Tertia Pars
Lecture 99: Christ's Temptations and the Order of Temptation

Transcript
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is, what, perfecting the virtue, I mean, hope, okay? And it's very much, you know, when Thomas talks about the theological virtue called hope, you know? It prisms very much the movement of the soul towards the good, right? Why, 3 to 8 and 4 to 8 deal more with, what, fortitude, right? But 3 to 8 deals with the, what, there's two acts of fortitude. One is to approach the, what, terrible, right? You know, and the other is to, what, have patience in suffering, right? So the 40th is more patience in suffering, but 3 to 8 is, what? Yeah, yeah. And you listen to the 3 to 8, you get a good performance, you know? Like Beecham is not like that, huh? Beethoven just looks feeble compared to it. I mean, the power that they have, you know, is amazing, you know? And the 40th, you have this potential suffering, right? So it's striking what Shakespeare has done, I mean, what Mozart has done, right? The 39th, of course, is a little, what, kind of a relaxation of the great band, right? It's a little bit more like the Perkibis Hall, right? You know, but it's still on a very high level, right? So it's got that same beautiful symmetry, right? So what you do in Mozart, in the music there, you, what, use the keys to represent the emotions and also represent the virtues, as Aristotle said. Yeah, I think the imitation doesn't come to the senses, you know? Well, see, what some people say is that it's especially tied up with the representation of the emotions in the tone of the human voice. It's been noted, you know, especially, you know, Corelli's music and so on, Mozart's music. See, Mozart will use a major key, you know, to represent joy, to represent hope, to represent audacity, right? Generally speaking, right? He'll use a minor key to represent sadness, right? To represent despair, to represent fear, to represent, what, anger, right? You know? Don Giovanni goes down to hell, right? This D minor, right? So, then, like I say, C major or D major in time, and then we'll be more irascible, right? And B flat or G, you know, we'll be more, like, conquistable, right? And so, there's a real feeling for the keys in Mozart, huh? And they compare Mozart with Haydn. Haydn will, for variety sake, variety sake, you know, change the sake of variety from one to another. But when Mozart goes from one to another, there's always a reason for it, huh? Mm-hmm. And in Mozart's piano concertos, you know, there's actually kind of a plot in emotions, huh? Mm-hmm. It's almost like Mozart's speaking, you know, I used to kill the children, you know. You hear Mozart's speaking in this movement, you know, and they always seem to hear his voice, you know. But it's really, it's really amazing, you know, what he, what he, what he, what he, what he did to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've talked before about the Marriage of Figaro is like the, uh, Mary Ways of Windsor, right? And it's a moral effect, huh? Yeah. It's amazing what Mozart does and what Shakespeare does. Mm-hmm. Because it belongs to the, to the poet, to lead us to something virtuous, right? To a pseudo-representation. But he shouldn't preach at us, right? That's not the, his role, right? As a musician, huh? Or as a dramatist. But he knows how to do it, right? Mm-hmm. Listen, Pope Paul VI said, the artist has a certain advantage over the preacher, because the preacher's almost kind of like, always an adversary. Yeah. Sort of scolding the people. Whereas the artist makes people sympathetic with the, wherever the hero is lying in virtue. He makes it easier for him to. Yeah. A preacher should preach with a guitar. Yeah. Okay, fine, we'll get you a guitar. I'll take a glasses. Well, it's interesting that in this biography, I was reading of Del Zoon, you know, you know, when he first began, he was, you know, kind of stocratic and didn't know how to give sermons too much, you know. And then eventually he started becoming very good, you know, giver sermons, huh? And he knew how to get the audience and teach them and so on. But, uh, interesting. You see, the first mistake of a preacher is to try to say everything he knows about the subject to that. Yeah, Brother Mark used to think kind of highly of Cardinal Newman's sermons, you know, because there's some simplicity and directness to them, but it's not, you know, like a lecture, you know, or something like that, you know. You don't weary of him. You know, some of them are kind of long. You don't want to weary of him. Yeah. He speaks well. But you find this, I think, of the Church Fathers, huh? These sermons that the Dominicans brought together, you know, for the old liturgical calendar. You have, you know, five or six speeches, you know. I always like the Leo the Great talking about the Incarnation and so on. Just give us some things. I always like the Leo the Great talking about the Incarnation and so on. I always like the Leo the Great talking about the Incarnation and so on. I always like the Leo the Great talking about the Incarnation and so on. I always like