Question 41, Articles 3–4: Temptation after fasting, and the manner and order of the three temptations

Orientation #

He closes: “next time we’ll get to the teaching of Christ.” The class covers the third and fourth articles of the question on Christ’s temptation (q. 41), article 4 beginning after a break (“we’ll break here before we do the fourth article”). The previous class treated earlier articles of the same question on the temptation of Christ.

The class, in order #

1. Objections to the fast preceding the temptation (“ought not to be after fasting”) #

Three objections read: (1) austerity of life was said above not to befit Christ, yet eating nothing for forty days and forty nights (so Gregory understands it) is the greatest austerity; (2) Mark 1 says he was in the desert forty days and tempted by Satan — so tempted during, not after, the fast; (3) Luke 4 says “having completed every temptation the devil receded from him for a time,” suggesting more temptations than the one occasion, though he fasted only once. Sed contra: Matthew 4 — he fasted forty days and nights, afterwards was hungry, and then the tempter approached.

2. Three reasons the fast fittingly preceded (“armed against temptations”) #

1. For our example: since all must guard against temptation, by fasting before the coming temptation he teaches that we ought to be armed by fasting — whence the Apostle numbers fasting among the arms of justice. A student notes one of the hymns says that fasting and praying he gave us an example, gave us arms to fight Satan; he replies “that’s exactly right — truth often summarizes, and even in music.”
2. To show that the devil approaches even those who fast, as he approaches those busy in good works; so, as after baptism, so after fasting. Chrysostom: learn how great a good fasting is and how it is a shield against the devil; after baptism one should tend not to lust but to fasting; Christ fasted not needing it, but instructing us. He marks this as a different reason: here the devil sees a man doing good and asks what he can do with him.
3. Because hunger follows fasting, and hunger gave the devil audacity to approach. Hilary: he was not overcome by want, but let human nature take its course. The point he calls “kind of interesting”: the devil ought not to be overcome by God, but by the flesh. Chrysostom: he fasted no longer than Moses and Elias, lest, seeing the assumption of flesh, the fast seem not human — so we may fast forty days and not seem above the human. Seeing him weak, the devil thought he would try his hand.

3. Reply on austerity: doing before teaching (“began to do and to teach”) #

Austerity of life did befit Christ here: no one ought to take up the office of preaching unless first purged and perfected in virtue — “that’s our rule; none of you ought to assume the office of preaching” until then. Acts: he began to do and to teach. Christ took on austerity immediately after baptism so that, the flesh being dominated, he might pass to preaching; “I chastise my body and reduce it to slavery, lest in preaching to others I myself become reprobate.”

• The same order in the psalm: “Sing joyfully to the Lord… serve the Lord with gladness” (that is facture, doing) before “Know that the Lord is God, he made us” — which he offers, half-joking, as his ex post facto justification for reading the Summa Contra Gentiles, whose division is God in himself, God the maker, God the end: “you first have to serve the Lord, then you pick up the Summa Contra Gentiles.”
• Dominic: ten years in prayer, ten in study, ten in founding the order — solidity of preparation for each next step; “I can see how Thomas belongs in that order.”

4. Digression: Charles De Koninck (“he sees something he didn’t see before”) #

De Koninck, teaching the Physics since 1930, said each time through he saw something he had not seen before; and in Rome during the Vatican Council, when Dion pointed out something in natural philosophy, he said “how could I understand all these years?” — the humility of a great man. He died in Rome, attached (as he recalls it) to the Cardinal of Quebec; his last letter to his wife said “my work here is done”; he was about sixty, suffering angina pectoris, and in the last two years he had to be pushed up stairs. Twelve children.

5. Replies on Mark’s wording and on other temptations (“do not despise the exposition of Bede”) #

To 2: Mark’s forty days and nights are the days of fasting; the tempting is to be understood after them, as Matthew shows (afterwards he was hungry, thence the occasion), followed by the angels ministering. Mark’s “he was with the beasts” is put in after the custom of showing it was a desert — unsuitable for men, full of beasts. But according to Bede, the Lord was tempted through the forty days too, not with the visible temptations Matthew and Luke narrate but with some other battles Christ perhaps underwent in the fasting. He stresses his own footnote: do not despise Bede’s exposition about other temptations before the three named, since the devil often takes on various bodily likenesses to tempt. “Interesting guy, this Bede — Thomas uses him a lot in the Golden Chain.” To 3: Ambrose on Luke — the devil receded “for a time” because afterwards he came not to tempt but openly to fight, in the time of the passion; yet in that attack he seems to tempt Christ with sadness, as in the desert with the pleasure of gluttony and contempt of God by idolatry.

