Sunday, March 10, 2019

The "Temptation" of Christ was not Tempting to Christ


Any tempting in question is merely on the part of the devil who toys with Christ. This "temptation" is tempting only in the sense of being a sin of irreligion as defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is the sin of presuming to tell God what to do, of manipulating God, of treating Him as a hypothesis... "If,...if...if..." making Him the object of an experiment to be "proven" by the tempter. It's the typical sin of the non-believer who would presume to dissect God as if he were an earthworm in a biology class.

CCC #2119 The sin of "[t]empting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act.(Cf. Lk. 4:9) Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test."(Deut. 6:16) The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds the respect and trust we owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his love, his providence, and his power.(Cf. 1 Cor. 10:9; Ex. 17:2-7; Ps. 95:9)"