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March 9, 2014
Scripture readings: Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Psalm 51; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
If you’re trying to eat less for Lent, you may be asking God why pizza tastes so good and why broccoli is not so appetizing.We have far more serious questions too. Why cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart attacks, and children with significant handicaps? Why tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes? Why dying and death? It is so very hard for human beings to accept the mysterious and the unanswered. It is in our DNA to want to know.
What was the sin of Adam and Eve? Certainly they disobeyed God. But the devil tempted them by telling them they would be like gods—that they would know all things. Their sin was a refusal to be human, with the limitations of life.
Satan brings similar temptations to Our Lord in the desert. Don’t be human; be God. Satan wanted Jesus, fully human and fully divine, to deny His humanity. By being fully human, God chooses to walk with us, redeem us, and bring us home to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Patrick Woods, C.Ss.R.
Bethpage, N.Y.Download our 2014 Lenten reflections booklet here.