6. Seven objections against the manner and order (“it was not a suitable order of temptation”) #

He notes there are seven objections here, and that Matthew and Luke give a different order — “these are real problems.”

1. Temptation is to induce sin, but turning stones to bread to serve his bodily hunger would not have been sin, since he sinned not in multiplying loaves, no lesser miracle, for the hungry crowd. (“That’s convincing, right?”)
2. No persuader suitably persuades the contrary of what he intends; on the pinnacle he intended pride or vainglory, yet persuaded a throwing down, contrary to pride, which always seeks to ascend. (“Almost an argument from the metaphor.”)
3. One temptation should be about one sin, but on the mount he persuaded two — cupidity and idolatry (“if falling down you adore me”).
4. Temptations are ordered to sins, and there are seven capital vices; he tempted only about three — gluttony, vainglory, cupidity/avarice.
5. After victory over all vices, the remaining temptation is pride or vainglory, since pride creeps even into our good works (Augustine) — “seems kind of unfair”; yet Matthew puts cupidity on the mountain last and vainglory in the temple in the middle, and Luke reverses the order.
6. Jerome on Matthew: Christ proposed to overcome the devil by humility, not by power (Thomas here says humility instead of justice) — so he ought not to have repelled him imperially, “Get behind me, Satan.”
7. The narration seems to contain something false: Christ could not be on the pinnacle unseen, and no mountain is high enough to show all the kingdoms of the world. A student supplies the sed contra: the authority of Scripture.

7. The body: temptation as suggestion, from the lighter to the graver (“pulls him bit by bit”) #

Temptation from the enemy comes by way of suggestion (Gregory); not the same thing can be suggested to all, but to each what he is affected by. Hence the devil does not tempt the spiritual man at once about the gravest sins but draws him from the lighter, that he may lead him afterwards to the graver. Gregory, Morals 31, on Job 39: “afar off the exhortation of the leaders and the war-cries of the army” — the first vices come to a deceived mind under some show of reason, but the innumerable ones that follow, drawing to omnimodam insaniam, every kind of insanity, confound with a bestial clamour. “Sounds like our world today.”

• Aside: the hecklers shouting at Obama’s speech the day before over the delay in repealing the policy on homosexuals in the military.

Same order with the first man: forbidden fruit (eating); vainglory (“your eyes will be opened”); extreme pride (“you will be as gods”). And with Christ: first what all men desire however they are, sustaining bodily nature by food; second what spiritual men sometimes fail in, doing things for show, which pertains to vainglory (“the last infirmity” of men, as the poets say); third what is not of spiritual but of carnal men, wealth and the glory of the world, going as far as contempt of God. Hence “if you are the Son of God” in the first two but not the third, which cannot belong to spiritual men who are sons of God by adoption. Christ resists by testimonies of the law, not by his power, thereby honouring man more and punishing the adversary more — Leo the Great: the enemy of the human race is conquered not as it were by God but as it were by man. He adds: “or a woman.”

8. Reply 1: why the stones would have been sin (“could otherwise have provided”) #

To use what is necessary for sustaining the body is not gluttony; gluttony is doing something inordinate out of desire for that sustenance. It is inordinate that a man who can have recourse to human subsidies should wish to acquire food miraculously for the body alone. Manna was given where they could not otherwise have food; the crowds were fed miraculously where they could not otherwise have food. But Christ could have provided for his hunger otherwise — as John the Baptist ate honey and locusts, or by hastening to nearby places. So the devil reckoned Christ would sin, if he were a pure man, by working a miracle to relieve hunger — a needless exercise, a show.

• Aside, from a student: Brother Joseph might wish he could do that when preparing supper — “click his fingers”; he answers with the vice: laziness, “I don’t feel like cooking, but I don’t want the brothers to go hungry, so whammo.”

