First Sunday of Lent—Romans 5:12-19

Now that we are in the season of Lent, you might notice that the connections between the readings have changed. Throughout Ordinary Time, we work sequentially through one specific Gospel, with the First Reading being an Old Testament passage that is in harmony with or directly points toward that Gospel. The Second Reading comes from a sequential reading of New Testament epistle. Now that we are in Lent, The Church gives us three readings designed to help instruct catechumens, those who are entering the Church. The First Readings will highlight major events throughout salvation history. The Gospels are going to focus on events in the life of Jesus that are important for initiation into the Church. The Second Readings will form a bridge between the two by focusing on the great Lenten themes of sin and forgiveness, and those will be the focus of this column throughout Lent.

This week’s reading from Romans highlights an important theme: a lack of fairness when it comes to sin. I’ve heard many people say it’s not fair that Adam’s sin affected all of us. Because of one man’s sin, we all inherit original sin (which is washed away in Baptism), we all suffer from concupiscence (the attraction to wrong things), and we all will experience natural death. That doesn’t seem fair. But look at how unfair God really is to us. Through one righteous act, God gives all of us the possibility of forgiveness and eternal life! That’s not fair, and praise be to God for this lack of fairness!

A few verses before this reading starts, Saint Paul had just highlighted this absurd lack of fairness. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). While we were yet sinners, while our backs were turned to God out of selfishness, while God no longer lived inside us, God became man and died for us, for me. None of us had done anything to deserve it. We hadn’t even asked for it. Completely unfair! In the ultimate helicopter-parent move, God swoops in and fixes what we could never fix ourselves. Through one righteous act.

This gives us a twofold glimpse into the heart of God. On the one hand, it shows that I am in a completely different category of being than God is. I cannot fix my own sins any more than I cause myself to exist. God is utterly different from me. On the other hand, even though God is so different from me, yet he chooses to be so unfair to me and offer me forgiveness and eternal life when I don’t deserve it at all. That’s who God is. He draws close to me and offers me something I could never attain on my own. This Lent is an invitation to draw closer to the heart of God who is utterly different from me and yet wants to be near me.