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The Baptism and the Temptation of Jesus

Summary. — I. In coming to St. John to receive the baptism of penance, Christ Jesus accomplishes an act of profound humility. — II. Christ is glorified on coming forth from the waters of the Jordan; how this testimony of the Eternal Father at the outset of the Public Life characterises one of the aspects of Christ’s redeeming mission. — III. Directly after His baptism, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to encounter the assaults of the devil: reasons for this mystery. — IV. The Gospel narrative of the Temptation. — V. The grace that Christ has merited for us by this mystery : — to triumph over temptation by remaining united to the Incarnate Word. The promises of spiritual invuinerability set forth in the Psalm Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi. — VJ. Faith is, preeminently, the weapon of resistance. wn the different mysteries of Christ Jesus upon earth,

Eternal Wisdom has ordered events in such a way that the humiliations of the Incarnate Word are al- ways accompanied by a revelation of His Divinity. Christ thus appears to us in the truth of His Divine nature as likewise in the reality of His human condition.

The far-reaching reason of this heavenly dispensation is both to help and exercise our faith, the foundation of all spiritual life. The astonishing abasements into which love plunges Christ give faith its merit ; the manifestation of His Divine prerogatives gives faith its support.

The mysteries of the Birth and Childhood of Jesus are marked by these contrasts of shadow and light which make our faith “reasonable”, while leaving it free ; the Public Life will be full of them to the point that the Jews will dispute bitterly among themselves about the personality of Christ ; to some He will only appear as the son of an ar- tizan of Nazareth, while for others He can be none other _ than the One sent by the Most High, and announced by all _ the prophets, to enlighten and save the world.

We shall find this supernatural dispensation again in the events wherewith Christ, after the thirty years of His Hidden Life, enters upon His Public Life: namely, His Baptism by John the Precursor in the waters of the Jordan, and His Temptation in the desert.

Let us contemplate Jesus in these two mysteries so closely allied ; we shall see in them how wonderful are the decrees of Infinite Wisdom, and how far Christ, our Model, has gone before us in the way wherein we must follow Him in order to be like Him.

I

You know that God had appointed John, the son of Zachary and Elizabeth, as the Precursor charged to announce to the Jews the coming of the Incarnate Word.

After a life given up to austerity and when in about his thirtieth year, John, urged by divine inspiration, had begun his teaching upon the banks of the Jordan. All his teaching was summed up in these words: “ Do penance; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” +. To these urgent exhortations he joined baptism in the river, thereby to show his hearers the necessity of purifying their souls in order to render them less unworthy of the Saviour’s coming. This baptism was only conferred on those who acknowledged themselves to be sinners and confessed their faults.

Now, one day when the Precursor administered “ baptism for the remission of sins” ?, Christ Jesus, Whose hour had come to leave the obscurity of the Hidden Life and manifest the Divine secrets of the world, mingled with the multitude of sinners and came with them to receive from John the purifying ablution.

When we ponder on this thought that He Who thus proclaims Himself a sinner and voluntarily presents Himself to receive the baptism of penance, is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, before Whom the Angels veil their faces, singing, “ Holy, holy, holy” +, we are confounded at such a prodigious abasement.1

The Apostle tells us that Christ is “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners” ?, and here Jesus Himself comes asking baptism for the remission of sins ! What is this mystery °

It is that in all His states, the Word Incarnate fills a double office : that of the Son of God, in virtue of His Eternal generation, and that of the head of a fallen race whose nature He has taken, and this race He has come to redeem.

As Son of God, He can claim to sit on the right hand of His Father and enjoy the glory and splendour of heaven.

But as Head of fallen humanity, having taken flesh, guilty in the rest of the human race, although wholly pure in Him, In similitudinem carnis peccatt*, He can enter Heaven at the head of this mystical body only after having passed through the humiliations of His life and the sufferings of His Passion: Nonne haec oportuit pati Christum, et ita imtrare in gloriam suam * ?

Possessing the Divine nature, says St. Paul, Christ thought it not robbery to declare Himself equal to God in perfection ® ; but for us, for our salvation, He descended into the depths of humiliation ; and, on this account, the Father exalted Him, giving Him the name of Jesus which signifies our redemption ; in exalting His Son, the Father has raised us up together with Him to the heights of heaven : Consedere fecit [nos}| in caelestibus*. It is truly to prepare the way before us that Christ enters into heaven: Ubi praecursor pro nobis introivit Jesus".

However He will enter there only after having, by His Blood, paid off all our debt to Divine Justice : Per proprium sanguinem introivit... in sancta, aeterna redemptione inventa ®,

It is true that Christ comes to deliver us from the tyrannical slavery of the devil into whose power humanity had fallen in consequence of sin: Qui facit peccatum, servus est peccati* ; He comes to save us from the eternal punishment that Satan, as the minister of Divine justice, had power to inflict upon us : Ne forte tradat te judici, et judex tradat te minisiro ®.2

Now, the Incarnate Word, the Man-God, will only bring this redemption into effect by voluntarily substituting Himself for us sinners, making Himself answerable for our sin, to the point, as St. Paul says, that God accounted Him, as it were, a living sin: Eum qui non noverat peccatum, pro nobis peccatum fecit ®.

If He takes our iniquities upon Himself, He will also take upon Himself our chastisement. He is to undergo an incommensurable sum of abasements and humiliations.

Such is the eternal decree.

We now understand why, at the beginning of His public life, when about to manifest His redeeming mission, Jesus submits to an act of profound humility—to a rite whereby He is numbered among sinners.

