THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her Doctrine and Morals

First Sunday of Lent

18 February 20244

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Dear Friends,

The following is an excerpt from St. John Chrysostom:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Then! When? After the Descent of the Holy Spirit. After the Voice speaking from above had said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mt. iii. 17). And since He did everything in order to teach us, and suffered everything for the same reason, so here also He willed to be led by the Spirit into the desert, to meet the devil in combat, and so that no one should be shocked if, after receiving Baptism, he suffers even severer temptations: as though something strange had happened; but that he may learn to stand firm and endure with fortitude what happens according to the ordinary rule of our life.

This is the reason you received arms: not to stand at ease but to fight. And God will not prevent temptations from rushing against you. And this, first, that you may learn how stronger you are now than before. Then, that you learn prudence; so as not to be overbold because of the greatness of the gifts you have received: for temptation will steady you. Thirdly, so that the evil demon, who is uncertain whether you have renounced him or not, may not be left in doubt, through this test of temptation, that you have abandoned him and wholly renounced him. Fourthly, that you may become stronger and more tempered than steel. And fifthly, that you may receive a kind of indication of how precious the treasure is you have been given. For the devil would not have attacked you had he not seen you now held in honor. Because of this, he attacked Adam because he saw he was given great dignity. For this reason, he attacked Job because he saw him raised up and honored by the God of all. It was because of this that He Himself says: Pray that ye enter not into temptation (Mt. xxvi:41)

For this reason, the Evangelist speaks of Jesus as not going but as being led, and this was according to the design of our salvation, implying that we are not as it were to leap into temptation, but if we are led there, to stand firm against it. And consider where it was the Spirit led Jesus. Not into a city, nor into the marketplace, but into the desert. For since He wished to attract the evil spirit, He gives him occasion, not alone from his hunger, but also from the place. For then, especially, will the devil attack us when he sees us alone and separated from each other. It was in this way that he tempted the woman in the beginning, approaching as she was alone and her husband absent. For when he sees us in the company of others and united, he does not dare attack us. For this special reason, we should come frequently together so that it shall be more difficult for the devil to attack us.

The devil, therefore, finds Him in the desert, in a pathless wilderness. For that, it was a wilderness Saint Mark conveys to us by the words: And he was with beasts. Consider with what craft and purpose of mind he draws near and the opportunity he is seeking. He draws near to a Person who is not now fasting but enduring hunger. He fasts that you may learn how efficacious fasting is, and what a weapon it is against the devil and that after our Baptism, we should give ourselves not to pleasures, not to drunkenness, not to the delights of the table, but to fasting. For this reason, He fasted, not because He needed to fast, but to teach us. For before we were purified through Baptism, the pleasures of the stomach led us to sin. It is as if a physician who has restored a sick man to health should command him to avoid what had brought on his sickness. So, likewise, He introduced fasting after baptism.

For it was the intemperance of the stomach that drove Adam from Paradise, provoked the Flood in the days of Noah, and sent thunderbolts against Sodom. And though they also committed fornication, yet the root of either chastisement was here; as Ezechias also tells us where he says: Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, fulness of bread, and abundance, and they were lifted up, and committed abominations (Ezech. xvi. 49). And the Jews also; it was when they were filled with the delights of food that they then fell into and committed their greatest sins.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!