First Sunday of Lent (Year A)
As we look forward to spring and the coming celebration of Easter, we know that we long for personal happiness and relational communion. We wish for the sense of well-being that will cling to us in the recesses of our soul. Our faith promises us this well-being, yet the world throws temptations in our path, with false promises of fulfillment. How do we face these temptations and seek the life that will bless us, eternal life?
Sex seems to be a common temptation today. However, temptations are not merely sensual and sensate, but also psychological, social, relational, intellectual, and spiritual. In fact, lust, a temptation of false friendship, is the gateway to greater temptations. Addictions, anger, and abuse seek to enslave and degrade us.
Temptations come in many forms and fashions. Although certain things may tempt us, others may not. Temp- tations, however, are not sins. They merely reveal our desire for a full happiness and may reveal the contents of our consciences. Upon examination of our consciences, the place of discernment, we can seek the place to grow and cultivate integrity of heart.
Through self-examination, temptations show us the evil that seeks to weaken then destroy our integrity. They attempt to lead us and others astray diverting us from the good God inspires us to achieve. Understood correctly, temptations empower us as we sharpen our consciences to discern the spirit God inspires.
Sin happens, sadly, when we succumb to the temptation allowing the temptation to take root, then direct and guide our action. Sin comes in three facets: personal, social, and original. It also has two degrees: mortal and venial. Personal sin is “an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods” (CCC. #1849). We oppose God and God’s ways for true friendship. Mortal or deadly sin breaks our relationship with God. It completely divorces us from true friendship, either with God, neighbor, or our self. Ultimately mortal sin is incurvatus in se, a prideful, futile, turning inward upon our self away from God, others, and our very self. Though others are wronged, mortal sin causes self-hatred. Or it is the result of our self-hatred. So insidious, mortal sin tries to destroy the other, but the reality is, we destroy ourselves. In a real sense, mortal sin is self-destruction.
Venial sins strain our relationships. As St. John explains, “All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly” (I John 5:17). They push and pull in different directions straining our friendship. Though a venial sin never divorces us from a relationship, they hurt and harm it. As a bruise, venial sins penetrate deeply and damage our friendships. They weaken our understanding and may lead to a mortal sin because we are so bruised and broken.
Social sins plague society. From bullying to slavery and a host of other social ills, society struggles with public injustices. They negatively affect society and destroy society’s structures which ought to respect the cultures, religions, and races. Nevertheless, social sins derive from personal sin. The Catechism talks about social sin stating “Structures of sin are the expression and effect of personal sins they lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a social sin” (CCC. # 1869).
Original sin, unlike social and personal sin effects the nature of our being. Before the fall, Adam and Eve had original justice. They harmonized with God and each other. They did not feel the push and pull of their emotions, desires, and passions.
They were in tune with God and his friendship because they had sanctifying grace that harmonized their passions, drives, emotions, feelings into a wholeness (James, Nancy The Ascent to God, pg. 3). Satan came and tempted them offering them self-determination. They could become gods and possess knowledge defining for themselves good and evil. They fell from God’s friendship and suffered the consequence of concupiscence.
They lost their self-composure. Their passions, intellect, and will were at odds. They became divided within and among themselves ashamed even to look at one another. Finally, they divorced themselves from God, the source of their gracefulness.
The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relationship henceforth marked by lust and domination.
(CCC. # 400)
Beyond the tensions between themselves and God, creation quaked and became hostile. Death entered: physical, psychological, intellectual, relational, and spiritual death. These plague us because the envy of the Evil One entered our world seeking to disgrace us in any and every way (Wis 2:24).
Because of the Fall, the result of Satan’s envy, broken relationships arise. A person lives for himself first rather than living for God or other. This, as Augustine tells us, is concupiscence: the inability to harmonize our passions, thoughts, and choices to develop deep, intimate friendships of trust, integrity, and honesty. The Catechism describes our struggle with concupiscence, the result of Satan’s envy.
Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his freedom at the very beginning of history. He succumbed to temptation and did what was evil. He still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of original sin. He is now inclined to evil and subject to error.
(CCC 1707)
Disgraced, Yes! We are not depraved. We are essentially good, yet we struggle to choose goodness. Essentially reasonable, we wrestle to determine the truth of who we are in God’s eyes. Essentially beautiful, we fight against the selfishness that wants to corrupt our divine dignity.
In the desert, Jesus combats these temptations. He wrestles with the envy of the Evil One and conquers. He repairs the rift between humanity and divinity, the divorce between neighbor and self, and most importantly the divisions within our own hearts. He reveals our goodness declaring God’s word enlivens us. He restores the truth of who we are stating, trust God despite the tests that come. He will bear us up. He defines our beauty knowing divine worship reveals God’s divinity dwelling within our souls.
Jesus restores us from our sin; that is, the loss of his grace not the total corruption of our nature. His mission begins with temptations but ends with his passion. His passion is our salvation, as the Catechism explains,
By his Passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He merited for us the new life of the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin had damaged.
(CCC # 1708)
Our life too experiences temptations. As we struggle, we too endure our passion. Yet in this passion, the life we live in this world, prepares us for eternal life because Christ infuses his Spirit into our souls. This grace not only forgives us of our sin, not only restores the turmoil within our hearts: the discord within our wills, minds, and passions, but also restores our communion with God. Instead of failing and falling into temptation, grace restores our integrity strengthening us to confront and conquer the evils that seek to disgrace us. Grace upon grace fills us with majesty and splendor. No longer feeling defiled, the result of Satan’s envy, Jesus claims us as his own: You are mine and I am yours. Infused with this truth, recognizing our goodness, we, now exalted, radiate the dignity and majesty of our Redeemer.