1st Sunday of Lent

 Who is at the centre of human history? The first human being, who was capable, unlike the animals, of  self-transcendence and moral action, and chose to commit the first sin? Or, is it Jesus of Nazareth who, born of a woman and subject to all the limitations of human life did not sin? Being put to death, innocent though he was, Jesus broke the chains of sin and death to reveal God's power over what was thought to be the destiny of the human race - inevitable and universal annihilation. St Paul describes in the Second Reading how Jesus reversed the transgression of the first Adam and by free gift handed us salvation. In his first letter to the Corinthians he points out: "Thus it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living being'; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust so those who are of dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven." (1 Cor 15: 45-49) Lent is a time to dust of our earthly inclinations and look to prioritize the heavenly so that we may be conformed more truly to Christ.