See, in fact, how when John, enlightened from on high, recognises in Him the Son of God, of Whom he had said : “The same is He Who shall come after me... Who is preferred before me, the latchet of Whose shoe I am not worthy to lose’’*, he refuses with all his might to confer upon Christ the baptism of penance, “I ought to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me” ? Joannes autem prohibebat eum. But what does Christ reply ? “ Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfil all jusnice,” >.

What is this justice? It is the humiliation of the adorable Humanity of Jesus, which, in rendering supreme homage to Infinite Holiness, constitutes the full payment of all our debts towards Divine Justice. Jesus, just and innocent, takes the place of all our sinful race, Justus pro mjustis® ; and, by His immolation, He becomes “ the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world” ’, the “ propitiation for our sins and... for those of the whole world’’®. It is thus that He fulfils all justice.3

As we meditate on the deep meaning of these words of Jesus, let us humble ourselves with Him, let us acknowledge that we are sinners, and above all, let us renew the renunciation of sin made at our baptism.

The Precursor announced this baptism, which was to be superior to his own, since it was to be instituted by Christ in person : “I indeed baptize you in water unto penance, but He that shall come after me, is mightier than I... He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire” *. The Baptism of Jesus is outwardly a baptism of water, like that of John ; but at the same time that it is conferred, the Divine virtue of the Holy Spirit, Who is a spiritual fire, inwardly purifies and transforms the soul : Per lavacrum regenerationis, et renovationis Spiritus sancti ?.

Let us, then, often renew our renunciation of sin. You know that the “character” given in Baptism remains indelibly on the soul ; and when we repeat the promises made at the hour of our initiation, a new virtue springs from baptismal grace to strengthen our power of resistance against all that leads to sin :—the suggestions of the devil, and the seductions of the world and of the senses. It is thus that we can safeguard the life of grace within us.

By this, we likewise testify our lively gratitude to Christ Jesus for having taken upon Himself our iniquities so as to deliver us from them. “ Who loved me”, said St. Paul on recalling this mystery of infinite charity—‘‘ Who loved me, and delivered Himself for me”! May I live for Him, for His glory, and no longer for myself, no longer to satisfy my covetousness, my self-love, my pride, my ambition : Ut qui vivunt, jam non sibi vivant, sed ei, qui pro ipsis mortuus est !

II

“And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water ; and lo, the heavens were opened to Him : and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying :

1, Matth. m, 11 ; Marc. 1, 8 ; Luc. mi, 16.— 2. Tit. m, 5. — 3. Gal. 1, 20. — 4. II Cor. v, 15. a

This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” ?.

This mysterious scene is but another special application of the divine law which I pointed out at the beginning of this conference : whenever Christ undergoes humiliation, for us, He must be glorified.

Jesus stoops so low as to mingle with the multitude of sinners, and forthwith the heavens are opened to magnify Him ;—He asks for the baptism of penance, of reconciliation, and behold, the Spirit of Love testifies that He abides in Jesus with the plenitude of His gifts of grace ;— He acknowledges Himself worthy of the strokes of divine justice, and behold, the Father declares that He takes all His delight in Him : Humiliavit semetipsum... propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum’.

This glorification of Christ concerns not only His Person ; it has a very wide application tpon which I want to lay stress.

It is at this moment that the mission of Jesus, as One sent by God, is declared authentic. The Father’s testimony accredits, so to speak, His Son before the world, and hence this testimony relates to one of the characters of Christ’s work as regards ourselves.

The mission of Jesus has a double aspect : it bears at the same time the character of redemption and of sanctification. It is to redeem souls, and, this done, to infuse life into them. That is the whole work of the Saviour. These two elements are inseparable, but distinct.

We find the germ of them in the circumstances which marked Christ’s Baptism, the prelude to His public life.

We have just seen how, in coming to receive the baptism of penance, the Incarnate Word bears testimony to His office as Redeemer ; His work is to be achieved by the gift of Divine life which He confers upon us in virtue of the merits of His Passion and Death : Umigenitum misit Deus in mundum ut vivamus per eum*, God gave us His Son “that whosoever believeth in Him... may have life everlasting” : Ut ommis, qui credit in ipsum, NON PEREAT, —sed HABEAT VITAM aeternam *.

  1. Matth. m, 16-17; Marc. I, 10-11; Luc, m, 21-22. — 2. Philipp.n, 8-9. — 3. I Joan. Iv, 9. — 4. Joan. I, 15.

Christ in His Mysteries. 12

The source of eternal life is, in us, a light.

In heaven, it is the light of the Beatific Vision. In that light, we shall live by the very life of God : Quoniam apud te est fons vitae : et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen?*.

Here below, the source of our supernatural life is likewise a light, the light of faith. Faith is a participation in the knowledge that God has of Himself. This participation is communicated to the soul by the Incarnate Word ; it becomes for us a light which guides us in all our ways, and therefore it must quicken all our supernatural activity : Justus meus ex fide vivit?.

Now, the foundation of this faith is the testimony which God renders to His Son Jesus : “ This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased ”.

Christ is solemnly presented to the world as One sent by the Father. All that He says will be the echo of that eternal truth which He ever contemplates in the bosom of the Father : Unigenitus Filius, qui est in sinu Patris, ipse enarravit ®. His doctrine will not be His own, but that of the Father Who sends Him‘? ; all that He hears, He will repeat ; and thus, at the last day, Jesus will be able to say to His Father : “I have glorified Thee on the earth ; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do”’®.

The teaching of the Incarnate Word has not produced in every soul the light which should be for them the principle of salvation and life. He is “the Light of the world” undoubtedly, but we must follow Him if we would not walk in darkness and if we would arrive at the eternal light which is the source of our life in heaven : Qui sequitur me, non ambulat in tenebris, sed habebit lumen vitae ® ; God only accepts those who accept His Son.

To hear with profit the word of Christ, we must be drawn by the Father : Omne, quod dat mihi Pater, ad me vemet ;, those whom the Father does not draw, do not hear the voice of the Word : Vos non auditis, quia ex Deo non estis*". And who are those whom the Father draws ? Those who acknowledge Jesus to be God’s own Son : omNIS qui credit quomam Jesus est Christus, ex Deo natus est ®.

L, PSxxxv,) 10, —— 92. Hebt. 3384 — is.) joan. ty 0o.— acre lps Vil, 16.— 5. Ibid. xv, 4.— 6. Ibid. viz, 12. — 7. Ibid. vim, 47. = 8. I Joan. Iv, 15.

This is why the public testimony given by the Father to Jesus after His Baptism constitutes both the point of departure of all the public life of Jesus, the Incarnate Word, Light of the world,—and the very basis of all Christian faith as well as of our sanctification.

Therefore, this mystery of the baptism of Jesus, which marks the beginning of His public life, contains, as it were, the summary of His whole mission here below.

By the humiliation which He willed to undergo in receiving this rite of penance “ for the remission of sins”, —presage of His baptism of blood upon the Cross,—Christ fulfils all justice”. He renders to His Father’s infinite perfections, outraged by sin, the supreme homage of the humiliations whereby He effects our redemption.

In return, the heavens are opened ; the Eternal Father authentically introduces His Son to the world ; the glorious spendour that this Divine testimony reveals, announces the mission of the enlightening of souls which

~the Word-made-Flesh is about to inaugurate ; the Holy

Spirit rests upon Him to show the plenitude of gifts that adorn His blessed soul and, at the same time, to symbolize the unction of grace that Christ is to communicate to the world.

Baptism, with faith in Jesus Christ, has become for us the Sacrament of Divine adoption and Christian initiation.

It is in the name of the Holy Trinity that it is conferred upon us, the Trinity that was revealed to us upon the banks of the Jordan.

Sanctified by contact with the Humanity of Jesus, and united to “ the Word of truth?, the water has the virtue of washing away the sins of those who detest their faults and declare their faith in the Divinity of Christ ; it is the “baptism ”, not only of water “ for the remission of sins”, but of the Spirit Who alone can “renew the face of the earth” ?. From being “ children of wrath” * as we were, it makes us children of God, so that we are henceforward with Jesus, although in a lesser measure, the objects of the Heavenly Father’s delight.4

St. Paul says that we have by baptism put off the old man (descended from Adam) with the works of death, and have put on the new man created in justice and truth (the soul regenerated by the Word and the Holy Spirit) who is renewed unceasingly “according to the image of Him that created him” ?.

In the same way as baptism constituted for Christ the summary of all His mission, at once redeeming and sanctifying,—so baptism contains for us in germ the whole development of the Christian life with its double aspect of “death to sin” and of “life unto God” ?.

So true is it, according to the Apostle’s words, that “as many... as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ” * ; so true is it that we make only one with Jesus in all His mysteries.

O happy state of faithful Christians ! O foolish blindness of those who forget their baptismal promises! O terrifying destiny of those who tread them underfoot !...

“For” said the Precursor to the Jews, “now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire...” He says again: “There shall come one mightier than I,... Whose fan is in His hand, and He will purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into His barn ; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire’... The Father loveth the Son, and He hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth in the Son (with a practical faith) hath life everlasting ; but He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life : but the wrath of God abideth on: Tim ">.

III

Scarcely was Jesus baptised, the Gospel tells us, than He was led by the Spirit into the desert. The sacred writers use different expressions to signify the action of the Holy Spirit. According to St. Mark, Jesus was “driven” ®. What does this term signify if not the vehemence of the5

Holy Spirit over the soul of Christ ? And to what end was He thus driven into the desert? Ut tentaretur a diabolo : “to be tempted by the devil”. That is the testimony of the Gospel itself.

Is not this an extraordinary thing ? The Father has just proclaimed that Jesus is His beloved Son, the object of His complacency ; the Spirit of Love rests upon Him and behold “immediately” : statim, this Spirit drives Him into the desert there to be exposed to the suggestions of the devil. What a mystery! What, then, can such an extraordinary episode signify in the life of Christ ? Why does it thus occur at the opening of His Public Life ?

In order to understand the depth of this mystery, and before commenting on the Gospel account of it, we must first of all recall the place that temptation holds in our spiritual life.

The Divine perfections exact that every rational, free creature should be subjected to trial before being admitted to enjoy future beatitude. It is needful that, standing in God’s sight, this creature should be placed in the face of trial and should freely renounce all satisfaction of self in order to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and to obey His law. God’s sanctity and justice demand this homage.

This choice, glorious for the Infinite Being, is for us the foundation of that merit which the Lord rewards with heavenly beatitude. The Council of Trent has declared that it is God Who saves us, but in such a way that salvation shall be at the same time a gift of His mercy and the reward of our merits’. Eternal life will be our recompense because, having had to choose, we resisted temp- | tation in order to cleave to God ; undergoing trial, we remained faithful to the Divine Will. Gold is tried in the furnace; constancy in the midst of temptation reveals a soul worthy of God.

Such is the noble condition of every free creature.6

The angels were the first to be submitted to trial. Although we do not know exactly in what this trial consisted, we do know that it was of a nature corresponding to the condition of angelic beings.

