My beloved sisters and brothers,
Jesus, have mercy on us!
Just days ago on Ash Wednesday, we came forward quietly and received ashes. We heard the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel,” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It was simple. It was humbling. It was honest. And now, on this First Sunday of Lent, the Church leads us back to the very beginning.
In the Book of Genesis, we see a tender God who forms man from the dust and breathes into him the breath of life. You are not an accident. You are willed into being — a beautiful union of body and soul. Placed in the garden to cultivate and care for it, humanity is given both dignity and responsibility. Marriage itself is revealed as communion: “naked and unashamed,” a harmony rooted in trust.
But then comes the whisper of the serpent. Doubt is planted. Is God really good? The first sin is not simply eating forbidden fruit; it is choosing to define good and evil apart from God. The result is rupture — hiding from God, shame before one another, and division within the human heart.
How familiar that sounds. Yet the Church gives us the perfect Lenten prayer in Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” Only God can re-create what sin has damaged. Lent is not about shame; it is about mercy. A broken and contrite heart opens the door to grace.
St. Paul, in the letter to the Romans, proclaims our hope: where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Adam’s disobedience brought death, but Jesus Christ’s obedience brings life. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus stands in the desert and resists the very temptations that overcame humanity in the garden. He refuses shortcuts. He clings to God the Father’s will.
This Lent, dear friends, we stand between garden and desert, fall and redemption. Do we trust God’s commands, or do we try to write our own? Through prayer, fasting, almsgiving and repentance, may we rediscover the joy of salvation — and the freedom of trusting a God who is always good. Amen.
God Loves You!
~ Fr. Neil