+++JESUS, our LORD and SAVIOUR, teaches us how to Fight and to Conquer.+++
***By example, JESUS has taught us how to fight and to conquer.
The struggle may be painful; but angels, as well as God,
witness our struggle, and are ready to crown our victory.***
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Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11 [uncorrupted Douay Rheims BIBLE]
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1 Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil.
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2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards hungry.
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3 And the tempter coming, said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
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4 But he answered, and said: It is written: Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
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5 Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple,
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6 And said to him: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written: That he hath given his angels charge of thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone.
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7 Jesus said to him: It is written again: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
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8 Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain: and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,
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9 And said to him: All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me.
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10 Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan, for it is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.
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11 Then the devil left him; and behold angels came and ministered to him.
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These following notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock also include additional notes from various sources.
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Ver. 1. Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Ghost, immediately after his baptism, into the desert to prepare, by fasting and prayer, for his public ministry, and to merit for us by his victory over the enemy of our salvation, the force to conquer him also ourselves.
By this conduct, he teaches all that were to be in future times called to his ministry, how they are to retire into solitude, in order to converse with God in prayer, and draw down the blessing of heaven upon themselves and their undertaking. What treasures of grace might we expect, if, as often as we receive any of the sacraments, we were to retire within ourselves, and shut out, for a time, the world and its cares. Then should we come prepared to withstand temptation, and should experience the divine assistance in every difficulty through life.
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The life of man is a warfare on earth. It was not given us, says St. Hilary, to spend it in indolence, but to wage a continual war against our spiritual enemies. In the greatest sanctity, there are often the greatest and most incessant trials; for satan wishes nothing so much as the fall of the saints. (Haydock) --- By these trials, we learn the strength we have received from above, we are preserved from self-complacency and pride in the gifts of heaven; we confirm the renunciation we made in baptism of the devil, and all his works and pomps; we become stronger, and better prepared for future attacks, and are feelingly convinced of the dignity to which we have been raised, and of which the enemy of souls endeavors all he can to deprive us.
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Ver. 2. Jesus arising from his continued fast, that the devil might venture to tempt him; and after a fast of 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry. (Haydock) --- Christ was well acquainted with the thoughts of the wicked fiend, and his great desire of tempting him. St. Augustine says, by the due observance of Lent, the wicked are separated from the good, infidels from Christians, heretics from Catholics. Our Saviour fasted 40 days, not because he stood in need of it, as we do, to subject the unruly members of the body, which lust against the spirit, but to set an example for our imitation. (Haydock) --- Another reason might be, to prevent the remarks of the Jews, who might object that he had not yet done what the founder of their law, Moses, and after him Elias, had done.
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Ver. 3. "And the tempter coming," who looked upon this hunger as a favorable moment to tempt Him, and to discover if He were truly the Son of God, as was declared by GOD the FATHER at JESUS’ baptism performed by Saint John the Baptist in the Jordan River; satan desired Jesus to change by a miracle the stones into bread, to appease His hunger and to recover His strength. (Haydock) --- By this we are taught, that amidst our greatest austerities and fasts, we are never free from temptation. But if your fasts, says St. Gregory, do not free you entirely from temptations, they will at least give you strength not to be overcome by them. (St. Thomas Aquinas.)