Remember that the angels are exclusively spiritual beings. Their acts are not, like ours, measured by time. Moreover, these acts possess a power, a range and a depth such as no human act can attain’. Being pure spirits, the angels do not reason; with us, the extreme mobility of our imagination, this sensitive faculty joined to the corporal organism, presents to our choice a number of particular enjoyments of which the variety retards the action of our intelligence and will ; we pass from one enjoyment to another and perhaps we afterwards return to the one which we had at first decided to reject. It is not the same for the angel ; having an altogether spiritual nature, he knows no hesitation ; in him, the acts of intelligence and will bear a character of plenitude, of fixity and irrevocableness conferring upon these acts an incomparable strength ”.

No human existence, however prolonged it might be, could attain, by all its operations put together, the power, amplitude or intensity of the single act by which the angels had to fix their choice in the midst of trial.

This is why the fidelity of the good angels was so pleasing to God ; this is also why the sin of revolt of the rebellious spirits possessed a gravity which we cannot measure and of which we are incapable. Their depth of knowledge which permitted them to act in full light imbued this single sin with such malice that Divine justice had to punish it by an immediate sentence of eternal damnation.

For us, the acceptation of trial and resistance to temptation go on through our whole life here below. Daily we have to struggle against corrupting seductions, and to be patient in the contradictions willed or permitted by Providence : Milita est vita hominis super terram °.

But this gives us each day, too, a magnificent occasion of steadfast fidelity to God. A soul who, from the hour when she first takes consciousness of her actions until the moment of being separated from the body, should never have given way to a deliberate fault ; who, placed between God and temptation capable of turning her away from Him, should always have freely chosen the Divine will, that soul would give immense glory to God. Why is this ? Because in each of her acts, she would have proclaimed that God alone is her Lord. Happy this soul “that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed ; and could do evil things, and hath not done them”?! For the Lord will reward her magnificently : “ Well done, good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord...” ?!7

The first man was subjected to trial. He faltered, he fell away, he preferred the creature and his own satisfaction to God. He drew all his race into his rebellion, his fall and his chastisement. ;

That is why it was necessary that the second Adam, Who represented all the predestined, should act in a directly contrary manner. In His adorable wisdom, God the Father willed that Christ Jesus, our Head and our Model, should be placed in the face of temptation, and, by His free choice, come forth victorious in order to teach us to do the same. This is one of the reasons of this mystery.

There is a deeper reason, a reason that intimately links this mystery with that of baptism.

What, in fact, did Jesus say to the Precursor when the latter refused to fulfil his ministry of penance towards Christ ? “ Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfil all justice” . This justice, as we have seen, consisted in Jesus undergoing the sum of expiation decreed by His Father for the redemption of the human race : Dare animam suam redemptionem pro multis. From the time of Adam’s sin, the human race was the slave of Satan, and it is from the hands of the Prince of darkness that Christ Jesus is to save it. ‘‘ For this purpose, the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil” : In hoc apparuit Filius Det, ut dissolvat opera diaboli®, This is why, as soon as He has received baptism by which He is marked as “the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world ” 1, and snatches all the flock from the power of the devil, the Word-made-Flesh enters. into the lists with “ the prince of this world”? ; this is why the Holy Spirit immediately drives Him into the desert, as the scape-goat was formerly driven out laden with all the sins of the people : Ut tentaretur a diabolo.8

IV

Let us now contemplate our Divine Captain in combat with the prince of the rebellious spirits.

We know that Jesus remained forty days and forty nights in the desert in the midst of the beasts, in complete solitude and in fasting ; this is the Gospel’s own testimony : Nihil manducavit in diebus illis®... Eratque cum bestis *.

To well understand this mystery of the temptation of Jesus, let us recall what I have so often said: namely, that Christ is like to us in all things, Debuit per ommia fratribus similart®. Now imagine to what a state of weakness a man would be reduced who allowed himself no nourishment for forty days. Our Lord did not will to work a miracle to prevent in Himself the effects of this fast ; therefore the Gospel relates that after this time, Jesus was hungry : Postea esuruit®. And assuredly after so prolonged a lapse of time, He must have been in a state of extreme exhaustion. We are about to see how the devil took occasion of this to tempt Him.

However, although sharing in our infirmities and weakness, Christ’s Sacred Humanity cannot know sin : Absque peccato” ; the soul of Christ is not subject to any ignorance, nor error, nor moral weakness.

Is there need to add that neither does He experience any of those disordered movements which in us are the results of original sin or of habits of sin? If, for us, Jesus has suffered hunger and languor, in Himself He remains the Saint of saints. What is the consequence of this doctrine ?9

That the temptation that Christ can undergo does not touch His soul and remains wholly exterior ; He can be tempted only by “ principalities and powers... the rulers of the world of this darkness... the spirits of wickedness ” ?.

Amongst these spirits, we may suppose that the one who tempted Christ was endowed with special power ; but however marvellous his intelligence, he did not known who Christ was. No creature can see God except in the Beatific Vision. The devil is deprived of that.

In the same way, he had not the key to the mystery of the union of the Divinity with the Humanity in Jesus. He certainly suspected something ; he did not forget the curse that had weighed upon him since God put an eternal enmity between him and the woman who was to crush his head, that is to say to destroy his power over souls ; he could not be ignorant of the prodigies that had been wrought since the Birth of Jesus. The account of the temptation clearly shows this. But his knowledge was uncertain. He wanted, in tempting Christ, to know, without any manner of doubt, if it were possible to triumph over Him, for at all events he held Him to be an extraordinary being.

