First Sunday of Lent

First Sunday of Lent

Dear Friends,

In our second reading St. Paul explains the very core of the Gospel, and he sums up all of human history in just a few sentences.  In the beginning God created the human family in perfect harmony, peace and prosperity.  But Adam, the leader of that family, sinned. And this original sin ruptured that harmony and created a world infected by sin and burdened with conflict, evil, and suffering.  But to all of this Jesus Christ was God’s response.  Helpless to help ourselves, we needed a savior, someone to reverse Adam’s rebellion and reestablish a right relationship between God and man.

Jesus Christ was and is that Savior. And only Jesus could do it, that gap (chasm) between us and God, after the Original Sin was too great for us to bridge.  No amount of prayer or good works on our part could repair that breach.  Only Jesus (both human and divine) could repair that breach.  And he bridged that gap between us and God with his cross. 

As we know Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, and all of Adam’s descendants have suffered the painful consequences.   Jesus obeyed God the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary, and his spiritual descendants have received from him the restoration of righteousness – a right relationship with God.  The gap has been bridged!

And this is something we need to be reminded of, to be reminded of what Christ has done for us, so that we don’t start taking it for granted.

There is a true story about a group of soldiers sitting around the barracks during a break, they are resting and letting off steam.  And during that time off the talk swung around to religion.  One of the soldiers, a fallen-away Catholic, claimed he no longer believed in the Sacrament of confession.  His friends dared him to go to the Catholic chaplain and make a mockery of the sacrament, to prove he didn’t believe in it anymore.  To prove he was done with it all. So he went to the confessional, knelt down, and began. I have taken the Lord’s name in vain a hundred times a day, and I couldn’t care less.  I haven’t been to Mass

in years, and I couldn’t care less.  He went through all the commandments in the same way.  The priest didn’t give the soldier absolution because it was a terrible, irreverent, and sacrilegious confession.   So when the soldier was through, the priest sensing something in the young man, said to him: For your penance, put a crucifix on a table and then, look at the crucifix, really look at Jesus on the crucifix and say, ‘You died for me, and I couldn’t care less.’ Say that five times.  When the soldier came out of the chapel, his friends were waiting for him.  They laughed and jeered, asking what happened. He laughed back, and told them all about it. They were enjoying themselves and insisted that he do the penance, since that was part of confession, and the dare had been to do a full confession.  So they pulled up a table and put a crucifix on it, and the soldier sat down and looked at it, surrounded by his buddies.  But all he could say was, You died for me He tried and tried, but he just couldn’t get himself to add, and I couldn’t care less.  Tears welled up in his eyes. Finally, he got up and ran back to the chapel to make a real confession.

The Garden of Eden was a paradise, a paradise filled with many trees, that as we heard, were delightful to look at and good for food.  But of all those trees only two of them are named.  The first is the Tree of Life.  Adam and Eve are allowed to eat of this tree; in fact the fruit of this tree would keep them alive forever.  The second is the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.   Adam and Eve are not allowed to eat the fruit of this tree; because if they do they will die.  But wanting to be like God, they give in to temptation and eat the fruit.  The irony is however, that Adam and Eve were already like God.  They were created in His image and likeness.  As a consequence of the Original Sin Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, no longer able to eat from the Tree of Life.  This was a kindness because God did not want them living forever separated from Him by their sin.  And so they leave the garden, and they do eventually die, and then they wait.  They wait for the new Tree of Life and its fruit. 

Later in Salvation history we come to another garden, another tree and its fruit. 

This new garden is the garden of Calvary, the new tree is a Cross, and the fruit is Jesus.  And to eat of this fruit is to live forever.  The Eucharist is the fruit of the Tree of Life.  Jesus takes on the curses of Adam’s sin, and in the Garden of Calvary he offers himself on the new tree of life, the Cross, and the fruit of this new tree is offered to us in the Eucharist.  And to eat of this fruit is to live forever. 

Looking at that crucifix lying on the table I wonder what went through that soldier’s mind.  He had tried to make a mockery of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but looking at the Crucifix everything was made clear to him.  Was it something of his childhood faith that he remembered?  Maybe it was something in these lines of a poem about the crucifix. 

You would like to know God?

Look at the crucifix.

You would like to love God?

Look at the crucifix.

You want to be happy with Him forever and forever?

Look at the crucifix.

You wonder what God is and what He is like?

Look at the crucifix.

You wonder what you are and what you are worth?

Look at the crucifix.

You wonder how merciful God is?

Look at the crucifix.

You wonder how much He wants you in Heaven?

Look at the crucifix.

You wonder how much He will help you to get there?

Look at the crucifix.

Pax et Bonum,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley