For the beginning of Lent, the Church takes us back in today’s first reading to “The Beginning” as we hear from the Book of Genesis. We remember the sad turn of events that took the beauty of God’s creation from being “very good” to just a short time later having everything ruined in what described today simply as “The Fall.”
It’s important as we begin our Lenten fight against sin to recall how it was that sin entered the world. We read of how Satan tempted Adam and Eve so that we might once again remind ourselves of his tactics. The way he got our first parents to surrender their trust in God and choose a lesser good is the same way he comes after us today.
In the gospel, we see how Jesus, the new Adam, is victorious where the first Adam failed. This gives us great hope that we too can be victorious. St. Paul reminds us that just as the sin of the first Adam brought death to the whole world, so the obedience of Christ, the new Adam, offers us the gift of life for the whole world.
So as we begin this Lenten time of testing, let’s learn from Adam and Eve, let’s pay attention to the example of Jesus. If we do this well, we know that we end up transformed at Easter just like Jesus. This forty-day journey we have entered upon is really the journey of the entire Christian life, a journey from the fall, through redemption, to glory.