The First Sunday in Lent, 1 March 2020
The First Sunday in Lent, 1 March 2020 Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5:12-19 St. Matthew 4:1-11 Background: A Quotation to Think About During this Lententide, I shall devote this segment of the blog to quotations that might give depth and a reflective quality for the readings for this day. Elaine Pagels in her book, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent , muses on the theology of Saint Augustin and his thoughts on temptation and free will. What are your thoughts? “ The desire to master one’s will, far from expressing what Origen, Clement, and Chrysostom consider the true nature of rational beings, becomes for Augustine the great and fatal temptation: ‘The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is personal control over one’s own will’ (proprium voluntatis arbitrium). Augustine cannot resist reading that desire for self-government