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RTHOLIC

“All Things In

Proportion”

Rev. James F. Finley, C.S.P.

MARCH 15, 1959



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In the first two words that Christ

speaks to us, He sets up a Divine plan

and determines for us a cooperative part

in the completing of that plan. Such

definiteness on the part of God encour-

ages us to look for specific means

whereby we can fulfill the burden that

falls on us in these first two lessons.

We are sure that Christ has not given us

this grave responsibility of collaborating

in the work of salvation and then failed

to leave us the means or techniques for

carrying it out. But — confronted, as we

are, by the jigsawed and puzzling pieces

of life, what can we do to begin fash-

ioning a pattern that pleases Christ and

His heavenly Father?

Our third scene and Christ's third

word form the basis fa* a third lesson.

After Christ had been baptized by St.

John and revealed as the Son of God, He

hurried out of the city and hid Himself

in the desert. For forty days and forty

nights, like a presage of our own Lent,

He fasted and prayed. At the end of His

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vigils, the evangelist tells us that Jesus

was hungry and the devil appeared to

Him.

In the story that follows this moment,

there are actually three scenes described

and in each scene, Christ speaks a

word. But, since all the scenes and the

words flow out of the devil's effort to

tempt Christ, it is permissable for us to

group the triple temptations and Christ's

responses as one lesson.

Christ, hungry and weary, suffering

His humanity to feel the weakness that

could come from an ordeal of prolonged

fasting and praying, faces the devil.

That satan appeared at all before Christ

is effrontery supreme but he deepens the ^

insult of his presence to an incalculable

degree by testing Christ to vanity.

"If Thou art the Son of God," he says,

"command that these stones become

bread.'

Christ's answer is a sharp rebuke:

"It is written, 'not by bread alone does

man live, but in every word that proceeds

from the mouth of God'."

Satan is not daunted. He tries again

as St. Matthew tells us: "Then the devil

took him to the holy city and placed him

on the pinnacle of the temple and said

to him, 'If Thou art the Son of God cast

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Thyself down, for it is written, 'He has

given His angels charge over Thee and

they shall bear Thee up lest Thou dash

Thy foot against a stone
,

.

,/

Though Our Lord is again put to the

need of reminding the devil that 'it is

written — thou shalt not tempt the Lord,

Thy God,' Satan will have one more

trial of Christ.

This time, he brings Jesus to the

summit of a high mountain and there he

points out below all the riches and the

treasures and power of the world. "All

these I shall give Thee," promises Satan,

"if falling down, Thou wilt adore me!"

This is more than the summit of a mere

mountain now as the devil speaks. . .now

he is speaking from the highest point in

the universe. . .the topmost point of

diabolic pride...God is to adore him!

Christ can abide this evil presence no

longer. In just rage He answers the

challenge of Satan, telling him, "Begone,

Satan, for it is written, 'the Lord thy

God shalt thou adore and Him alone shalt

thou serve'."

How ageless, how almost timeless is

this scene! Go back through all the

moments of recorded history up to the

time and presence of Christ and you find

the devil making his promises, offering

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his satisfactions if . . . if. . . if. . . only

someone will fall down and adore him.

Go back even into the moments of the

world's creation. . .with Adam and Eve. .

.

go back beyond this, to the creation of

the orders of angels and this contest

over following God or adoring Satan can

be found.

It is safe to say that if we go forward

from Christ this contest will again be

found as the stand-out struggle that

marks the march of all men through

history. We don't need to analyze history

to discover this. Christ warned us to be

watchful because this battle with Satan

was to be part of our proving of our-

selves as His followers. Our warfare

was to be against the world, the flesh

and the devil. And again through His

first Pope, Peter, Christ announces that

the devil goes about all the day seeking

whom he may devour.

The New Testament is replete with

warnings against the struggle we shall

face with the powers of hell but for now

we need go no further than this scene

we have taken for our third lesson.

Christ did not go through the fasting and

praying in the desert and follow this with

three temptations from the devil just to

demonstrate how vigorous he was spiri-

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tually and physically. What we see and

what we hear in this gospel story is for

our exampling. This is a story we are

to study, these are words we are to

ponder and fix in our minds and hearts

as principles of all our Christian action.

I think we might well study and de-

velop principles out of this story of

Christ in the desert because the scene,

the words, the conflict are almost a

summary or synopsis of what we face as

we purpose to cooperate in the plan of

salvation. In our efforts to show forth

the Son of God to the world, we will

become fatigued and be overtaken by

weakness and in that weakness will

come temptations. The temptations will

assault us when we are hungry. . .not just

for bread. . .but suffering the normal human

hungers for possessions, for sex and

companionship, for power, for wealth,

for fulfillment of the desires in our

hearts

.

For all these occasions, Christ would

leave us a rule, a way by which we may

judge rightly in our choices. The hunger,

no matter how seemingly good and justi-

fiable, is not to be served because it is

a hunger. It is to be served or denied

as indicated by the word of God. We

are to remember that we live. . .com-

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pletely and integrally. . .not by bread

alone but by every word that proceeds

from the mouth of God the Father.

The values of life and its living are

not as we think them to be needed, not

as our humaness longs after them. . .not

as our hundred hungers cry out for them;

rather, the values of life are as the

word of God disposes them for us. In

this way do we live. . .in ordered choices

and in sensitivity to Divine values.