9. Reply 2: glory sought through exterior humbling (“also in those dirty things there can be boasting”) #

By an exterior humbling one frequently seeks glory in which he is exalted about spiritual goods. Augustine, On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount: boasting is found not only in the brightness and pomp of bodily things but also in squalid ones — “I’ve got the most ragged habit in the house.” So the devil persuades Christ to cast himself down bodily in order to seek spiritual glory: the angels would catch him because he is so great a gift.

• Aside: C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, which a student names, goes through this kind of thing.

10. Reply 3: two sins joined, one leading to another (“ambition has a domestic peril”) #

To desire wealth and honours is sin when desired inordinately — that is, unreasonably, “because reason looks before and after, which is what order means.” This shows especially when a man does something dishonourable to obtain them. So the devil is not content with persuading desire for wealth and honours but induces Christ to do something dishonest for them, to adore him — a maximum scelus and against God. He says not only “if you adore me” but adds “falling down,” the whole point: kneeling, but also falling into sin. Ambrose: ambition has a domestic peril — that one may dominate others, he first serves, bows and genuflects in service to be given honour, and wishing to be more sublime becomes more remiss. Likewise in the preceding temptations one sin is used to lead into another: from desire of food into vanity, the making of a miracle without cause; from desire of glory into tempting God (a student suggests “rashness” for the name of that).

11. Reply 4: three cupidities, not seven vices (“consummata omni tentatione”) #

Ambrose on Luke: Scripture would not have said “every temptation completed, the devil receded” unless in those three there was the matter of all sins — the causes of temptation being the cupidities: desire of the flesh, hope of glory, and desire (avidity) of power. He ties this to 1 John — lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life — noting that here “lust of the eyes” is rendered aviditas potentiae, which covers both power and wealth, since wealth is power: “all things obey money.” Aside: we say “time is money”; in Arabic, “time is gold.” Aside: the mountain in Spain called Tibidabo, named from “I will give you all this.”

12. Reply 5: the diverse order in Matthew and Luke (“sometimes the inverse”) #

Augustine, On the Consensus of the Gospels: it is uncertain which was done first, the showing of the kingdoms or the placing on the pinnacle; it makes no difference to the thing, since all were manifestly done. But Thomas gives a reason why the evangelists differ: because sometimes one comes from vainglory to cupidity and sometimes the reverse — “kind of a subtle thing to say.” He contrasts the mentality: here Thomas and the Fathers see a great mystery revealed where the moderns think the differing order disproves the authority of the Gospels. His own suggestion, offered as something he is still working out: Matthew emphasises the kingship of Christ and so puts the mountain — kingship over all these — last as the culmination; Luke emphasises the priesthood, begins and ends in the temple, and so ends with the temptation of the priest in the temple.

• This leads to praise of those who enlighten us and so are made like God who enlightens every man: the book he has just finished on St. Gertrude, where Our Lord bestows a grace on her writings to lead others to holiness; then that after Scripture, nobody comes near Augustine and Thomas — look at the encyclicals, or the quotations in the Catechism. Mozart likewise: “you can’t define the melody; you can only hum it”; a conductor said that listening to Mozart convinces you of God more than going to church.

13. Reply 6: magnanimity about one’s own injuries (“Go away, Satan”) #

When the devil offered Christ the injury of “if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,” he was not disturbed and did not correct him; but when the devil usurped the honour of God — “all these things I will give you if falling down you adore me” — he repulsed him, exasperated: “Be gone, Satan.” So we might learn by this example to sustain injuries to ourselves magnanimously (the virtue he had been speaking of in connection with Mozart) but not suffer injuries to God even to be heard.

14. Reply 7: being seen, and the showing of the kingdoms (“it’s in the power of Christ to be seen”) #

Chrysostom: the devil took him to the pinnacle that he might be seen by all, but, not knowing, so acted that he was seen by none — so it lies in Christ’s power to be seen or not. A student adds that Chrysostom makes this point often: after the resurrection on the shore when they went fishing, at Emmaus, with Mary Magdalene, and in the garden (“whom do you seek?”), taking it as a sign that “it is in my power.” As for showing all the kingdoms: not that he saw the kingdoms themselves or the cities, the gold or silver, but the parts in which each kingdom or city is situated; the devil pointed with his finger and expounded their honours in words. Or, according to Origen, he showed him in what way he rules the world through the diverse vices.