the Leo the Great talking about the Incarnation and so on. I always like the Leo the Great talking about the Incarnation and so on. I always like the Leo the Great talking about the Incarnation and so on. Okay, so we just look to the second objection here, right? Yeah, we're in the middle of that, I guess. To the second it should be said that two-fold is the occasion of, what, temptation, right? One from the side of man, right? When someone makes himself, what, near to the sin, right? Not avoiding the, what, occasions of sinning, right? And such an occasion of temptation should be, what, should be avoided, right, huh? Okay. Just as it is said to Lot, right, Genesis 19, to not stand in any region around, what, Sodom, right, huh? Yeah. Yeah, what was the book by, uh... Oh, slouching towards the corner. Yeah, yeah, what we're doing. Yeah, yeah, it's just incredible what goes on nowadays. Another occasion of temptation is on the side of the devil, right, huh? Who always envies, right, those tending to, what, better things, as Ambrose says. That was quoted already, right, the text, I guess. And such an occasion of temptation should not be, what? Whence Christostom says upon Matthew, huh, that not only was Christ led into the desert by the Spirit, but all the sons of God having the, what, Holy Spirit, huh? For they are not content to sit idly, right, huh? But the Holy Spirit urges them to, what? Yeah, some great work, right? Which is to be in the, what, desert, as regards the devil, right, huh? In which, because there is not there injustice in which the devil, what? For every good work is a desert as regards the flesh of the world. Because it is not according to the will of the flesh and of the world, huh? Now, to give such an occasion of temptation to the devil is not periculous, right? Because more is the aid of the Holy Spirit, who is the author of what? Periculous. Than the attack of the devil and being, huh? You read about the Curia of Ars, right, or some other saints, you know. The way the devil, it's almost like, they're almost mocking the devil, right, huh? You know, like, it's, uh, transit for you, at least one day, huh? To the third, it should be said that some say that all the temptations were made in the desert, right? Yeah, whom some say that Christ was led into the Holy City, not really, but according to an imaginary, what, vision. Some, however, say that, what, the Holy City itself, Jerusalem, is called a desert because it was abandoned by, what, by God. But this is not necessary because Marx said that in the desert he was tended by the devil, not, however, that he was only in the desert, right? I don't, I never thought of him as being imaginative, that he's being taken out to a temple and so on, maybe a mountain. Yeah. But that it's, it's a real vision, right? A real man. Now, how about the time where the temptation of... Christ ought to be after what? Fasting, huh? To the third one goes forward thus. It seems that the temptation of Christ ought not to be after fasting. For it is said above that the austerity of conversation or way of behaving does not befit Christ, right? But it was of the greatest austerity that 40 days and 40 nights he ate nothing, right? For thus is understood that he fasted the 40 days and the 40 nights, huh? Because in those days he took no food at all, as Gregory says. Quite a feat there, huh? Therefore it does not seem that, what? He ought to, what? Yeah, he has sinned before such a fast to his temptation, right? He shouldn't have fasted until it's 40 days and 40 nights before he's tempted, right? Yeah. Moreover, Mark 1, it is said that he was in the desert 40 days and 40 nights and he was tempted by Satan. But 40 days and 40 nights he, what? Fasted. Therefore it seems that not after fasting, but at the same time when he fasted, he was tempted by the devil, right? It was the last day. He's still fasting, you know. Moreover, Christ is not, it's not said about him or not read about him, that he, what? Except once fasted, right? But it seems that not only once was he tempted by the devil, for it is said in Luke chapter 4, that having completed every temptation, the devil receded from him for that time. Notice it says every temptation. There are three, right? Three is, I'm about to say, oh yeah. But again, this is what is said in Matthew chapter 4, that when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and afterwards he was hungry, and then there approached him and they were tempted. You know, that's what Thomas says about this now, huh? Dying to know what he says about the article. I answer, it should be said that suitably Christ willed to be tempted after what? Fast, huh? First, for our example, right, huh? Because since to all it is what? To be carded against temptation? Through this, that he, before the temptation, future temptation, fasted, right, huh? He teaches us that through fasting, we ought to be, what? Armed against temptations, right? Whence, among the arms of justice, the apostle, numbers, what? Fasting, huh? So he's saying that Christ is giving us an example that we should strengthen ourselves for temptation