Christ's rejections of the three

suggestions of the devil indicate the

range of values that will present a

struggle to us for our lives. His re-

jections indicate also where the balance

must be tipped and what must weigh

most importantly as we make our judge-

ments. We live not by bread alone...

not in a loss of balance that would

foster the material at the expense of the

spiritual. . .we live in an entirety of

values that includes spiritual and

material things. Our lesson in this word

of Christ is that if there is to be any

stress at all, it is to be on the word of

God. If there is to be any occasion

where the material and the spiritual are

in conflict, the choice that must be

made is for that side which best serves

the cause of God. If there is any con-

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flict between satisfying self or glorifying

God, we live by giving God honor and

submission, not by indulging self in its

satisfaction.

History shows that on many occasions

and among many men, this lesson has

been tragically forgotten or put aside.

Even in our day, God appears to have

lost ground and the devil to have gained

it in this contest over values. In a

strange way, man seems to have his

sense of values more confused than

ever before, despite Christ's example

in the desert. . .and despite men's past

mistakes.

Once upon a time, when a man sinned,

he knew his sin and himself a sinner.

He may have fled the consequence of

the law, but not the conviction of his

conscience. Today, too many men refuse

to accept not only the fact that they

have committed a sin but that there is

any such thing as sin. Where once they

might have struck their breast and said,

"Through my fault!" today they look up

and ask, "What fault?"

Christ has posed these original temp-

tations for us to indicate that we must

know the truth of things and the true

value of them. Knowing this truth that

we must first seek the kingdom of heaven

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and then all other things would be added

to us
;
we would not get lost in, or bound;

or fettered by material possessions.

Knowing this balance, we would be more

able to keep the drive of our satisfaction

and hunger in order and arrange them as

God demanded. We were to know this

great truth and knowing it, to be free of

all things that we might more readily

pursue God.

But today, the expression about

knowing the truth and the truth making

us free, has become, in some circles,

you shall know the lie and the lie shall

make you free. Values have become so

lopsided that the lie. . .the magnificent

lie which tells us that we are to be

satisfied at all costs to God or to our

neighbor. . .this has become what we

live by rather than the word of God. And

this magnificent lie...this pinnacle of

pride like satan's own. . .rises to cast

its evil shadow into our world of love

and marriage, of politics and sociology,

of business and finance, of philosophy

and education.

In some quarters of our generation we

are developing a world that can not

recognize evil any longer because it can

not recognize truth any more. Around

us develops a world without a sense of

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values. . .and in the light of the crimes

committed, we can say, it is without

sense and without values.

These people would blot out the story

of Christ being tempted in the desert

because that story cues us to respon-

sibility for our acts. But these theorists

teach that no one is responsible any

more. Their philosophy is quicker than

the eye. . .by the magic of their prop-

ositions you do no wrong no matter how

evil you are. Sure, maybe a deed was

done that some call a sin or a crime,

but you didn't do it. Maybe a reflex of

you did it. . .maybe an obsession or

compulsion. . .and I-can't-remember-kind-

of-you. . .and out-of-my-mind-forHa-minute-

you. . .but not the real you. No, never

you, because you can't do wrong. . .you

see, there was no you to do wrong or

there was no wrong to do.

The deception is clever; well, it is

clever enough to make such theories and

philosophies acceptable by more than a

few Christians. I could run off a list of

actions that you see accepted in our

society today and every one of these

actions would splinter and fragment the

Ten Commandments, the word of God.

The action, I repeat, are acceptable,

most acceptable. In fact, many men and

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women live by and for this new code and

not by the word of God found in the

commandments.

Where does our society rebuke these

people as Christ rebuked satan? Rebuke

them? Why in some cases their very

adherence to the new code makes these

people popular and famous. Some of

them are our acknowledged leaders in a

variety of chosen professions. Some of

them run our organizations, form our

fashions, contribute to our habits and

manners, write our books and songs and

educate our children.

I suppose a better and more practical

guestion to ask is: How can our society

rebuke them?

The most practical answer I can give

to that question is that each one of us

individually rebukes them in our own

Christ-like life.

We must learn our lessons from the

lips of Christ and learn them firmly and

well. If we are to cooperate in the plan

of salvation, we must learn balance and

order in our wants and desires. The

little conflicts where we want our own

way must be occasions where we

permit ourselves to be vanquished for

the sake of Christ and after the example

of Christ. He would not give one small

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genuflection to serve satan, but He

willingly gave His whole body on the

cross to save mankind.

Out of today's scene, that I have de-

scribed we can grasp the importance of

fasting and praying, of watching lest we

fall into temptations. We can live fixed in

God's words and God's sense of values,

so that when the devil tries us, our re-

sponse is a rebuke to him, a quick sharp

recognition of his offers as evil and a

quicker, sharper rejection of hisbeguilements.

Our rebuke to all the false theories

and theorists will best be made in living

our lives as God points out its important

aspects. Bread is important and so is

love or sex or money ex renown. But

none of these is more important than God.

We must live our needs and suffer our

needs and die with them unfulfilled if to

have them satisfied meant falling down

and worshipping the devil.

We must live according to heaven's

proportions. . .as Christ's third word

tells us... "not by bread alone, but by

every word that proceeds from the mouth

of God, the Father."

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