• Aside: some Father (perhaps in the Catena) noted he showed all this in the twinkling of an eye — because that is all he is capable of; he cannot show anything spectacular for any length of time, only a flash.

His words #

• “facture” — doing, deeds, as against doctrine (from the psalm’s order: serve the Lord, then know that he is God).
• “arms of justice” — his rendering for the Apostle’s phrase under which fasting is numbered.
• “omnimodam insaniam” — every kind of insanity, Gregory’s term for where the innumerable following vices draw the mind.
• “subsidia” — human helps/resources, as against miraculous provision.
• “maximum scelus” — the greatest crime, of adoring the devil.
• “aviditas potentiae” — avidity of power, standing in this text where 1 John has “lust of the eyes”; covers wealth too.
• “consummata omni tentatione” — “every temptation being completed” (Luke 4), the phrase Ambrose leans on.
• “in incertum est” — Augustine’s “it is uncertain” which temptation came first.
• “a converso” — in the reverse order (of Luke against Matthew).
• “inane glory” / “empty glory” — his rendering of inanis gloria [ed.: vainglory].
• “Tibidabo” — “I will give you”; the Spanish mountain named from it.

Texts #

Read in class

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 41, a. 3 (objections, body, replies) — whether the temptation should have been after the fast.
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 41, a. 4 (seven objections, body, seven replies) — on the mode and order of the temptation.
• Matthew 4; Mark 1; Luke 4 (as quoted within the articles).
• Genesis 3, the tempting of the first man, as quoted in the body (inferred locus).
• Psalm “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands… know that the Lord is God” (Ps. 99/100, inferred).

Mentioned

• Gregory, Moralia 31, on Job 39.
• Augustine, De sermone Domini in monte; De consensu evangelistarum.
• Ambrose on Luke; Chrysostom on Matthew; Jerome on Matthew; Hilary; Bede; Origen; Leo the Great.
• 1 John 2:16 (inferred); Acts 1:1; 1 Corinthians 9:27 (inferred).
• Thomas, Summa Contra Gentiles (its threefold division); the Catena Aurea (“Golden Chain”).
• A book on St. Gertrude; the Catechism of the Catholic Church; encyclicals on Augustine and Thomas; C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.

His questions #

• Why did Christ will to be tempted after fasting? For our example (fasting arms us), to show the devil tempts even those who fast and do good works, and because the hunger that follows fasting gave the devil audacity to approach.
• Ought the devil to be overcome by God or by the flesh? By the flesh — so that the enemy of the human race is conquered not as it were by God but as it were by man (Leo).
• Was Mark’s “tempted forty days” during or after the fast? After; though Bede’s exposition of other, invisible battles during the fast is not to be despised.
• Why would turning stones into bread have been a sin, when multiplying the loaves was not? Because Christ could have provided otherwise (locusts and honey, nearby places), so the miracle would have been for the body alone and without cause.
• How can one temptation be about two sins, cupidity and idolatry? Because the devil leads from the desire of one sin into another, adding “falling down” — the dishonourable deed done to obtain wealth and honour.
• Only three temptations against seven capital vices — is that enough? Yes: in the three cupidities (flesh, glory, power/wealth) there is the matter of all sins.
• Why do Matthew and Luke give a different order? It is uncertain which came first and makes no difference; and the vices themselves go sometimes from vainglory to cupidity, sometimes the reverse. His own further suggestion (Matthew’s kingship ending on the mountain, Luke’s priesthood ending in the temple) he leaves as a thought to work on again.
• Why was Christ imperious with “Be gone, Satan,” if he conquered by humility? Because injuries to oneself are to be borne magnanimously, but injuries to God not even to be heard.
• How could Christ stand unseen on the pinnacle, and what mountain shows all the kingdoms? It is in his power to be seen or not; and the devil showed the regions and expounded their honours in words, or showed how he rules through the vices.