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The tempter is supposed to have appeared in a human form, and the whole temptation to have been merely external, like that which took place with our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise. It would have been beneath the perfection of Christ, to have allowed the devil the power of suggesting wicked thoughts to his mind. Had Jesus Christ converted the stones into bread, the devil, according to St. Jerome, would have thence inferred that he was God. But it was Christ's intention to overcome the proud fiend rather by humility than power. (St. Thomas Aquinas). Thus, if the first Adam fell from God by pride, the second Adam, JESUS, has effectually taught us how to overcome the devil by humility. (Haydock)
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Ver. 4. Man liveth not by bread only. The words were spoken of the manna in the Old Testament and now in the New Tesatament is the true bread of life in HOLY COMMUNION which is the BODY of JESUS in the SACRAMENT of salvation. The sense in this place is, that man's life may be supported by anything, or in any manner, as it pleases God.--- St. Gregory upon this passage says: if our divine Redeemer, when tempted by the devil, answered in so mild a manner, when he could have buried the wicked tempter in the bottom of hell, ought not man, when he suffers anything from his fellow man, rather to improve it to his advantage, than to resent it to his own ruin. Man consists of soul and body; his body is supported by bread, his soul by the word of God and sanctifying grace as received by the Holy Sacraments in the TRUE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
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Ver. 5. In Palestine [today occupied by Zionists since 1948 was renamed Israel] , all buildings had a flat roof, with a balustrade or a parapet. It was probably upon the parapet that the devil conveyed Jesus. The three temptations comprise the three principal sources of sin: 1. sensuality; 2. pride; and 3. concupiscence. We may hope to conquer them by humility through prayer, fasting, the Sacraments, and especially confidence in FAITH in GOD and GOD’S WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE;)
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--- the devil took him, &c. If we ask in what manner this was done, St. Gregory answers, that Christ might permit himself to be taken up, and transported in the air by the devil, he that afterwards permitted himself to be tormented, and nailed to a cross by wicked men, who are members of the devil. Others think the devil only conducted him from place to place. The text of this in St. Luke favors this exposition, when it is said, the devil led him to Jerusalem, to a high mountain, etc.
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Ver. 6. Heretics, says St. Augustine, quote Scriptures, as the devil does here, in a wrong and forced sense; the TRUE Catholic Church cites them, like JESUS CHRIST, in their true sense, and to confute their falsehood. It is on this account, that the Catholic Church wishes persons who come to the study of the most mysterious and difficult book ever published, should bring with them some preparation of mind and heart; convinced that the abuse of the strongest and best food may be converted into deadly poison as the devil intends.
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The false and corrupted Bibles of the heretics are promoted by the Bible alone Protestants, and also encourage the universal private interpretation of the Scriptures, as the sole rule of faith which with this results in false interpretations through their private and personal interpretations by some 50,000 different denominations. As is expected, this allows for multitudes of various different interpretations depending on themselves and/or their leaders. In this, they many times follow only a mutilated and corrupt version of the meanings.
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Ver. 8. Shewed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and as St. Luke says, in a moment of time. We cannot comprehend how this could be done from any mountain, or seen with human eyes. Therefore many think it was by some kind of representation; or that the devil shewing a part, by words set forth the rest. --- He shewed him the different climates in which each country was situated. (St. Chrysostom)
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Ver. 9. All these will I give thee. The father of lies here promised what was not his to give. For though he is called the prince of this world, (John 12: 31,) meaning of the wicked, who willfully make themselves his slaves; yet so restrained is the devil's power, that he could not go into the swine till Christ permitted it. (Matthew 8: 31.) --- What arrogance! what pride! The devil promises earthly kingdoms, while Jesus promises a heavenly kingdom to his followers.
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Behold the pride of satan’s heart; as he formerly wished to make himself God, the TRUE GOD threw Lucifer out of heaven and renamed him satan, so now he wishes to assume to himself divine honors. The evil one, satan, lures his prey, mankind, by the means revealed in these temptations which throughout salvation history as was allowed by JESUS to also allow these temptations to man to test his/her FREE WILL to choose to either sin and follow satan to Eternal damnation in hell or to follow GOD unto Eternal Life in Heaven and to reject the temptations to sin against GOD.
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Ver. 10. It is remarkable that our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST bore with the pride and insolence of the devil, even as satan assumed to himself the honor due to God alone. (St. Chrysostom)
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Ver. 11. Then the devil having exhausted all his artifices, left him for a time, as St. Luke remarks; whence we are to learn, that after we have resisted with success, we are not to think ourselves secure, but avail ourselves of overcoming and rejecting the sin to return thanks be to God for the victory, and to prepare for fresh combats, especially by fortifying ourselves with the bread of angels in the Sacrament of Holy Communion following the Sacrament of Confession if needed to receive the BODYof JESUS CHRIST worthily after repentance for sins which are forgiven. The temptations of JESUS CHRIST are to us a subject both of consolation and instruction.