A Guide to the Bible by Fuentes (Four Courts Press),
Sharing Our Biblical Story by Russell for background information. Quotations from The Faith of the Early Fathers (3 volumes) by Jergens and Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (many volumes) edited by Odum.
When we follow Christ’s call to take up our crosses and follow Him, we commit ourselves to be His witnesses to carry His Gospel message of salvation to the world despite any hardships we might endure. We can only fulfill our mission if we remember to trust in God as our protector and deliverer from every obstacle we might face. It isn’t the temporal deliverance that should be our concern, but the eternal deliverance Jesus has promised those who are His faithful witnesses.
In the First Reading, the 6th century BC prophet Jeremiah confesses his fears in his mission as God’s emissary to the nation of Judah. He is faithful in delivering God’s messages of repentance and judgment to the covenant people. However, he is opposed and rejected by his countrymen, and even his friends ridiculed him. Despite his hardships and sorrows, Jeremiah writes that he continues to praise Yahweh, who is his mighty champion, and he trusts in God’s justice.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul addresses the origin of sin and death and the effect the first man’s (Adam) sin had on all humanity. Adam was our human father, and as a consequence of his rebellion against God, we have inherited physical death and a ruptured relationship with our Divine Father just as we inherit our other genes and traits of human inheritance. Through our first parents, we are born physically alive but spiritually separated from God. We inherited the tendency to sin, which causes the life-long struggle to resist Satan and the temptation to yield to wrongdoing. Jesus is the second Adam, who frees us from bondage to sin in the Sacrament of Baptism when we are spiritually reborn as children in the family of God.
So, how did Adam prefigure Jesus of Nazareth? In 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, St. Paul writes that Jesus is the “second Adam” whose obedience and sacrificial death on the cross undo Adam’s disobedience. Jesus, the Second Adam, triumphed over the same temptations to which the first Adam fell into sin. St. John identified these temptations as the lusts of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life in 1 John 2:16 (see CCC# 411 & 504).
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him
The First Adam: Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees
Second Adam = Jesus of Nazareth: Then the devil said to Him
the lust of the flesh: disordered bodily desires
The woman saw the tree was good to eat
tell this stone to turn into a loaf
the lust of the eyes: disordered desires of the eyes
and pleasing to the eye,and
the devil … showed Him all the kingdoms of the world
the pride of life: pride in possession
that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give.
If you are the Son …throw Yourself down from here
15 There is no comparison between the free gift and the offense. If death came to many through the offense of one man, how much greater an effect the grace of God has had, coming to so many and so plentifully as a free gift through the one man Jesus Christ!
ADAM AND CHRIST ALIKE
ADAM AND CHRIST UNALIKE
Both Adam and Christ affected the whole human race
Sin and death came from Adam while righteousness and life came from Christ
Both endured the temptation of Satan
Adam failed, and Christ was victorious
Through both Adam and Christ, humanity receives an “inheritance.”
Through Adam’s failure, humanity inherits death, original sin and personal sin becomes a plague on humanity. Through Christ’s victory, humanity inherits adoption into God’s family and the promise of eternal life.
Both were human men
Jesus was both human and divine
Both the acts of Adam and Jesus invoke a divine verdict.
Satan stood behind the act of Adam while the grace of God stood behind Christ; the verdict behind Adam’s act is judgment while the verdict behind Jesus’ is acquittal.
Both Adam and Jesus exercised their free will.
Adam willingly fell from grace, and Jesus willingly laid down His life in sacrifice for all humanity.
Both were born into the world as sinless and immortal beings.
Adam lost his immortality when he fell from grace. Jesus remained pure and sinless, and through His sacrifice and Resurrection has made God’s gift of immortality once again available to humanity.
It is in the Sacrament of Baptism that elevates you from being a fallen child of Adam to being supernaturally infused with the life of the Most Holy Trinity in a spiritual rebirth as a child in the family of God!
Jesus Urges His Disciples to have Courage when faced with Persecution
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus commands His disciples not to be afraid. He urges them not to keep His teachings about His Kingdom to themselves. The message of the good news of the Kingdom of the Messiah is to be a public proclamation and not the valued secret of a few. Jesus warns that salvation is only through Him, and acknowledging Him as Savior and Lord by proclaiming our belief in Him to others is a condition of our discipleship.
If you acknowledge your belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior, it is His solemn promise that He will stand as your Advocate before God the Father’s throne of judgment when your earthly life comes to an end. It is then that you will receive Divine Judgment according to your faith demonstrated by your good deeds in His name. You can risk being fearless in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ because what is at stake is your place in eternity.
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