by, what? Fasting, huh? One of our hymns says that he gave us arms to fight against Satan, that's a fact, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. The truth all things harmonize, huh? And even in music. Secondly, that he might show also, huh, that even those, what, fasting, right, the devil approaches to, what, to tempt, huh? Just as those who give way or spend their time in good works, right, huh? And therefore, just as after baptism, so also after fasting, Christ was, what, tempted, huh? Whence Chrysostom says upon Matthew, that you might learn how great a good is fasting, right, huh? And in what way it is a shield against the devil, right? This is a military metaphor continuing here. And that after baptism, not to, what, lust is it? But why not to tend to fasting, right, huh? Christ fasted, not needing to fast, but instructing, what, us. So a different reason than the first one, right, because here he's talking about how the devil sees you doing some good thing, just say, well, now what can I do with this guy? Third, because after, what, fasting, there follows, what, hunger, which gave the devil audacity, right, huh, of approaching him, right, huh? I suppose because it was part of his deception, though, right? When the Lord, what, was hungry, right, as Hillary says, huh? He was not, what, yeah, in human nature take its course, so to speak, right? And let the natural result of fasting, it should be hunger, right? For the devil ought not to be, what, overcome by God, but by the flesh, huh? That's kind of interesting, he says that, huh? Whence also, as Christendom says, he did not proceed further in fasting than Moses and Elias. So they fast for 40 days, then? So there's a lot of tradition here for our Lent, huh? Less incredible or unbelievable seeing the, what, assumption of flesh, right? These things to not be human if he fasted more than 40 days, right? So he can fast for 40 days and nuts seem to be a human, right? Or above the human. So if the devil knew that Moses and Elias had fasted 40 days, right? It would not seem to be inhuman that Christ did this too, right? But seeing him weak there, he said, well, I'll try what I can do with this guy. Now what about the Christ eating and drinking, right? Being different from what John, we talked about before, right? The first, therefore, it should be said that it was not, what, fitting Christ, the way of living a sterile life, right, huh? That he might, yeah, come with them. For no one ought to take on the office of preaching unless you were first purged and perfected in virtue, right, huh? This is the way Thomas was talking in the Gospel of Matthew there, right, huh? That before he takes up his public teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, right? He's, what, clothed on high by his baptism, and then he's, you know, tested by the temptations, right, huh? Now he can go and, yeah, now he can preach, you know? So you guys ought to assume the office of preaching until you've been purged in virtue, huh? Yeah, just as is said about Christ that he began to, what? Do indeed. Yeah, yeah. That order is interesting, right? That same psalm I was quoting earlier, that's the order that says, sing joy for the Lord all your sins, and then it talks about what? Observing His law, right? And then it talks about knowing that He is what? The beginning of the end of things and so on. Sing joy for the Lord all your lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, huh? Come before me a joyful song. Know that the Lord is God. He made us as we are. He's people of luck. It ends. So you start with doing, facture, right? And then docure, right? And secondly, I say that's my justification, you know, ex post facto for being the Summa Contra Gentiles, right? Because that's exactly what the Summa Contra Gentiles is divided, right? God in Himself, God is the Maker, God is the End, right? So that's my delicate encoding scripture, yeah. Justify your way of life. But I mean, you have the order there, right? Sing joy for the Lord all your lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. That's fatur, right? Come before me joyful song. Know that the Lord is God. He made us as we are. His people of luck and dance. That's the Summa Contra Gentiles. You first have to serve the Lord, and then you pick up the Summa Contra Gentiles, and that's it. It's an amazing book, actually. It's amazing. I come back and I know what chapter says. I didn't realize there's much in this chapter. But like Charles DeConnick used to say, he'd been teaching the physics there, you know, since 1930 and so on. And even now, every time he goes through to teach it again, he sees something he didn't see before. And I heard that famous story of DeConnick and Dion there in Rome there, during the Vatican Council, and Dion pointed something out to DeConnick there, you know, natural philosophy of DeConnick, you know. How can I understand all these years, he says. How can I understand all these years, he says. How can I understand all these years, he says. How can I understand all these years, how can I understand all these years? Kind of amazing, you know, you