Collect

O Lord, who for our sake fasted forty days and forty nights; gives us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever follow Your godly example in righteousness, and true holiness, to Your honor and glory, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, 1549

Saint Ambrose (AD c. 333-397) - from Exposition of the Gospel of Luke

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1)

This might be the place to recall how the first Adam was expelled from Paradise into the desert, and to consider how the second Adam returned from the desert to Paradise. See how the very things that enchained us are used to set us free; see how the divine favours are renewed, following the same pattern as of old. Virgin soil produced Adam; a Virgin gave birth to Christ. Adam was made in the image of God; Christ is the Image of God. Adam was placed above all the dumb beasts; Christ is raised above all that live. Madness came by a woman; wisdom came by a Virgin. Death came by a tree; life came by the Cross. Adam, stripped of his spiritual robe, clothed himself in leaves; Christ, stripped of all worldly things, had no need of bodily garments. Adam was in the desert; Christ was in the desert. Our Lord knew well where to find the lost soul, to free him of sin and bring him back to Paradise. But he could not go back there covered in the spoils of this world – for no one can dwell in Heaven unless he is despoiled of every sin – and so Adam put off the old man and reclothed himself in the new. Heaven’s decrees cannot be changed, so since the sentence could not be changed, the person had to change.

But if, even in Paradise, he had lost his way for want of a guide, how could he possibly retrace his way in the desert without a guide? Temptations are many in the desert; the effort to be virtuous is very trying; one slips easily into error. Virtue is like a tree. When it is but a sapling, springing up from earth towards the sky, when it first spreads out its tender foliage, it is an easy prey to the venom of the cruel bite. It is easily cut down, easily scorched. But once it has thrust its roots deep down and lifted up its branches to a great height, no longer can the beasts harm it by their bite; peasants cannot pull it up; and howling winds cannot harm it. For now it is a mature tree.

What guide or leader will the Lord provide against the many temptations of this world, the many ruses of the Devil? The Lord knows that we have first to struggle “against flesh and blood, then against the Powers, against the princes of darkness who lord it over this world, against the malevolent spirits who fill the air”. Would He offer us an angel? But the angels fell. It took legions of angels to save mere individuals, and then only with difficulty (2 Kings 6:17). Would He send a seraph? But when a seraph descended on earth, he found himself “among a people that has unclean lips”; and there was only one prophet whose lips he purified with a burning coal. The Lord had to look for another leader that we would all follow. What leader could be great enough to come to the assistance of each and everyone, if not He who is above all? Who could raise me up above the world, if not He who is greater than the world? Who would be this leader, so great as to lead in one direction both man and woman, Jew and Greek, barbarian and Scythian, slave and free? Such a leader could be none other than the Christ, He who is all and in all.

The snares are many, whatever way we go. The body has snares; the Law has snares; there are snares set by the Devil on the very heights of the Temple. In the foundations of the wall. There are the snares of philosophy, the snare of desire – for the harlot’s eye is the sinners snare; there is the snare of money; there is a snare in religion; there is a snare in the practice of chastity. Very little things can bend the human mind this way or that. The tempter is clever and easily sways us.

…So Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, is led into the desert on purpose to provoke the Devil. For had not the Devil fought with Him, the Lord would not have won the triumph for me. All this took place in mysterious fashion to deliver Adam from exile. It was permitted as proof positive that the Devil goes all out to tempt people who are striving to live holy lives. It is a lesson to us to be on our guard, lest the weakness of our soul should yield up the grace of the mystery.

Audi benigne condito

Gregory I

O kind Creator, bow Thine ear

To mark the cry, to know the tear

Before Thy throne of mercy spent

In this Thy holy fast of Lent.