The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 3. “And the tempter coming,” Ο πειραζων, who looked upon this hunger as a favourable moment to tempt him, and to discover if he were truly the Son of God, as was declared at his baptism, desired Jesus to change by a miracle the stones into bread, to appease his hunger and to recover his strength. A.—By this we are taught, that amidst our greatest austerities and fasts, we are never free from temptation. But if your fasts, says Saint Gregory, do not free you entirely from temptations, they will at least give you strength not to be overcome by them. S. Thos. Aquin. 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 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. Jan. p. 107. Had Jesus Christ converted the stones into bread, the devil, according to S. Jerom, would have thence inferred that he was God. But it was Christ’s intention to overcome the proud fiend rather by humility than power. S. Thos. Aquin. Thus, if the first Adam fell from God by pride, the second Adam has effectually taught us how to overcome the devil by humility. A.