can look at some DeConnick there, you know. Amazing, man. But there's always, you know, so much in these things. They were kind of purity attached to the Cardinal of Quebec, I guess. Because it was, yeah. DeConnick actually died in Rome, huh? Kind of interesting, huh? His last letter to his wife, and he says, my work here is done. Whether he knew it was quite that done. You know, this is nice. He was not that old. He'd be maybe 60, if that old, you know. But he was suffering from enchanting a pectoris, you know. I know in the last two years, I pushed him up the stairs, like that, you know. Wow. So he was in bad shape, you know. So did he actually, what did he do as his youngest child, or was he really a brother? Yeah, well, they were growing up, most of them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 13 years or something. 12, yeah. About 12 years. Okay. So Christ began to do and to teach, right? This is in Acts 1. And therefore, Christ, immediately after baptism, he took on a stereotype life, right? That he might teach after the flesh had been overcome, right? Or dominated, right? It's necessary to, what? Go over to the office of preaching, right? According to that of the apostle, right? I, what? Chastise my body and reduce it to slavery, right? There you go. Lest, in preaching to others, I myself become reprobate, huh? I reprobate, huh? That's marvelous. Yeah. That thought, huh? What is it? Was it the life there of Dominic, you know, like he's 10 years there in prayer, you know, in the monastery, and then 10 years in study, and then 10 years in founding the order, you know? And he's a real solidity, you know, of preparation for the next step, you know? And I was just a, you know, really solid man, right? I can see how Thomas belongs in that order with this idea. To the second it should be said, huh? That that word of Mark can be understood that he was in the desert 40 days and 40 nights in which he fasted. But what is said that he was tempted by Satan, it should be understood not in those 40 days and 40 nights, but after them, right? In that Matthew says that when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterwards he was hungry, from which the tempter took the occasion of approaching him, right? Whence it is subjoined that the angels minister to him, right? And it should be consecutively understood from this that Matthew says that then the devil, what, left him after he failed, I guess, right? After the temptation, and behold, angels approached him and ministered to him, right? But what Mark adds or puts in there that he was with the beasts, right? Is induced or brought in according to Christendom to showing what way there was a desert, right? Because it was not suitable to men, right? And full beasts, right? I'm sure it's like he's lecturing to them like Francis, right? Nevertheless, according to the exposition now of Bede, though, right, huh? The Lord is tempted, what? 40 nights. But this is not to be understood, but this is to be understood not about those visible temptations which Matthew and Luke, what? Narrate, huh? That were made or done after the fast, right? But about some other, what? Bells, which perhaps, right? In that time of fasting, Christ underwent the devil. So there might have been some other, right? Even before that, but Thomas leaves that up as my text here as a little footnote. Do not despise the exposition of B about the other temptations. Before those three that are named, right? Because often the devil takes on various bodily likenesses, to form various bodily likenesses to tempting Christ, huh? Interesting. Kind of this, indeed, huh? Tempts, he says, a lot in the golden chain, huh? Now to the third, it should be said that as Ambrose says upon Luke, the devil receded from Christ for a time, right, huh? Because afterwards, not to tempt, but he came to openly, what? Fight against him, right, huh? That's to say in the time of his, what, passion. And nevertheless, through that attack, he seems to, what, tempt Christ with sadness and, what? Neighbors, yeah. Just as in the desert with the pleasure of bloodling and contempt of God by what? Idolatry, right? It'll break here, but we do the... He has to raise the stones here, the fourth article here. He has to raise the stones here. and he has to raise the stones here. He has to raise the stones here. The rest is just that rabbit food, the salad and so on, right? But now we get to the thing here. Now I notice you've got several objections here, right? To the fourth one proceeds thus. It seems there is not a suitable way in order of temptation. Of course, in Matthew and Luke, there's a different order, right? These are real problems, right? The temptation of the devil was to induce one to what? Sin. But if Christ had, what? Rendered service to his body's hunger by converting stones to bread, right? He would not have sinned, right? Just as he did not sin when he multiplied the loaves, which was not a lesser miracle that he might aid the, what, hungry crowd, right? So why couldn't he have done the same thing for himself, right? And therefore, it seems that nothing was a temptation, huh? I'm