From: Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus Fasts and is Tempted

[1] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. [2] And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry.
[3] And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command
these stones to become loaves of bread.” [4] But he answered, “It is written ‘Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God.’”

[5] Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the
temple, [6] and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for
it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ‘On their hands they will
bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”’

[7] Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your
God.”’ [8] Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; [9] and he said to him, “All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” [10] Then Jesus said
to him, “Begone, Satan! for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.”’ [11] Then the devil left him, and behold, angels
came and ministered to him.

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Commentary:

1. Jesus, our Savior, allowed himself to be tempted because he so chose; and
he did so out of love for us and to instruct us. However, since he was perfect,
he could only be tempted externally. Catholic teaching tells us that there are
three levels of temptation: 1) suggestion, that is, external temptation, which we
can undergo without committing any sin; 2) temptation, in which we take a cer-
tain delight, whether prolonged or not, even though we do not give clear consent;
this level of temptation has now become internal and there is some sinfulness in
it; 3) temptation to which we consent; this is always sinful, and, since it affects
the deepest part of the soul, it is definitely internal. By allowing himself to be
tempted, Jesus wanted to teach us how to fight and conquer our temptations.
We will do this by having trust in God and prayer, with the help of God’s grace
and by having fortitude.

Jesus’ temptations in the desert have a deep significance in salvation history.
All the most important people throughout sacred history were tempted—Adam
and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the chosen people themselves. Similarly with
Jesus. By rejecting the temptations of the devil, our Lord atones for the falls of
those who went before him and those who come after him. He is an example
for us in all the temptations we were subsequently to have, and also for the bat-
tles between the Church and the power of the devil. Later Jesus teaches us in
the Our Father to ask God to help us with his grace not to fall at the time of
temptation.

2. Before beginning his work as Messiah, that is, before promulgating the New
Law or New Testament, Jesus prepares himself by prayer and fasting in the de-
sert. Moses acted in the same way before proclaiming, in God’s name, the Old
Law on Mount Sinai (Ex 34:28). Elijah, too, journeyed for forty days in the desert
to fulfill the Law (1 Kings 19:5-8).

The Church follows Jesus’ footsteps by prescribing the yearly Lenten fast. We
should practise Lent each year with this spirit of piety. “It can be said that
Christ introduced the tradition of forty days fast into the Church’s liturgical year,
because he himself ‘fasted forty days and forty nights’ before beginning to teach.
By this Lenten fast the Church is in a certain sense called every year to follow
her Master and Lord if she wishes to preach his Gospel effectively” (John Paul
II, “General Audience”, 28 February 1979). In the same way, Jesus’ withdrawal
into the desert invites us to prepare ourselves by prayer and penance before
any important decision or action.

3. Jesus has fasted for forty days and forty nights. Naturally he is very hungry
and the devil makes use of this opportunity to tempt him. Our Lord rejects the
temptation and in doing so he uses a phrase from Deuteronomy (8:3). Although
he could do this miracle, he prefers to continue to trust his Father since perfor-
ming the miracle is not part of his plan of salvation. In return for this trust, angels
come and minister to him (Mt 4:11).

Miracles in the Bible are extraordinary and wonderful deeds done by God to
make his words or actions understood. They do not occur as isolated outpour-
rings of God’s power but rather as part of the work of Redemption. What the devil
proposes in this temptation would be for Jesus’ benefit only and therefore could
not form part of the plan for Redemption. This suggests that the devil, in tempting
him in this way, wanted to check if Jesus is the “Son of God”. For, although he
seems to know about the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, he cannot see
how the Son of God could be hungry. By the way he deals with the temptation,
Jesus teaches us that when we ask God for things we should not ask in the first
place for what we can obtain by our own efforts. Neither should we ask for what
is exclusively for our own convenience, but rather for what will help towards our
holiness or that of others.

4. Jesus’ reply is an act of trust in God’s fatherly providence. God led him into
the desert to prepare him for his messianic work, and now he will see to it that
Jesus does not die. This point is underlined by the fact that Jesus’ reply evokes
Deuteronomy 8:3, where the sons of Israel are reminded how Yahweh fed them
miraculously with manna in the desert. Therefore, in contrast to the Israelites
who were impatient when faced with hunger in the desert, Jesus trustingly leaves
his well-being to his Father’s providence. The words of Deuteronomy 8:3, repea-
ted here by Jesus, associate “bread” and “word” as having both come from the
mouth of God: God speaks and gives his Law; God speaks and makes manna
appear as food.