Therefore, as the Gospel tells us, the tempter approaches Jesus : Et accedens tentator. And seeing Him in a state of exhaustion, he seeks to make Him fall into a sin of gluttony. Not a sin of great gluttony by presenting Christ with savoury food—the devil had too high an opinion of the One Whom he attacked to believe that He would succumb to a suggestion of that kind—but he represents to Jesus, faint with hunger, that if He be the Son of God He has the power of working a miracle to satisfy this hunger. Thereby he tries to urge Christ to advance the hour of His Father by performing a prodigy of which the end was altogether personal. “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones”—pointing out the stones lying at the feet of Jesus—“ be made bread”. And what does Jesus answer? Does He make known that He is the Son of God? No. Does He perform the miracle suggested by the devil? No. He contents Himself with replying in the words of Scripture : “ Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” +. Later, during His public life, when one day His Apostles will bring Him food, saying : “ Master, eat’, Rabbi, manduca, Christ will give a like reply : “ I have meat to eat, which you know not... My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me”?. This is what He gives the devil to understand. He will wait to satisfy His hunger until the Father comes to His aid ; He will not forestall the moment fixed by the Father in which to show forth His power ; when the Father speaks He will hear His voice.10

Seeing himself repulsed, the devil understands that he has before him, if not the Son of God, at least a being of great holiness. Thus he sets about employing a more dangerous weapon. He knows human nature wonderfully ; he knows that those who have attained a high degree of perfection and of union with God, are above the reach of the gross appetites of the senses, but can be seduced by more subtle suggestions of pride and presumption ; they can believe themselves to be better than others, and think that, even if they voluntarily expose themselves to danger, God owes them a quite special protection, on account of their fidelity. The devil, therefore, tries to tempt Christ in this way. Making use of his spiritual power, he transports Jesus upon the pinnacle of the temple and says to Him : “Tf Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written : That He hath given His angels charge over thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone”’*. If Jesus be the Son of God, what a wonderful sign of His messianic mission, what an evident proof of God being with Him, if He were to © appear from on high and thus descend in the midst of the multitude thronging the temple court! And to render his suggestion more seductive, the devil in his turn employs the divine word to support it. But Jesus replies, in a sovereign manner, with another sacred text : “It is written again : Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy Lord” *. This time again, the devil is defeated : the Word of God triumphs over his snares.11

The spirit of darkness endeavours to vanquish Christ in a last assault. Taking Him upon a high mountain, he shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, he displays before His eyes all their riches, splendour and glory. What a temptation for the ambition of one believing himself to be the Messias ! But a price has to be paid for this. This is only another stratagem of the evil spirit to learn at last who this One may be who resists him so powerfully. “ All this I will give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me”. You know the response of Jesus, and with what vigour He repulses the sacrilegious suggestion of the evil one : “‘ Begone, Satan, for it is written, the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve” ?.

The prince of darkness now knows himself to be entirely unmasked ; there is nothing left for him but to withdraw. However the Gospel says that the devil departed from Jesus only for a time: Usque ad tempus?. By this, the sacred writer indicates that, during the public life, the devil will make other attempts ; by his instruments, if not in person, he will pursue Our Lord without intermission ; during the Passion especially, he will, through the hands of the Pharisees, be bent upon the ruin of Jesus : Haec est hora vestra, et potestas tenebrarum*. Satan will urge them, and they will urge the multitude to demand that Jesus be crucified : Tolle, tolle, crucifige eum*. But we know that the Saviour’s death upon the Cross will be precisely the decisive stroke which will for ever overthrow the devil’s empire. So greatly does the Wisdom of God shine forth in all His works! Quwi salutem humani generis in ligno crucis constituisti... ut qui in ligno vincebat in ligno quoque vinceretur *.

The Gospel adds that “then the devil left Him ; and behold angels came and ministered to Him’’®. This was the sensible manifestation of the exaltation given by the Father to His Son, in reward for having stooped so low as to undergo in our name the attacks of the devil. The faithful angels appeared, and served Jesus with that bread which12

He awaited at the hour appointed by His Father’s providence.

Such. is the Gospel narrative of the Temptation of Jesus.

If the Christ, the Incarnate Word, the Son of God, willed to enter into combat with the evil spirit, shall we be astonished if the members of His Mystical Body must follow the same path? So many, even pious people, believe that temptation is a sign of reprobation. But most often it is the contrary ! Having become disciples.of Jesus through baptism, we cannot be above our Divine Master’. QUIA acceptus eras Deo, NECESSE FUIT ut tentatio probaret te? : “ Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee”. It is God Himself Who tells us so.

Yes, the devil can tempt us, and tempt us strongly, and tempt us just when we think that we are the most secure from his shafts :—at the hours of prayer, after Holy Communion ; yes, even at those blessed moments, he can whisper thoughts against faith, against hope, he can urge us to a spirit of independance and of revolt against the rights of God, he can raise up all evil passions in us. He can, —and he will not fail to do so.

Once more, do not let us be surprised ; never let us forget that Christ, our Model in all things, was tempted before us, and not only tempted, but touched by the spirit of darkness ; He permitted the devil to lay a hand upon His most holy Humanity.

Above all, do not let us forget that it was not only as the Son of God that Jesus overcame the devil, but likewise as Head of the Church ; in Him and by Him, we have triumphed and we triumph still over the suggestions of the gebepeluspirit >:

This is in fact the grace that the Saviour won for us by this mystery ; herein is to be found the source of our confidence in trials and temptations ; and it only remains for us to see how unshaken this confidence ought to be, and how, by our faith in Christ, we shall ever find the secret of victory.