convinced of that. That's convincing, right? Amazing. Moreover, no persuader, huh? Suitably persuades the contrary of what he intends, right? But the devil, standing Christ upon the pinnacle of the temple, intended to tempt him by pride or vain glory. Therefore, unsuitably, he persuaded him that he'd throw himself, what? Down. Which is contrary to pride or vain glory, which always seeks to ascend. It's almost like a argument from the metaphor there, right? Moreover, one temptation is suitable that it might be about, what? One sin. But in the tempting, which is on the mount, he persuaded two sins, namely concupiscence, huh? I mean, cupidity in the sense of desiring material things, and also idolatry, right? If you fall down and worship me, he said, right? Yeah. He did not, therefore, it was not there for a suitable mode of temptation, right? Moreover, temptations are ordered to sins. But there are seven capital vices, as has been had in the second part of the Sumer, right? But he did not tempt him except about three of them, namely about gluttony and vain glory and cupidity, avarice, right? Therefore, it does not seem to be a sufficient temptation. Persever. Yeah. Moreover, after victory over all vices, there remains the temptation for man of pride or vain glory, like Augustine says, huh? Because pride even, what, gets insidious, right, into even our good works, right? They might perish, right? Seems kind of unfair, right? You do all these good things, and now you get tempted to pride, right? Unsudably, therefore, Matthew lays down as the last, what, temptation, that of cupidity in the mountain, and the middle, that of inane glory in the, what, temple, especially since Luke orders it a conversal, right? There we are. More, Jerome says upon Matthew that the proposal of Christ was to overcome the devil by humility, right? Not by power. And here he says humility is justice, right? Jerome says. Therefore, it seems that he ought not, what, imperially, right, commanding him, yet we repel him by doing that, right? Get behind him, Satan, huh? Bodies of God. Moreover, the narration of the gospel seems to contain something false. For it seems not possible that Christ, what, could be on the pinnacle of the temple without being seen by others, huh? Nor is there some mountain so high that the whole world can be, what, looked upon, huh? That thus from it he could show Christ all the kingdoms of the world, right? Unsudby, therefore, is described the temptation of Christ, huh? You know, can you see an opposite to this, or the authority of scripture? Both man and man and man. Included is... I mean, just as the authority of scripture. Yeah. I answer, he says, it should be said that the temptation which is from the enemy comes about by way of suggestion, right? As Gregorius says, huh? Gregorius says. But not, however, in the same way is something able to be, what? To all. But to each to suggest is something from those things about which he is affected, huh? And therefore, the devil, huh? Does not immediately tempt the spiritual man about the most grave sins, right? But out of it, by bit. From the lesser ones, the weaker ones, the lighter ones, shall we say, huh? He begins, right, huh? That afterwards he might lead them to the more grave ones, huh? Whence Gregory, huh? Chapter 31 of the Morales, expounding that of Job, chapter 39. At a distance, at a distance is what? Yeah. The exhortation of the, what? Leaders. And the cries of the army, huh? Well, are the, what? The leaders said to, what? Exhort. The, what? Shout. Because the first vice is, huh? To a deceived mind, right? Under some reason, they injet it themselves, right? But the innumerable ones that follow. Sounds like our world today, huh? Yeah. When these draw them to omnimensarium, huh? To every kind of insanity, right, huh? They confound his word by the bestial clamor, right, huh? Yeah, right. Okay. Yeah. That's kind of funny, huh? Because Obama was giving a speech yesterday, right? And some of these homosexuals there were, you know, yelling at him, you know, because he's immediately suspended this, you know, silent tell. We're going to do what he says. He says, we're going to do it. You know, me and Sir J. Boxer, you know, I just said that crazy woman there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this same thing the devil observes in the temptation of the first man, huh? For first, he solicits the mind of the first man about eating the, what? The fruit. Saying, why does God command you that you're not eating of every tree of the paradise? Secondly, about inane glory, huh? When he says, you know, eyes will be open, right? Third, he leads, or extends the temptation to the extreme pride. You will be as gods, knowing good and what evil, huh? In this order of tempting, he also observes in Christ. For first, he tempts him about what are desired, no matter how, what men are. Namely, about the sustaining of the bodily nature through, what? Food. Secondly, he proceeds to that in which spiritual men sometimes fail, that some things they do to, what? Show, huh? Which pertains to inane glory, huh? But as the poets say that.