From Adam’s sin to Christ’s victory: Gen 3, Rom 5, and temptations in Matt 4

**I. The First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9.3:1-7**

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen 2:7). The human being becomes alive by God’s breath, not through any inherent nature. Placed in the garden, he had access to all trees except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent, the most cunning of all animals, questions the woman: “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Gen 3:1). The question already distorts God’s command; God had forbidden only one tree. The serpent proceeds: “You will not die. God knows that when you eat, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods” (vv. 4-5). Seduction consists of three elements: the promise of impunity, the suspicion that God is withholding something good, and the offer of autonomy. The woman saw that the tree was good for eating, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom (v. 6). The fall occurs through the eyes before the hands. They ate, their eyes were opened, they realized they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together. Paradise was lost not in transgression but in the breach of trust: they preferred their own judgment to God’s.

**II. The Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19**

Paul interprets Genesis 3 through the light of Christ. “As sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in turn death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom 5:12). Adam is not just an individual; he represents the entire human race. His choice affected us all. But Paul does not stop at diagnosis: “For if, through one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, much more, through the obedience of one, many will be made righteous” (v. 19). The contrast is asymmetrical: Adam’s sin brought death, but Christ’s gift brings abundant life. Paul concludes: “Just as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (v. 19). Lent is the time to walk this contrast: to recognize our Adam-like patterns and open ourselves to Christ’s pattern.

**III. The Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11**

Jesus, after being baptized by John in the Jordan, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days of temptation (Mt 4:2). During this time, he faced three temptations: hunger, power, and glory. In each, Jesus responds with a quote from Scripture, using the Word of God as his shield against Satan’s deceptions. By resisting these temptations, Jesus demonstrates his complete submission to God the Father and his commitment to carry out his mission.

Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Forty days and forty nights of fasting: a recapitulation of Israel’s forty years in the desert, but with a different outcome. The first temptation: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread” (Mt 4:3). Jesus responds: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (v.4, Dt 8:3). The temptation for material sustenance as the ultimate criterion of life is rejected by faithfulness to the Word. The second temptation: the devil takes him to the highest point of the temple and suggests he throw himself, citing Psalm 91. Jesus responds: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (v.7, Dt 6:16). God is not an instrument for demonstration. The third temptation: all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for a prostration. Jesus replies: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him alone” (v.10, Dt 6:13). In each temptation, the devil offers something that seems good: bread, security, power. In each temptation, Jesus refuses the apparent good in favor of real good: faithfulness to the Father. Angels approached and served him (v.11).

IV. Mary and the New Eve

Genesis 3:15 records the promise of enmity between the serpent and the woman, between her offspring and the serpent’s. Christian tradition has seen this verse as the protoevangelium, the first announcement of redemption: the woman and her descendants will conquer the serpent. Mary is the new Eve: where Eve yielded to temptation, Mary responded with total faithfulness in the ‘fiat’. Where Eve sought to be like God through disobedience, Mary chose to be a servant of the Lord through obedience. Romans 5 states that where sin abounded, grace superabounded. Mary is the creature in whom this superabundance of grace is most visible: filled with grace from the first moment, not because she did not need redemption, but because Christ’s redemption reached her uniquely and prematurely. Matthew 4 shows Jesus conquering each temptation with God’s Word. Mary lived similarly: there is no moment in the Gospel where Mary prefers her judgment to that of God. Lent invites the disciple to learn from Christ and, like Mary, to trust in God more than himself, to choose the Word when the fruit seems appealing, to worship the Lord and serve him alone.