Also, manna is commonly used in the New Testament (see, for example, Jn 6:
32-58) and throughout Tradition as a symbol of the Eucharist.

The Second Vatican Council points out another interesting aspect of Jesus’
words when it proposes guidelines for international cooperation in economic mat-
ters: “In many instances there exists a pressing need to reassess economic and
social structures, but caution must be exercised with regard to proposed solutions
which may be untimely, especially those which offer material advantage while mili-
tating against man’s spiritual nature and advancement. For ‘man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”’ (”Gaudium
Et Spes”, 86).

5. Tradition suggests that this temptation occurred at the extreme southeast cor-
ner of the temple wall. At this point, the wall was at its highest, since the ground
beneath sloped away steeply to the Cedron river. Looking down from this point
one could easily get a feeling of vertigo.

St Gregory the Great (”In Evangelia Homiliae”, 16) says that if we consider how
our Lord allowed himself to be treated during his passion, it is not surprising that
he allowed the devil also to treat him as he did.

6. “Holy Scripture is good, but heresies arise through its not being understood
properly”(St Augustine, “In loann. Evang.”, 18, 1). Catholics should be on their
guard against arguments which, though they claim to be founded on Scripture,
are nevertheless untrue. As we can see in this passage of the Gospel, the devil
can also set himself up at times as an interpreter of Scripture, quoting it to suit
himself. Therefore, any interpretation which is not in line with the teaching
contained in the Tradition of the Church should be rejected.

The error proposed by a heresy normally consists in stressing certain passages
to the exclusion of others, interpreting them at will, losing sight of the unity that
exists in Scripture and the fact that the faith is all of a piece.

7. Jesus rejects the second temptation as he did the first; to do otherwise would
have been to tempt God. In rejecting it, he uses a phrase from Deuteronomy (6:
16): “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test”. In this way he alludes also
to the passage in Exodus where the Israelites demand a miracle of Moses. The
latter replies, “Why do you put the Lord to the proof?” (Ex 17:2).

To tempt God is the complete opposite of having trust in him. It means presump-
tuously putting ourselves in the way of an unnecessary danger, expecting God
to help us by an exceptional use of his power. We would also tempt him if, by
our unbelief and arrogance, we were to ask him for signs or proof. The very first
lesson from this passage of the Gospel is that if ever a person were to ask or
demand extraordinary proofs or signs from God, he would clearly be tempting
him.

8-10. The third temptation is the most pseudo-messianic of the three: Jesus is
urged to appropriate to himself the role of an earthly messianic king of the type
so widely expected at the time. Our Lord’s vigorous reply, “Begone, Satan!” is
an uncompromising rejection of an earthly messianism—an attempt to reduce
his transcendent, God-given mission to a purely human and political use. By
his attitude, Jesus, as it were, rectifies and makes amends for the worldly views
of the people of Israel. And, for the same reason, it is a warning to the Church,
God’s true Israel, to remain faithful to its God-given mission of salvation in the
world. The Church’s pastors should be on the alert and not allow themselves to
be deceived by this temptation of the devil.

“We should learn from Jesus ‘ attitude in these trials. During his life on earth he
did not even want the glory that belonged to him. Though he had the right to be
treated as God, he took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Phil 2:6-7). And so
the Christian knows that all glory is due to God and that he must not make use
of the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or
human ambitions.

“We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in per-
fect balance with the greatness of his unique mission as the beloved Son of God
who takes flesh to save men [...]. And the Christian, who, following Christ, has
this attitude of complete adoration of the Father, also experiences our Lord’s lo-
ving care: ‘because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him,
because he knows my name’ (Ps 90:14)” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”,
62).

11. If we struggle constantly, we will attain victory. And nobody is crowned with-
out having first conquered: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown
of life” (Rev 2:10). By coming to minister to Jesus after he rejects the temptations,
the angels teach us the interior joy given by God to the person who fights energe-
tically against the temptation of the devil. God has given us also powerful defen-
ders against such temptations—our guardian angels, on whose aid we should call.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Violet.

First reading
Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7 ©

The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.

Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ The woman answered the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, “You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death.” ‘ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.’ The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 50(51):3-6,12-14,17 ©