We find in the temptations of Jesus an example of one person who didn’t fall for Satan’s tricks. The account of His temptation in the desert gives invaluable instruction to the faithful and reads almost like a “how to” guide for discovering the wiles of Satan in order that we might be prepared.As Monsignor Leon Christiani writes in his book, Evidence of Satan in the World, Jesus was very deliberate about giving us this information.
“We should note…that there was no witness to this formidable encounter. The three Evangelists derived their account from Jesus himself. He took care to inform his disciples of what had passed between the Devil and himself. He wished them to know what he had seen, what it had meant to look each other…in the eye, to listen to Satan’s attempts to subjugate him and make him deviate from his path. In a word, Christ had wished to be tempted. And he was. He revealed to his follows what this temptation had been.”
The famed exorcist, Father Jose Maria Fortea, explains in his book, Interview With an Exorcist, that these three temptations symbolize the temptations the devout experience during the course of the spiritual life, although those endured by Jesus were especially subtle.
In the first temptation, the devil asks the Lord to change stones into bread and eat, thus breaking his fast. As Father Fortea points out, “the devil tempted Jesus not with sin per se but with imperfection. He was asked to stop doing a good, i.e., his fasting, and turn stones into bread.”
The devil also tempted Jesus by leading him up to a high place and showing him all the kingdoms of the earth. “All these things I shall give you if you will prostrate yourself and worship me,” the devil promised.
As Father Fortea explains, “Jesus was not asked to stop being God; he was only asked the sacrifice of humbling himself a little more. Could not the Just One who had made so many sacrifices for souls not do one more? It is the temptation to do a little evil so as to achieve a greater good.”
The devil then asked Jesus to throw himself down from a high parapet in order to prove to the world that he truly was the Son of God.
This temptation is one of pride and the desire to be publicly recognized.
“It was to prescind from the fact that it is God, in His time, who exalts His servants. Here the devil was saying, Even though God decides the time and the moment, why not bring the moment forward? Why remain in obscurity when so much good can be done by coming out into the light in a glorious and spectacular way? We can see that this third temptation is the most complex and subtle of all.”
These experiences of Jesus teach us about the subtleties of Satan and shine a bright light into the darkness that usually surrounds the machinations of evil. We must be constantly on our guard against this enemy who is not afraid to “think outside the box” when it comes to tempting the faithful!
Excerpted from the book, Fight Like a Catholic: Spiritual Warfare in the Catholic Tradition
