Liturgical Study - First Sunday of Advent - Novus Ordo - Year A -2/22/2026

THEME — The New Adam in the Desert: Obedience Wins Where Disobedience Failed

READINGS

• First Reading: Genesis 2:7–9; 3:1–7

• Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51

• Second Reading: Romans 5:12–19

• Gospel: Matthew 4:1–11

1. FIRST READING — Genesis: Anatomy of the Fall

The liturgy begins in the garden — not the garden of paradise, but the garden of rupture. Eve’s encounter with the serpent is structured around three movements:

1. Distrust of God’s word

2. Self-interpretation of reality

3. Grasping autonomy at the cost of communion

This reflects a classic insight of St. Thomas Aquinas: sin begins when the intellect is darkened and the will consents to a good detached from divine order (ST I–II, q.74, a.1).¹ The Fall is not mythic; it is diagnostic. The Catechism emphasizes that original sin wounded human freedom, weakening integrity and subjecting man to ignorance, suffering, and death.² Lent places this narrative before us not to shame us, but to diagnose the root of every temptation: a will oriented toward self over God.

2. RESPONSORIAL PSALM — Psalm 51: The Language of the Penitent

“Have mercy on me, O God… purify me with hyssop.”

Psalm 51 (the Miserere) gives voice to the soul that has tasted its own rupture. This psalm embodies the contrition that precedes reform. As Aquinas teaches, true contrition arises from charity — sorrow because we have offended Love itself — not merely fear of punishment (ST III, q.85).³ This penitential psalm does more than ask for pardon; it restores a wounded orientation to God. Before Lent invites us to do anything, it invites us to know ourselves honestly as sinners in need of mercy.

3. SECOND READING — Romans 5: The Two Adams

St. Paul makes one of the most succinct theological contrasts in Scripture:

Through one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners…
Through one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.

Here the Church presses a truth central to Lenten spirituality: salvation history is not linear moral improvement. It is recapitulation under Christ. Adam’s fall was universal. Christ’s obedience is universal in its salvific reach. As the Catechism affirms, Christ is the definitive answer to the human condition — He “comes to meet man.”⁴

Thomistically, Christ’s obedience is meritorious because He acts in the person of the Word united to human nature (ST III, q.48).⁵ For Lent, this means our struggle is not to contrive righteousness, but to participate in Christ’s obedience by grace.

4. GOSPEL — Matthew 4:1–11: Victory Through Obedience

In the desert, Christ confronts temptation with Scripture, not self-assertion. Each temptation corresponds to a dimension of broken humanity:

• Bread (bodily appetite)

• Spectacle (the vanity of salvation on our terms)

• Power (dominion without the Cross)

Christ responds each time with Deuteronomy — the Word of God as authority. This is not moralism. This is obedience incarnate.

Aquinas explains that Christ permitted temptation to teach us how to conquer by not consenting (ST III, q.41).⁶ As Pope St. John Paul II taught: Lent is the season to rediscover the primacy of the interior life formed by grace.⁷

5. THEOLOGICAL SYNTHESIS — Lent as Recapitulation

The readings proceed with elegant precision:

• Genesis diagnoses the fundamental disorder.

• Psalm 51 trains the soul in honest repentance.

• Romans reveals the solution through Christ’s obedience.

• Matthew places before us the pattern of victory in Christ.

Lent is not about self-improvement. It is about participating in the obedience of the New Adam.

6. PRACTICAL APPLICATION — The Desert Engages the Soul

This Sunday invites questions that resistance alone cannot answer:

• Do I ask God to purify desires, or merely to alleviate discomfort?

• Do I approach Scripture as authority or as ornament?

• Do I look for salvation on my terms or on God’s terms?

Lent calls us to the discipline of obedience — in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — not as formulae, but as interior conformity to Christ.

ENDNOTES

1. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.74, a.1 — on the nature of sin.

2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§402–403 — on original sin.

3. St. Thomas Aquinas, ST III, q.85 — on contrition and charity.

4. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §142 — on Christ’s encounter with man.

5. St. Thomas Aquinas, ST III, q.48 — on the merit of Christ’s obedience.

6. ST III, q.41 — on Christ’s temptation and victory.

7. Pope St. John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope — reflections on Lent and interior life.