Temptation (HOMILY FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A
Homily for the First Sunday of Lent. Year A Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7. Psalm 51:3-4,6-6ab,12-13,14. Romans 5:12-19. Matthew 4:1-11. Theme: Temptation. On this first Sunday of Lent, the Church invites us to reflect on temptation. The first reading tells us of the unfaithful man who lets himself be seduced by evil and chooses to go against the will of God. After their fall, "the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron" (Gen.3:7). Before their fall, "the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Gen.2:25). Here, nakedness has not only a literal meaning. It does not refer only to the body. It refers especially to the soul. It means that man is deprived of participation in the gift of God's grace, in the gift of God's love, which had been the source of the fullness of the good intended for man. He, by committing sin, is deprived of the supernatural and preternatural gifts that ...