Fasting And Trials

Jejunavit autem ideo quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus, ut indicaret nos ab illicitis debere jejunare, sive in tempore prosperitatis, quod per dies designatur, sive in tempore adversitatis, quod per noctes notatur. Et accedens tentator. Visa esurie, accessit tentator, quia non putabat Deum, quem fragilem videbat. Viderat stellas, viderat magos, audierat Joannem clamantem: Hic est Agnus Dei. Audierat forsitan de coelo vocem Patris, sed putavit eum vocari filium adoptivum, sicut et alios sanctos. Audierat prophetas, sciebat Christum venturum. Sed quum omnia ista vidisset signa, non tamen credidit esse Deum, et hoc faciebat ejus superbia. Credidit enim, quod sicut ipse nunquam voluit pati infirmitatem, sed voluit etiam super omnia exaltari, sic non credidit Deum velle ullam pati infirmitatem, judicans eum ex animo suo; et ideo visa infirmitate in Christo, eum esse Deum nullo modo credidit, et tamen explorat, quum dicit: Si Filius Dei es. Et tentat, cum dicit: Dic ut lapides isti panes fiant. Volebat enim per panem visum gulam incitare. Qui enim esurit, viso cibo plus cupit. Volebat enim per mutationem tentare potentiam, et tamen si miraculum videret, non ideo crederet quia etiam prophetas viderat majora fecisse, sed hominem per panem illudere volebat. Satis convenienter lapides offert, qui durus est et impoenitens; et quia scriptum audierat: Ipse dixit, et facta sunt, quasi per potentiam blanditur, dicens: Dic solummodo et fiet, si Filius Dei es. Qui respondens dixit. Docet nos contra tentationem clypeum Scripturarum opponere. Non utitur divina potestate, cum posset tamen eum, ut Deus fugare, quia veritatem suae divinae potentiae noluit ostendere, ut qui incertus venerat, incertus rediret. Non in solo pane. Ista auctoritas sumpta est de Deuteronomio; Moyses enim videns quod homo de gemina substantia factus est, videlicet corpore et anima, et neutrum sine sustentamento posse subsistere; corpus enim petit terreno cibo sustentari; anima vero, quae est substantia spiritualis, pane coelesti; ait: Non in solo pane vivit homo, etc. Deus est panis angelorum, sed homo Deum non potest comedere, nisi factum lac, ideo per figuras ei ostenditur, id est per verba, et per alias ostensiones quae omnia verba dicuntur, et ideo dicit, quod homo vivit, in omni verbo, id est in omni genere locutionum, Dei, id est in quibus Deus ostenditur. Quaeritur quomodo haec responsio tentationi supradictae repugnet? Solutio: Hoc sonat quasi diceret, persuasio tua patet, quia tentantis est. De cibo enim corporis agis, qui communis est cum pecoribus, non de cibo mentis, qui est nobis communis cum angelis. Si enim amice ageres, de meliori cibo prius me admoneres, sine quo nemo vere vivere potest: Non enim in solo pane, etc. Anselmus Laudunensis, Enarrationes In Matthaeum, Caput IV Source: Migne PL 162.1272a-d

Therefore He fasted forty days and forty nights to indicate that we should fast from what is forbidden, either in times of prosperity, which the days signify, or in times of adversity which the nights declare. 'And the tempter approached.' 1 He saw Him hunger, and the tempter approached, because he did not think that he could be God whom he saw was fragile. He had seen the star, the wise men, he heard John crying out, 'Behold the Lamb of God,' perhaps he heard the voice of the Father from heaven, but he thought Him called a son by adoption, like the other saints. He had heard the prophets, he knew Christ was to come, but he who had seen all these signs did not believe that He was God. And this was the work of his pride, for he believed that just as he was never willing to suffer weakness, but wished to be exalted over all things, so God would not be willing to suffer infirmity, measuring him by his own mind. Therefore seeing infirmity in Christ, he in no way believed Him to be God, and so he tested Him, saying to Him, 'If you are the Son of God.' And he tempted Him when he said, 'Tell these stones to become bread.' For by the sight of bread he wished to incite greed. He who hungers does so more by the sight of food. And by this transformation he wished to test His power, and yet if he had seen a miracle, he would have not thus believed, because he had seen the prophets do greater things, but he wished to trick man through bread. Very appropriately he who was hard and impenitent brought forth stones. And because he had heard it was written: 'He spoke and it was done,' 2 and as coaxing out his power, he says, 'Just speak and it shall be so, if you are the Son of God.' And in response He spoke, and that to teach us to oppose temptation with the shield of the Scripture. He does not use His divine power, though it was possible, as if fleeing from Godhood, because He did not wish to show the truth of His Divine power, so that he who came in uncertainty should also depart in it. 'Not on bread alone.' He takes up this authority from Deuteronomy, for Moses, seeing that man was made from two substances, obviously body and soul, and that neither are able to exist without sustenance, and that the body sustains itself from the earth, but the soul from spiritual substance which is the bread of heaven, says, 'Man does not live on bread alone.' 3 God is the bread of angels, but man is not able to receive Him, unless he is made milk, and therefore God is shown to him through figures, that is, through words, and through other revelations which are told with every word, and therefore he says that a man lives by every word, that is, in every type of speaking about God in which God is revealed. Is it asked how this answer repulsed the aforementioned temptation? Here is the solution: He speaks as if He said, 'Your persuasion is obvious, because it is a test. For you ask for the bread of the body, which is common to beasts, not the bread of the mind, which we have in common with angels. If you were a friend, you would first admonish me concerning the better food, without which one cannot truly live. 'Not on bread alone.' Anselm of Laon, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 4 1 Mt 4.3 2 Ps 32.9 3 Deut 8.3