I have a confession to make… I am a sinner. Anyone else? Great, good to see we are all in good company then.

We kick off our First Sunday of Lent with readings that focus on the fact that, yes, we all live under the condition of sin. We begin this way because the goal of Lent is to desire more deeply to overcome the ways that the condition of sin affects all of us.

We first hear from the Book of Genesis and what is popularly called the story of “the fall,” which describes the condition of sin.

Some people get caught up in reading Genesis as if it were a science or history book, but it’s not. Think of it more as a story that uses the language of symbols and myths to describe spiritual truths, which is a different type of language than that of modern science. To read Genesis literally would only make us run into contradictions with what science tells us about the creation of the universe and the development of the human species, and that’s not the point.

Even the Apostle Paul, who himself is a pre-scientific person, does not focus on the idea that Adam is the origin of the human species. Instead, he describes Adam as “the type of the one who was to come.” He draws a parallel between Adam and Jesus.

Adam represents a humanity united by the condition of sin. Jesus represents a humanity united in the image of God. Think of Adam as the past identity of the human being, and Jesus as the restored identity of the human person that leads us toward the future. And again, that restored identity is centered on being created in the image of God.

What is the image of God? At the start of every Mass, the priest greets you saying, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” We call upon God as Father and Son in the communion of the Holy Spirit. If the image of God is Trinity, communion, then that means we are created for communion. We are all going up together, or we are all going down together. If I go down, I am dragging you with me!

Sin, then, keeps us from realizing ourselves as men and women created together in the divine image. That is what the temptation of Adam and Eve in Genesis is describing today. The original temptation has to do with the breaking apart of relationships: there is a break in our relationship with God, with each other, and with ourselves.

Our broken relationship with God makes prayer difficult. Any of you experienced difficulty in prayer? All of a sudden, the voice of God begins to be drowned out by all the noise competing to give us meaning and direction.

Our broken relationship with humanity makes it difficult to work together without falling into jealousy, rivalry, and competition. You ever felt envious of someone else? Instead of working for each other, we start working against each other to see who will come out on top.

Our broken relationship with ourselves makes it difficult to live fully integrated lives. We subject our bodies to stress and bad habits. Any of you ever struggled with a vice? To survive, some hide, others become tyrants, others pretend to be someone they are not.

Yes, we can all identify with sin. We all experience brokenness in relationship.

But then comes the Gospel, the Good News, which tells us that Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into temptation. The temptations of Jesus we heard today are an essential part of his mission. Jesus did not need to be tempted, for as fully divine and fully human he had the perfect will and did not fall, but he faces these temptations in the fullness of his humanity to place himself in solidarity with our experience of sin.

Immediately before this, Jesus goes to the Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus did not need baptism, but he accepts the baptism of sinners to place himself in solidarity with us.

Let’s look more closely at the temptations of Jesus, which are very unique to his personal mission as the Christ, the Messiah.

The temptations begin, “If you are the Son of God.” First, Jesus is tempted to use his relationship with God to meet his own needs. “If you are the Son of God, you can do whatever you want… no need to suffer, so if you are hungry, just tell these stones to become bread.” For Jesus, it is a temptation to avoid the suffering that is essential to his mission.

Jesus quotes the Book of Deuteronomy: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” He affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness to him, and his willingness to accept the suffering that his mission will bring.

Then Jesus is tempted to use his relationship with God to set himself apart from the people rather than being in solidarity with them. “If you are the Son of God, show how favored you are. Throw yourself off the roof of the temple, so that people can see the spectacular way that God will help you.” Jesus quotes Deuteronomy again. His mission is to bring us into relationship with God by being one of us, not to set himself apart from us.

Finally, Jesus is tempted to abandon his mission completely in the interest of power. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy a third time. His mission is to empower us to live as men and women created in the image of God, not to wield power over us.

Jesus responds to temptation with Scripture. If sin is the lie that I am not good enough, and Scripture is the truth of God revealed for us, then the best way to reject the lie is with Scripture. These three verses from only one book of the Bible gave him the strength to overcome temptation.

Use that in your own journey of faith. Hopefully there are some Bible verses you know by heart that you can call upon in moments of difficulty: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If God is for us, who can be against us? God works all things for the good of those who love him. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Instead of using God’s name in vain, instead of cursing your way through troubled times, invoke truth.

While Adam and Eve show our human weakness to fall into temptation, Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit and unites us to his Body, meaning you and I have received what we need in order to confront temptation not as Adam, but as Jesus himself. This is what we mean when we say that in baptism we are incorporated into Christ and freed from original sin.

It doesn’t mean we no longer sin. It doesn’t mean we no longer suffer. It doesn’t mean we are not tempted. But it does mean we now possess the supernatural strength given to us through the sacraments to overcome the lies that come with the condition of sin.

To wrap it up: Lent is a time to desire more deeply to overcome the ways that the condition of sin affects all of us, especially when it comes to our relationships.

Each of us will, in some way, be tempted to put our needs before the needs of others. We will be tempted to avoid suffering with and for others. Some might even be tempted to use the Gospel for their own profit.

Each of us will be tempted, in some way, to see ourselves as more special or more privileged than others, especially in a country plagued by racial and economic divides. We may even be tempted to use our prayer to ask God to protect us at the expense of others.

Each of us will be tempted, in some way, to control others for our own purposes rather than empowering them. Some leaders of the Church have fallen into patterns of abuse and manipulation.

These are all temptations you and I, as baptized Christians, will face. And so these are the very temptations Jesus had to face and overcome for us, so that we can respond as he did: to put the needs of others before our own, as Jesus did; to suffer for the good of others, as Jesus did; to place ourselves in solidarity with the struggles of others, as Jesus did; to empower others to grow by sharing our gifts with them, as Jesus did.

The temptation narratives are here on the First Sunday of Lent to assure us that Jesus is with us when we are tempted. Because Jesus is with us, we have the power to be faithful to our calling as men and women created in the image of God.

This Lent, focus on relationships. If you are angry at God, or God seems distant, or you are experiencing doubt, ask our Lord Jesus to reveal to you the heart of God the Father.

If you are struggling to love yourself, if you are hiding behind a mask, or are having a difficult time understanding your identity, ask our Lord Jesus to help you discover your identity as a child of God.

If there is a broken relationship with a spouse, a parent, a family member, coworker, or friend, or if you are having a hard time seeing a group of people as children of God because of the many issues we are facing as a society, ask our Lord Jesus to help you desire solidarity with them.

Ask, and you shall receive. So, ask to live united in the Holy Spirit, the fullness of life for which we were made.