First Sunday of Lent: The Problem and the Solution

From the Catholic Liturgy for the First Sunday of Lent, March 5, 2017. Genesis 3:1-7; Romans 5:17-19; Matthew 4:1-11. Einstein once said: “If I had an hour to solve a difficult situation, I would spend 55 minutes getting to know the problem, and then I would need just 5 minutes to come up with the solution.”  In other words, if we don’t have an accurate handle on what’s wrong, we cannot come up with an effective way to fix it. And I think that is what today’s readings are telling us as we confront the Problem of sin and evil in the world and in our own lives.  So, the first thing to do, following Einstein’s advice, is to name the Problem and discover where it comes from. We find the key to this in our first reading from the Book of Genesis and discover the root of the Problem is our fallen human nature, alienated from our Creator by the free choice to live life on our own terms. In our second reading, St. Paul tells us that the Solution to our problem is found in the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Only God created the human person and only God can recreate us and make things new again.  And he did exactly that by becoming one of us and living a life of obedient love. In today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus even goes up against Satan, the enemy of the human race, who instigated the Problem right from the beginning. Satan tries to do to Jesus what he did to Adam and Eve but he fails, Jesus triumphs in the name of us all. And by a personal relationship with Jesus, through the ministry of the Church with her sacraments, we join in His victory and are able to overcome the Problem with the Solution.