Matthew 4:1-11
Keep your eyes on the Heart that refused to turn stones into bread, jump from great heights, and rule with great power.
Who allows His Heart to be touched by the poor, the maimed, the halt and blind. A Heart that becomes poor with the poor, rejected with the rejected and abandoned with the abandoned.
"Where is peace found? - it is there in those places of the heart we feel broken, insecure, in agony, most afraid..
Why there?
Because in our weakness our familiar ways of: controlling and manipulating are being stripped away, where we no longer fix, force or find! -- Right there where we are most vulnerable, The Peace That is Not of This World is mysteriously hidden - "Peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your HEARTS and mind through Christ Jesus." - Phil. 4-8.
You see, I am convinced that everything which happens to us is the instrument by which He Himself draws us into His wounded Heart through our own human condition. It is He who first suffers the pain we suffer -this is love! Only in the awesome environment of such Truth can we hear Christ speak to us Heart to heart.
My Elder, Fr. McNulty, shares a conversation between himself and Christ - Jesus speaking to him:
"You and I are one. You must not look anywhere else for the meaning of your pain or darkness, no matter what the sin or the consequences of it. Come into my Heart through yours and I will show you everything. All I need is a heart pierced by its own human condition just like Mine has been pierced, a heart that has no place else to go but to My Heart. I will do the rest."
Only God can say and do things like that. This is not psychology, or mere spirituality, but Grace formed by revelation, not meant to be learned theoretically, but personally experienced and assimilated." -Seraphim+ NHA
Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
