When Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread [Matt. 4_1-3]
THE devil has a special fondness for people when they are alone. Christ was not tempted in a town or among the multitudes. It was during His forty days of fasting in the desert that He was approached by the devil. Satan and his assistants are put on high alert when someone might be in a position to converse with God. They hate it when their targets set off on their own.
The group man and the team player are allowed to drift along. But the person who embarks on a solitary path with no teammates prompts the famous general to pull out his maps. The commander studies his battle plan, considers shortcuts and highlights inadequate defenses. Every campaign is unique.
“The devil envies those who are tending toward a better life,” said Thomas Aquinas. A mother returns home with her newborn. She is excited and happy. After a few weeks or months, she may find herself battling the temptation toward discouragement. He tells her she is lonely. He tells her home is shabby and poor. He tells her she isn’t doing anything important. He tells her to leave the desert and turn stones into bread.
“Temptation is very personalized,” said Livio Fanzaga, in The Great Deceiver. The evil one “behaves like every expert hunter who, for every species of animal, prepares specific bait.” As Fanzaga notes, the devil always appears as an objective counselor. His reasons are compelling. But there are a whole host of other points he never mentions. He even convinces people who live amid opulence and a level of plenty that was unknown in most of history that they are needy. He prefers to get us to worry about money or our health or the environment or world poverty so he can relax for awhile. He is a liar, and a vociferous one, deliberately drawing attention from the spiritual riches we possess. He is an expert nag, achieving through repetition what cannot be achieved through force of argument alone.
We sometimes discover disquieting truths about ourselves when we head off on our own. No one else can do the job of repentance for us. If we think we can forego the battle with ourselves, we are unprepared for the beauty of the wilderness. We will find ourselves leaving the desert just when we should have stayed. For no matter how inhospitable this void may be, God is waiting there to converse with us. He wants us to begin the conversation. He wants to turn the barren stones of our hearts into bread.
