MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #87

And the tempter coming said to him: "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Who answered and said: "It is written, 'Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.' "
Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, 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 over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone.' " Jesus said to him: "It is written again: 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' " 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, And said to him: "All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me." Then Jesus saith to him: "Begone, Satan: for it is written: 'The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.' " Then the devil left him; and behold angels came and ministered to him. (Matt. 4:3-11)

WHY OUR LORD WAS TEMPTED:
1. Because He came into the world to fight and overcome sin and Satan. The Saviour began His strife with the infernal serpent as soon as he began His public life, by victoriously repulsing Satan's three temptations. He gloriously carried on the strife to the end, crushing the serpent's head by His Death and Resurrection.
2. Because the Son of God wished to do violence to Himself, and abase Himself in order to redeem us. It was a great humiliation to the Son of God that Satan, the essence of all that is evil, should approach Him and dare to try to tempt Him to sin and disobedience against God. O Divine Saviour, how low didst Thou stoop, even to exposing Thyself to the contact and seductions of hell!
3. Because Jesus is the spiritual Father of mankind, and the second Adam. He desired, therefore, to be tempted as was the first Adam, in order to expiate the Fall of our first parents. Compare the temptation of Adam and Eve, and the temptation of Christ. The former took place in the midst of the beauty and abundance of Paradise, the latter in the bare desert, and when our Lord was in a state of painful hunger. Satan tempted our first parents to gluttony, pride and the lust of the eyes; and succeeded. He tried to allure our Lord to the same three lusts; and was overcome. Angels came and drove Adam and Eve from Paradise; whereas angels came and ministered to Jesus.
4. In order to show us how to meet temptations to evil.
5. In order to comfort and encourage us in the many trials and temptations of this life. St. Paul writes thus: "For we have not a High Priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities: but One tempted in all things like as we are, without sin. Let us go, therefore, with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid" (Heb. 4:15, 16)

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)