Christ the Cornerstone

Obedience is the key to freedom and joy

In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. (Rom 5:18).

Lent is sometimes portrayed as a season of gloom. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of this penitential time.

It’s true that during Lent we pay special attention to the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, but our objective is not to accent the negative aspects of life but, rather, to prepare ourselves for the joy that will come when sin and death are overcome by “one righteous act,” the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.

Lent is a time when we discipline ourselves. This is analogous to spring training or a rigorous rehearsal before an important event. During Lent, we prepare ourselves spiritually, and we train our minds, hearts and bodies to live as Christ lived—unselfishly, in loving service to others.

The Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Lent (Mt 4:1-11) tells us the story of Jesus’ temptations by Satan. St. Matthew tells us that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and afterward, he was hungry. The devil tries to take advantage of his weakened condition, but he is unsuccessful. Jesus remains faithful to his mission, which is to do the will of his Father no matter what it costs him personally. His experience in the desert is a powerful foreshadowing of the obedience unto death that will bring about our salvation.

The second reading for the First Sunday of Lent (Rom 5:12-19) reminds us that sin and death entered the world because of the disobedience of Adam, and that our first parents’ free decision to do what God had forbidden had dire consequences for them and for the entire human race.

St. Paul teaches that the only way that the effects of this fatal disobedience could be overcome was through an act of righteous obedience performed by God’s only Son in the face of the all-too-human temptation to set aside his mission and do what was comfortable rather than to sacrifice himself for us on the Cross.

The temptations described to us in this Sunday’s Gospel show Satan trying to convince Jesus to give in to his hunger and weakness, to take advantage of his unique identity as the Son of God, and to betray his intimate relationship to the One God who alone deserves to be worshipped.

By refusing to accept the lies that Satan tells about himself and about the world that he claims to control, Jesus prepares himself for the even greater temptations that will come in the garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. Jesus resists every temptation—in the desert and during his passion and death—to abandon his commitment to the redemptive mission given to him by his Father. This “righteous act” is what decisively overcomes the horrors of sin and death.

As St. Paul tells us, the obedience of Jesus to the will of his Father—and to his redemptive mission—is what sets us free. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).

Obedience, then, is the key to freedom and joy. It is Jesus’ act of unselfish commitment to the good of others that breaks open the prison that the original sin of Adam condemned us to occupy. “Through one man sin ­entered the world,” St. Paul writes, “and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned” (Rom 5:12).

As we learn in Sunday’s first reading (Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7), our sinful condition began with an act of disobedience. Our first parents chose to do their own will rather than God’s will. Their profoundly self-centered act of defiance created a massive breach in the order of the universe. Afterward, nothing was exactly the way God intended it to be. Only an equally powerful act of unselfish conformity to the will of God could restore the world, and the people who occupy it, to sanity.

Lent celebrates this great truth of our redemption. It’s true that we use this holy time of year to discipline ourselves spiritually and physically, but we do so in positive anticipation of the joy that we will receive on the great feast of Easter.

Let’s be joyful, not gloomy, as we pray, fast, and give alms during Lent. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19). †