On this First Sunday of Lent, the Church presents us with two powerful scenes: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:7-9;3:1-7) and Our Lord in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11), where both were tempted by the devil. The first shows how humanity fell, and the second shows how humanity is restored.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything. They were in friendship with God, they had no suffering and there was no death. But then the serpent asked them a subtle question: “Did God actually say …?” This question planted doubt, and Adam and Eve began to think that God was limiting their freedom. They believed the serpent’s lie, and then chose their own will over God’s, thinking that their disobedience would make them like God, and ultimately more free. But there is no freedom in sin. True freedom is the ability to choose what is right and good. If someone says, “I’m free to lose my temper, free to lie, and free to act on every impulse,” that’s not freedom. It’s slavery. Sin gradually enslaves us to habits that harm us and weaken us. It wounds our relationship with God and with others. It promises happiness, but leads to emptiness and ultimately our destruction.

Then in the Gospel, JESUS had been fasting forty days and forty nights in the desert, and the devil tempted Him three times: to turn stones into bread, to test God’s protection, and to gain worldly power without the Cross. And all of this boils down to the same question: “Can you really trust the Father?” Adam did not, whereas JESUS did, and whereas Adam disobeyed, JESUS obeyed. That is why JESUS is called the Second Adam, because He succeeded where the first Adam failed.

People sometimes say, “Of course JESUS resisted the temptations because He’s God. Therefore it was easy.” Yes, JESUS is fully God, but He is also fully man, which means He experienced hunger, tiredness, fear and pain just as we do. So His temptations were real. He felt the full force of them except He never gave in. However, JESUS came not only to give us a good example. He came to give us grace. Grace is God’s own life shared with us. It is real supernatural help, which strengthens us to see clearly and choose what is right, and reject what is evil. It heals the damage caused by sin and slowly transforms us. Grace comes to us primarily through the Sacraments. We first receive grace into our souls at Baptism. Confession restores it if we lose it through mortal sin, and in Holy Communion, we receive grace Himself, in the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of JESUS Christ.

So Lent is not about being miserable and hard on ourselves. It’s about trusting God, opening our hearts to His mercy and growing in grace. And the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving, are not punishments. They are a means of making room for grace by loosening our attachments to worldly things and focusing more on God.

An invitation is being made to each of us, not to rely on our own strength, but to rely on the grace God is always offering us. So go to Confession! “Where sin abounded, grace abounded more” (Romans 5:21). When that grace is at work in our souls, it means Christ Himself is with us. And if Christ is with us, then we can make it through the desert of Lent. We can endure the struggle and then arrive safely at the true joy of Easter.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC