid – sure – but a virus?  And yet, the coronavirus, renamed COVID19 or more correctly SARS CoV-2, is certainly giving us great concern and the stock market tumbles as a result of serious trade and travel disruptions.  It’s tempting to retreat from the world but where do you go to be safe?  Sorry, I don’t have an answer to that question but I do want to invite you to reflect on temptation and one of the biggest temptations we human have: the temptation to try to be like God and be in charge.  Today’s readings, as we begin the season of Lent, give us two very clear reminders that will help us on our journey through Lent and, indeed, through life: Who God is and who we are as human beings, his creatures.

 

The reading from Genesis presents our creation story.  As we hear so beautifully in today’s first reading, God formed us out of the clay of the ground, and breathed life into us.  It’s a very touching account.  You can almost see God, the almighty creator of the universe, stoop down to pick up a handful of clay and mold it into the first human being.  And then, he breathes his life into it.  We have this moment presented very graphically in our stained glass window – it’s on the bottom of the third-to-the-last panel on your right.  You’ll see a man crouched as if he is trying to catch his breath while the Spirit of God hovers over him; and he’s mud brown.  Without God, we simply would not exist.

 

Yet from the very beginning, it has been hard for us as human beings to remember this basic reality.  Like Adam and Eve, it is very easy for us to be tempted to be like God – wanting to be in charge of our lives and wanting to know good from evil.  We certainly can go through our lives reacting to our problems and challenges as if we’re in charge of everything, and forget to rely on the wisdom and guidance of God.  However, as we begin our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, our focus should be to remember to put God first in our lives, and to wrest out of our lives anything we want to put before God.

 

 Jesus gives us a masterful example of how to do just that in the Gospel, as he’s confronted with various temptations by the devil.  For every temptation that Satan puts before him, Jesus counters with a reminder that God comes first. Tempted to make stones into bread after 40 days of fasting, Jesus notes that we live not only on bread, but on the word of God. In saying this, he is recounting Moses’ instruction to the people of Israel as they completed their 40 years journey through the desert.  Moses was reminding the people, who had often complained against him and against God, that God had always taken care of them, providing them manna and quail when they were hungry and water from a rock when they were thirsty.  It was the word of God that cared for them in their journey.  Next, when the devil tempted Jesus to fall down and let God save him, Jesus reminds the devil that we are not to put God to the test.  Finally, tempted with all the riches of the world if he only worships Satan, Jesus counters that God alone is to be worshiped.  Jesus gives us a clear model: In all temptations, we are to remember that God, our Creator, comes first and he’s in charge and will take care of all our needs.

 

As we, once again, begin our challenging journey of Lent, let us be assured by the words of Paul in today’s second reading.  Although sin abounds in our world, God’s grace abounds even more.  As we struggle in the weeks ahead to put God first, to remove from our lives the obstacles to our union with God, God gives us graces to help us in our struggle.  We are never alone on the journey when we strive to come closer to God – God is always waiting to give us any help we need, if only we remember to turn to him.  Let us face the Lent ahead with the courage and humility of Jesus.  After all, the stock market goes up and goes down; it always has and always will. And, new diseases will arise.  Only trust in God gives us true and lasting peace.

 

On this First Sunday of Lent, our Gospel challenges us to follow Jesus, and not fall to the temptations that the devil and the world offer.  Among the central themes of this season is the recognition that we all have to do battle against temptations.

 

To assist us in this conversion process, the Church calls us to remember and to practice the message found in today’s sacred Scripture readings: Go into your own wilderness for forty days.  Pray, fast, become more humble and contrite, increase your service to others – all of this testing to know what is in your heart, and to remind us all, once again: “The Lord, your God shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”