  1. Cf. Matth. x, 24; Luc. v, 40; Joan. XIII, 16; Xv, 20.— 2. Tob, x,13.

— 3. Jusium quippe erat ut sic tentationes nostras suis tentationibus vincerct. S. Gregor. Homil, XVI in Evangel.

THE BAPTISM AND THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS 191 Vv

The grace that the Incarnate Word merited for us in undergoing temptation is the grace of strength to defeat the devil in our turn, to come forth victorious from the conflict through which we must necessarily pass before we are admitted to enjoy divine life in the blessedness of Heaven. Christ Jesus has merited that those who are united to Him shall share,—and share according to the measure of their union with Him,—in this impeccability.

We here approach the very centre of the mystery.

We see in the Gospel that Christ was impeccable, inaccessible to the evil of sin, to the least imperfection. But what is the source of this moral invulnerability ?

It is the fundamental truth that He is the very Son of God ; as the Second Person of the Trinity, He is infinite Holiness, and cannot succumb to evil.

However, if we examine the Humanity of Jesus in itself, we see that it is a humanity created like unto our own; union with the Divinity did not take away from it those weaknesses which are compatible with the state of Son of God. Christ suffers hunger, thirst. He is overcome with fatigue ; sleep weighs down His eyelids ; fear, sadness, weariness take real possession of His soul ;—and yet there is not the shadow of an imperfection in Him. If then the Humanity of Jesus, as such, enjoys impeccability, it is because it is strengthened in holiness in a marvellous way. Now, what is the means that God uses in order to render the blessed soul of Jesus inaccessible to moral evil, to sin, so as to establish it in impeccability °?

It is to place Him under the protection of the Most High, in adjutorio Aliissimi*; or according to the more significant rendering of the original text, “in the secret sanctuary of the Divinity” : Jn sanctuario secreto divinitatis. And what is this sanctuary ? It is the Beatific Vision.

As you know, the Beatific Vision is the blessed contemplation of God such as He is in Himself. They to whom this grace is granted can nevermore separate themselves from God, because they see that God is the Sovereign Good, and that no particular good, however vast it be, can be com-

LAPS EXCL pared to Him. Hence sin, which consists in turning away from the law of God, from His will, or, what comes to the same thing, in turning away from God Himself, to attach oneself to some good as seen in self or in the creature,— is rendered radically impossible. In this blessed state wherein the intellect contemplates the very Truth, there is no room for any ignorance, nor illusion, nor error ; and the will, cleaving to the absolute Good that contains the plenitude of all good, knows neither hesitation, nor falling away, nor defection of any kind. The soul that reaches this summit is, according to theological language, perfectly “ confirmed in grace”.

This confirmation in grace is a consequence of predestination ; it allows of different degrees measured by the perfection and extent of this predestination.

The Humanity of Jesus was predestinated to be united to the Eternal Word ; that is why the soul of Christ, from the first instant of its existence, possessed, as the privilege resulting from this union, as the “ connatural ”’ attribute, the Beatific Vision ; it was confirmed in grace in the highest degree, that is to say in essential and absolute impeccability. This is why we hear Our Lord, the Head of all the predestinated, offer this challenge to the Jews : “ Which of you shall convince me of sin” +? Likewise we hear Him say to His Apostles at the Last Supper : “I will not now speak many things with you. For the prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not anything” *. Even as Man, Christ Jesus is the Saint of saints : Tu solus sanctus, Jesu Christe * !

In heaven, the blessed have reached the perfect age of Christ * ; they have attained the measure of the divine gift : Secundum mensuram donationis Christi® ; they enjoy the beatific vision in the fulness of the grace bestowed upon them ; they participate in a perfect manner, each according to his degree, in the Divine Sonship of Jesus : that is why they remain, like Him, fixed for ever in sanctuario secreto divimtatis ; that is eternal impeccability.

Here below, it is not given to us to abide perfectly in13

‘this “ sanctuary of the Divinity ”. But what is it that takes the place of the Beatific Vision for us upon earth ? It is faith. Through faith, we have God ever present : Per fidem enim ambulamus*. This faith in the light of which we walk, is the source of our union with Jesus and the root of our perfection : Ambula coram me, et esto perfectus. In the measure whereby, through faith, we live in the contemplation of God, and remain united to Jesus Christ, in this same measure, we become invulnerable to temptation.

Already, upon earth, souls are to be met with who are so united to Jesus, so full of faith, that they are even now confirmed in grace. For example the Blessed Virgin was predestined to perfect exemption from sin, even from original sin ; that is a unique privilege : Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est’in te*. St. John the 'Precursor was sanctified from his mother’s womb, and the Fathers of the Church tell us that he was confirmed in divine grace. It was the same with the Apostles, after they had received the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

God offers to all a share in this confirmation in grace ; and this share is measured, as I have said, by our life of faith. A soul who, through faith, lives habitually in the contemplation of God, draws continually from this fountain of life: Quoniam apud te est fons vitae* ; she shares in Christ’s union with His Father : Ego in eis, et tu in me ; and hence also in the love that the Father bears towards His Son Jesus : Ut dilectio qua dilexisti me im ipsis sit, et ego in ipsis °.

This is why God takes such delight in such a soul ; He protects her ; He renders her, little by little, invulnerable. All her enemies may attack her ; a thousand shall fall at her side, and ten thousand at her right hand and they shall not come nigh her ; she will tread the devils underfoot ; all the universe may rise up and be let loose against her, she will say to God: “Thou art my Protector and my14

Refuge”, and God will deliver her from all snares anddangers : Quoniam in me speravit, liberabo eum’.

