What a lesson is hidden in that answer for those who would make religion worldly by emptying it of all responsibility and by making God merely a passive spectator of our suicides. The plea to cast Himself down from the pinnacle was not a sign of trust in God but disbelief in God. It was an appeal not to a natural appetite but to a perverted pride which assures that God is indifferent to our actions and disinterested in our decisions.
The answer of Our Lord was a reminder that religion centres about responsible persons and not about falling bodies; that man is endowed with free will and is therefore responsible for each of his actions down even to the least; that the universe in which he lives is moral and therefore one in which we mount by making our dead selves stepping stones to higher things.
That worldly religion which denies responsibility, sin and judgment would reduce us all to mere stones falling from the giddy heights of stony pinnacles; it would make us merely material bodies obeying the law of gravitation which pulls us to the earth instead of spiritual beings which like fire, mount up beyond the stars to the Light of the World. Real religion does not say: "Throw yourself down" but "Lift yourself up"; for we are destined not to be stones of earth but immortal children of God. Heaven and not the world is our final destiny. And so instead of casting Himself down like a cheap and vulgar magician, Our Lord casts Satan down and then goes out to another mountains top to give from its heights the Beatitudes of God which lead to true beatitude with God in the everlasting glory of Heaven.
Thus the so-called new religion proves to be an old religion which Satan would establish on earth. There is no new birth in this new faith but the same old spirit in the same old Adam, full of selfishness, envy and sin. By vanquishing temptation, the Eternal Galilean has trumpeted to all nations and to all time the supreme truth that religion is not primarily social, nor political, nor worldly. Rather its function is to minister 'divine life' to society, 'divine justice' to politics and 'divine forgiveness' to the worldly. The world today is really seeking such a divine religion and is near starvation, as modern sects bring to it only the husks of humanism.
The minds of today are beginning to see that our problems are not primarily economic and political but religious and moral; that society will not and cannot be reformed from without but only from within. It is only by the spirit of Christ and the spirit of prayer that the freedom of man, won by bloodshed and national sacrifice, can be safeguarded and preserved. The shattering of all our material illusions during the World War and during the present economic recession has made the clear-visioned minds of our day see that apostasy from the principles of the Saviour, the abandonment of the spiritual life and the transgression of the commandments of God, have led of necessity to our ruin and confusion worse confounded.
There is hope for us, however - and a glorious hope it is - in the victory of Christ over Satan. By permitting the Prince of Darkness to tempt Him even though it was wholly exterior and did not touch His sinless soul, He proved that He is not insensible to our difficulties, our sorrows and our temptations. We cannot say to Him what Satan said to God about Jacob: "But now put forth Your hand and touch his bone and his flesh and surely You shall see that he will blaspheme You to Your face". - Job 2:5 -
Our Lord does know what it is to be tempted away from divinity and the primacy of the spirit; His bones, His flesh were touched unto scourging and crucifixion and His answer was greater than Job's. Job answered: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord". - Job 1:21 - But the Saviour answered: "Not MY will but Yours be done". - Luke 22:42 - Our King then is One who knows what it is to have His armour assailed by temptation for, in the language of Saint Paul: "For our High Priest isn't One is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses; He was tempted in every way we are, yet never sinned.
Therefore, let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need". - Heb. 4:15-16 - In Him we will find One who feeds us not on earthly bread which perishes but on the heavenly manna which endures unto life everlasting; in Him we find One who vanquishes Satan who would have us exchange an immortal soul for the perishable cities of the world; in Him we find One who asks us, not Satan-like, to cast ourselves down as stones from temples but to lift ourselves up as souls into Heaven.
He was born to change the world to make its religion unworldly, its worship divine and its food the Eucharist. He lived to teach us that life is a struggle and that only those who persevere unto the end shall be saved. He was tempted in order to remind us that as there was a flash of arch-angelic spears when His Father closed the gates of Heaven on the back of Satan, so shall there be a flash of spears and arrows of Heaven-directed prayer as His Church closes the gates of earth upon him who would make himself like unto God; for Christ, the King, the Saviour, was born, lived, died and rose to drive Satan from earth as His Father had driven him from Heaven.
BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN ( 1895 - 1979 )
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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