Homily Lent 1 Year A: Choosing the true good over the apparently good

Homily for 1st Sunday of Lent Year A 2017 

Genesis 2:7-9,16-18,25;3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

Introduction 

As children growing up in Uganda, we played a game which involved choosing a favourite between two things such as: rice or potatoes, beef or chicken, and yes, even between mom or dad.  But sometimes when we invited a new child in our neighbourhood, he would fail to understand the rules of the game and spoil our game.  And so instead of choosing this or that, he would choose both, saying "I like both beef and chicken – why do I have to choose?"  Naturally, being little monsters, we would quickly kick him out of our game. 

Scripture and Theology 

Because God gave us free will, because the Church only proposes but does not dictate, being a Christian involves making many decisions, many choices. 

• Some are big and lasting choices, like becoming a Christian, marrying this woman and not that one, becoming a deacon or priest. 
• Some choices are regular, like coming to Mass today, going to confession at least once a year, fasting and abstaining during Lent. 
• But the most difficult are the moral choices that we have to make daily, in family life, at work, with strangers. 

What makes these daily choices particularly difficult is not that we have to choose between what is clearly evil and what is clearly good; that is a fairly easy to do.  The difficulty is that often both choices before us appear to contain some good and we must decide which is the true good. 

Take the case of Eve in our first reading of today.  She had two propositions: 

• She could obey God's command which said: "You shall not eat it [the tree in the middle of the garden] or even touch it, lest you die."  
• Or she could do what the cunning serpent proposed: "You certainly will not die" if you eat of the tree, especially since "the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom." 

Unfortunately, of the two apparently attractive choices, she chose the one that gave her immediate satisfaction.  She ate the fruit of the tree and gave some to her husband as well.  That is usually what happens with sin; we choose the apparently good rather than the true good. 

In the gospel, Jesus is also presented with similar choices, even though his temptation takes place not in the lush garden of Eden, but in the dry desert of Judah.  He too has some tough choices before him. 

Considering that he was hungry after fasting for forty days and forty nights, the first crack at him by the Tempter was particularly attractive: "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread."  As we know, later in the gospel Jesus will be in the business of making bread out of nothing for the crowds and will change water into wine at Cana wedding.  And so what the Tempter is asking him to do, is actually somewhat of a good thing. 

But if Jesus chooses to obey him, he would be abandoning an even better thing, his need to rely on God.  He would be taking a short-cut, rather than the way of the cross; he would be nothing more than a magician; he would not be a true messiah.  That is why Jesus tells the Tempter: "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God."  In other words, trusting in the Word of God is far superior to immediate gratification. 

In the second temptation from the Devil: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down" from the temple roof, from God's dwelling place, since Scripture says that God will protect you. This proposition places before Jesus the choice of trusting in God unreservedly or obtaining a little proof that the Father cares for him.  Moreover, jumping down from the temple roof and surviving the experience would have been an excellent opportunity for Jesus to show his divine power and win over many people.  But since doing this would be also be testing God for his own purposes, Jesus rejected this temptation saying: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” 

The third temptation provides Jesus with another shortcut to power that avoids the suffering of the cross.  "All these [kingdoms of the world] I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me" proposes the Tempter.  And this was not an empty promise.  Jesus had come to take the world from Satan's control.  Should he do it through the arduous way of suffering and death on the cross, or should he take easy way proposed by the tempter? 

But again Jesus chooses the greater good rather than the merely good.  He says, thanks but no thanks.  Again quoting from Scripture he says: "The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve."  He chooses to worship God above all else. 

In all three cases, Jesus passes the test with flying colours.  But he will have to keep up his guard because the Tempter will keep coming at him. 

• In the Garden of Gethsemane, he will be tempted to ask: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me."  But at the end of it, he will say: "still, not my will but yours be done" and will continue on to Calvary. 
• Even on the Cross he will cry out to his Father, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?".  But then again he will give of himself completely saying: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." 

Jesus, the perfect example of humanity, will choose wisely and correctly each time, because he always puts God first, because he relies on the Spirit. 

Christian Life 

We too are faced with moral choices every day.  And many times we must choose between what look like equally good options. How do we choose? 

• Do we give up our commitments to enjoy immediate gratification or do we remain faithful to them and so enjoy gratification with God in some distant future in heaven?  How do we choose? 
• Do we give money to this poor person so that he may or may not buy food, or do we refuse to do so, on the off chance that he might use it for alcohol or drugs?  How do we choose? 
• Do we say something to a friend that they need to correct or do we keep quiet so as to maintain our friendship?  How do we choose? 

Jesus was able to choose well, to overcome the temptations, because of his close relationship with God, achieved through prayer and fasting.  For us too, only an intimate relationship with God will arm us with the ammunition needed to fend off such attacks, to choose well.  How do we develop this relationship? 

• First, our daily personal prayer, our Sunday attendance of Mass, our devotional life, are the things through which God speaks to our hearts and as it were inoculates us with the Holy Spirit to choose well. 
• Second, God's Word, for example the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, the teaching of the Church, gives us the principles by which to make decisions.  In his Angelus message today, Pope Francis suggested that if we consulted the Bible more often than we consult our cell phones, we might know what God's will is for us. 
• Third, this relationship is developed and maintained by habits of good deeds, that like regular exercise, keep us spiritually fit and ready. 

Conclusion 

A friend of mine had a car accident about fifteen years ago that left her with chronic pain that doctors try to control with medication.  She once told me that a couple of times she has thought about taking her own life to end it all.  But the only reason she chooses life is that she remembers something she learnt in her childhood, either in catechism class or in a homily at mass, about suicide not being the answer to suffering and she offers up her pain for others. 

During this season of Lent ask yourself: what is the inspiration for my moral choices?  Or better, do I choose as Jesus would choose, every time?