Our Mother the Church, who is full of solicitude for her children, knows to what perils they are ever exposed ; she knows, on the other hand, what powerful graces of life are given to us through the mysteries of the Incarnate Word, and through our union with Him, and so she recalls to us each year, at the beginning of Lent, the mystery of the Temptation of Jesus. She wills that during forty days, we should live like Him in the spirit of penance, retreat, solitude and prayer.

In order to help us to pass this time well, and to arouse within us the sentiments which should animate us, she gives us the account of Christ’s fasting, temptation and triumph at the opening of these forty holy days.

At the same time she places upon our lips the whole goth psalm, which begins with the words which I have just been explaining : “ He that dwelleth in the sanctuary of the divinity shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven ”. It is pre-eminently the psalm of confidence in the midst of struggle, trial and temptation.

The magnificent promises contained in it apply first of all to Christ Jesus, and next to all the members of His mystical body according to the measure of their life of grace and of faith.

This is the reason why the Church is not content with making us read it in its entirety on the first Sunday of Lent; but she extracts from it, for her canonical office, verses which she makes us recite each day of this long period, so as to place constantly before our eyes the loving care of our Heavenly Father : ‘He hath given His angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways: Angelis suis [Deus] mandavit de te: ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis ; “ He hath delivered me from the snare of the hunter’; and from the sharp word” : Ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium et a verbo aspero ; “ He will overshadow thee with His shoulders ; and under His wings thou shalt trust” : Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi et sub pennis ejus sperabis ; “ His truth shall compass thee with a shield; thou

TPS, XCe2y umd shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night” : Scuto circumdabit te veritas ejus ; non timebis a timore nocturwO%,

What confidence arises within us at the daily recalling of such promises! What assurance they give us for walking in the path of salvation : Ecce nunc dies salutis ?, however surrounded this path may be with pitfalls, however full it may be of enemies ! God is with us ; and “ If God be for us”, says St. Paul, “ who is against us”*? For, he adds, God will not suffer us to be tempted or tried above our strength ; but He will protect us, and with His protection, He will grant us to rise above trial, to surmount temptation, and to prove to Him our fidelity, the source of merit and of glory : Cum tentatione proventum *.

VI

You see what invincibility the soul has that dwells in the sanctuary of the Divinity.

But never let us forget that we only attain to it through faith in Jesus Christ, our Head and our Model.

Indeed the psalmist says that, to protect us against the shafts of the enemy, God will encompass us with His truth as with a shield: Scuto circumdabit te VERITAS EJUS. This is likewise the thought of St. Paul, when he mentions in detail the weapons with which the Christian ought to be armed for the spiritual conflict : IN OMNIBUS sumentes Scutum FIDEI, in quo possitis OMNIA tela nequissimi ignea extinguere®. “In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one”. St. Peter speaks in the same manner: “ Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour ; whom resist ye, strong in faith : Cui resistite FORTES IN FIDE ®.

You will have remarked that in order to repulse the devil, Christ Jesus each time has recourse to the Divine Word. The same tactics will lead us to victory.

When, therefore, the devil tempts us, for example,

  1. Ps. XC, 5, 11.— 2. Cor. v, 2.— 3. Rom. voi, 31.— 4. I Cor. xX, 13. — 5. Eph. vi, 16. —- 6. I Petr. v, 9.

Christ in His Mysteries. 13 against the faith, let us recall to mind the testimony of the Eternal Father proclaiming that Jesus is His beloved Son : let us remember that those only are born of God who believe in Jesus, the Son of God*. When the devil prompts us to want of confidence, let us repeat those words of Christ : “Come to me, all you that labour, and I will refresh you” ?... “Him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out” : Et eum, qui venit ad me, non ejiciam foras*. If-he seeks to overwhelm us with the remembrance of our faults and sins, let us answer him with the words of the Saviour : “I am not come to call the just, but sinners ” *. If he suggests thoughts of pride or ambition : “ Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled” ® ; if he excites us to revenge : “ Blessed are the meek” © ; if he causes deceitful joys to glitter before our eyes : “ Blessed are the clean of beast” 7:

On every occasion, let us arm ourselves with the Word of God : it is a shield against which all the shafts of the enemy will be broken and brought to nought.

Faith is the chief of weapons. “I hold it for certain”, wrote St. Teresa, “that God will never allow the devil to deceive a person who, mistrustful of herself in every thing, is so firm in the faith that she would be ready to suffer a thousand deaths for the smallest revealed truth ” °.

At the hour of trial, at the moment of temptation, it is faith that recalls to us God’s sovereign right to the obedience of His creature, His infinite holiness, the adorable exigencies of His justice, the indescribable sufferings with which Jesus expiated sin, the gratuity of grace, the necessity of prayer, the eternity of pain with which God punishes the sinner who dies unrepentant, the endless beatitude with which He magnificently rewards the fidelity of a few years: All these truths are repeated to us by faith ; and however redoubtable the darts of the enemy may be, however violent his suggestions, however prolonged the combat, a soul that has living faith finds in her faith and in her union with Christ, which is born of faith, the power of resistance, the very principle of her stability in good, the true secret of victory.15

Blessed is the soul,—God Himself tells us so—blessed is the soul that endures temptation without exposing herself to it ; who, relying upon the Divine promises, passes through fire, with the eye of faith intent upon Christ’s words and example ; that soul will triumph even here below, and will later receive the reward of her generosity and love : BEATUS vir qui suffert tentationem : quoniam cum probatus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitae quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se,

