“And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.” So saith St. Luke. Then Satan ventured once more. When?

Nothing but the obedience of the Son, the obedience unto death, the absolute doing of the will of God because it was the truth, could redeem the prisoner, the widow, the orphan. But it would redeem them by redeeming also the conquest-ridden ruler, the stripe-giving jailer, the unjust judge...

And how would our Lord, in thus conquering, be a servant of Satan? Wherein would this be a falling-down and a worshiping of him who was the lord of misrule and its pain?

Could it not be other than a temptation to think that he might, if he would, lay a righteous grasp upon the reins of government? Glad visions arose before him of the prisoner breaking jubilant from the cell of injustice, of the widow lifting up the bowed head before the devouring Pharisee. Could he not mold the people at his will? Could he not, transfigured in his snowy garments, call aloud in the streets of Jerusalem, “Behold your King?” The fierce warriors of his nation would beat their ploughshares into swords to fight a grand holy war against the tyrants of the race. 

And as Jesus refused to make stones bread, so throughout his life he never wrought a miracle to help himself; as he refused to cast himself from the temple to convince Satan or glory visibly in his Sonship, so he steadily refused to give the sign which the human Satans demanded...

Faith is that which, knowing the Lord’s will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits, content in ignorance as in knowledge...

If the Father told him to cast himself down, that moment the pinnacle pointed naked to the sky. If the devil threw him down, let God send his angels; or, if better, allow him to be dashed to pieces in the valley below. But never will he forestall the divine will...

Without bread a man will die; but he will not find that he dies. He will only find that the tent which hid the stars from him is gone, and that he can see the heavens. Our Lord says, “I can do without the life that comes of bread; without the life that comes of the word of my Father, I die indeed.”

Let us look at the individual temptations represented in the parable. First, he was hungry, and the devil said, Make bread of this stone. Let no one think to glorify the Lord’s fast by calling it miraculous

Think of our Lord’s understanding, imagination, and heart, in which lay the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Must he not have known, felt, imagined, and rejoiced in things that could not be told in human words, nor understood by human hearts?