The theme today is the universality of sin, and the corruption and death it brings into our lives. Its beginnings are symbolised in the image of the first man and woman. From them, Paul says, it spread through the whole human race. Except for Jesus Himself and His mother, there is no one who is free from its influence. There is no one of us who can claim, "I have never sinned."

Even Jesus Himself is touched by it as He, hungry after 40 days of fasting, is tempted by the Evil One. He, of course, resists. What is worth noticing in Jesus' case and in every case, is that sin always appears under the guise of some good, some pleasure. No one chooses evil because of its evil.

But if, as Paul tells us, through one man came sin, even more certainly there came through the one Man, Jesus, the outpouring of God's love ready to receive back even the most persistent sinner. Let us, on the one hand, turn to the merciful and compassionate Jesus in our own sinfulness and, on the other, imitate Him in our readiness to show compassion and forgiveness to others.