For, says St. Paul, Christ does not forsake His disciples in the conflict ; being a compassionate High-priest Who has suffered temptation, He knows what trial is, and is able to uphold us in the midst of the combat?. He succours us with His grace, He helps us with His prayer. He repeats for us the petition that He made to His Father at the moment when. He was about to undergo the last assaults of hell from which He was to come forth victorious : “I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from evil...” %

And the Father will “keep us from evil” ; He will send His good Angels to approach us invisibly and minister to us, because we believe in His Son Jesus ; because we will not turn away from Him ; because, mistrustful of ourselves, we, by our prayers, place all our hope in Him alone ; because He sees us and loves us in His Son, Quia tui sunt 4.

This is besides the magnificent promise that He Himself made to us through the mouth of the sacred writer in that beautiful 90th psalm which I wish to quote once more in ending this conference : “ Because he hoped in Me”, saith the Lord, “I will deliver him ; I will protect him because He hath known My name ; He shall call to Me, and I will hear him ; I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him and I will glorify him ; I will fill him with length of days, and I will shew him (so that he may rejoice in it for ever) my salvation” which I alone can give him : Clamabit ad me, et ego exaudiam eum ; cum ipso sum in tribulatione ; eripiam eum et glorificabo eum ; longitudine dierum replebo eum, et ostendam illi salutare meum ®,

I. Jac. 1, 12, — 2. Hebr. un, 18; V, 2. — 3. Joan. xvu, 15. — 4. Ibid. 9. — 5. Ps. XC, 14-16.

Footnotes

  1. te Matth, mt, 2) — 2, Marc. 1, 4);ehnc. 1 2: ↩

    1. Isa, VI, 3. — 2. Hebr. vu, 26. — 3. Rom. vu, 3.— 4. Luc. xxiv, 26. — 5.Cf. Philipp. 11, 6. — 6. Ephes. 1, 6. — 7. Hebr. vi, 20. — 8. Ibid. 1G, Ue,
    ↩
    1. Joan. vo—1, 34. — 2. Matth. v, 25. — 3. II Cor. v, 21.— 4. Joan. I, 27; cf.Matth. 11, 11 ; Marc. I, 7 ; Luc. lI, 16.— 5. Matth. I, 14-15. —6. I Petr. m1, 18. — 7. Joan. I, 29. — 8. I Joan. Wy, 2.
    ↩
    1. Jac. 1, 15. — 2. Cf. Ps. cm, 30.— 3. Ephes. u, 3.
    ↩

  5. 1, Cf. Col. m1, 9-10 ; Eph. Iv, 24. — 2. Ci. Rom. vi, 11. — 3. Cf. Gal. Il, 27. — 4. Matth. m1, 10-12 ; Luc. 1m, 9, 16-17. — 5. Joan. mI, 35-36. — 6. Matec. I, 12. ↩

    1. Ideo bene operantibus usque im finem et in Deo speraniibus proponenda est vita aeterna et tamquam gratia filiis Dei per Jesum Christum misericorditer promissa, ut tamquam metces ex ipsius Dei promissione bonis ipsorum operibus et meritis fideliter reddenda.... [Domint} tanta est evga homines bonitas ut eorum velit esse merita quae sunt Pans dona. Sess. VI, cap. 16.
    ↩
    1. We ate speaking evidently of the order of nature. — 2. S. Thom, De veritaie, 9. KXIV, a, 10 and 11. — 3. Job. vu, 1.
    ↩
    1. Eccli, XXXI, 10.— 2. Matth. xxv, 21.— 3. Ibid. m1, 15. — 4. Ibid. xx, 28; Marc. x, 45. — 5.1 Joan. m1, 8.
    ↩
    1. Joan. I, 29. — 2. Ibid. x1v, 30. — 3. Luc. Iv, 2.—- 4. Marc. 1, 13. — 5. Hebr, 0, 17.— 6, Matth. Iv, 2.— 7. Heb. Iv, 15.
    ↩
    1. Eph. vi, 12.
    ↩
    1. Matth. Iv, 3-4; Luc. Iv, 3-4. — 2. Joan. Iv, 31-32, 34.— 3. Matth. IV, 5-6 ; Luc. Iv, 9-11.—- 4. Matth. Iv, 7 ; Luc. IV, 12.
    ↩
    1. Matth. Iv, 8-10 ; Luc. IV, 5-8. — 2. Lue. Iv, 13. — 3. Ibid. xxu, 53.— 4. Joan. XIX, 15.— 5. Preface of the Cross. — 6. Matth, Iv, 11 ; Mare. I, 13.
    ↩
    1. Joan, VIII, 46.— 2. Ibid. xiv, 30.— 3. Gloria of the Mass. -— 4. Ephes. Iv, 13.— 5. Ibid. 7.
    ↩
    1. II Cor. v, 7. — 2. Gen. xvu1, 2.— 3. Antiphon for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. — 4. Ps. xxxv, 10.— 5. Joan. XVII, 23, 26.
    ↩
    1. I Joan. v, 1.— 2. Matth. x1, 28. — 3. Joan. vi, 37. — 4. Matth. rx, 13; Mare. mW, 17; Luc. v, 32.— 5. Matth. xxm, 12 ;Luc. x1v, 11: XVIII, 14. — 6. Matth. v, 4. — 7. Ibid. 8. — 8. Life by herself, ch. 25.
    ↩

Chapter 11 of 21