The Long March

style=width:236px;height:300px;float:right;" >WHEN SAINT Anthony began his Commentaries on the Sundays in Lent, he evidently intended to write at some length on each. He offers two treatments of the Gospel for the first Sunday, two alternative treatments of the second Sunday (the Gospel reading in France was different from that in use at Rome), and a very extensive single treatment of the Gospel for the third Sunday. He was probably working on these through the winter months of 1223/4 at Limoges. But (as many writers do), he found that he was running out of time to complete his projected work. Spring was approaching, with the opportunity of travel, preaching to the people and visiting the friaries under his supervision. The Commentaries for the last three Sundays of Lent are noticeably shorter than those for the first three.



Anthony opens the series with a meditation on Christ in the desert. The devil tempted Him in three ways, which our Saint sees as in some way parallel to the temptation of Adam, and the temptation of every human being. There was the temptation of Bread, that of the Temple, and that of the Kingdoms of the World. These can be seen as temptations of the flesh, of spiritual pride (or vainglory), and of worldliness. These three are given various names; the World, the Flesh and the Devil; the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. The poet T. S. Eliot spoke of the false gods of Usury, Lust and Power. They all come down to the same thing.



Anthony has specific advice for confessors and for those making their confession. It seems that in his day not all priests fully understood the absolute inviolability of the confessional. Equally, penitents needed to be reminded of the need to be clear just what they are confessing, not concealing it by vagueness and euphemism. There is still need for practical advice in this area, and parish clergy might well ponder how best to give it. The whole topic of penitence, it seems to me, is in need of revisiting and renewal.





Go up to the mountain!





We now have the Gospel of the Transfiguration on the second Sunday in Lent, but in Anthony’s time this was not universal. In France and elsewhere the story of the healing of the Canaanite woman’s daughter was read. This gave Anthony the opportunity to treat the spiritual life both as liberation from the devil, and as enlightenment by God. In Lent, we are particularly concerned with the struggle against sin, and it is important for us to understand just how insidious the snares of Satan are, and how he subverts our freedom in ways we hardly appreciate. In the First Letter of John (1:8) we are warned that “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,” and this is the great deceit and illusion that the devil practices on us – persuading us that we are in no need of liberation or salvation. In fact, it is only when we separate ourselves from temptation and, as it were, ‘go up the mountain’ with Jesus that we are able to see things as they really are. For the three disciples, the veil was momentarily drawn aside, and the glory of the Lord was shown them.





Casting out the devil





The longest of the Lenten sermons, the one for the third Sunday, again concerns casting out a devil. Matthew says that the demoniac was blind, as well as deaf and dumb. Anthony interprets this as the devil’s influence making it impossible for the sinner to see or hear the truth, and in consequence unable to speak it. In particular, the sinner does not perceive and know his own condition, and fails to obey the Word of God. (In Latin, the word for obedience is closely connected with that for hearing.) The consequence of this is that he is incapable of speaking out in confession, through which the healing power of the sacrament can come to him.



The healing of the demoniac by our Lord is followed by His warning that if the empty house is not filled with something positive, the devil will simply return in greater force. Conversion is not just a turning away from sin, it must be a turning towards the Lord, an invitation to Him to come and dwell in our souls, to fill them with His Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is established in us, there is no way that the devil will be able to return. Anthony ends this long commentary with an invocation to our Lady (the Gospel ends with the woman in the crowd saying, “Blessed is the womb that bore you”). Our Lady is the supreme example of one who heard and obeyed the Word of God, and who is full of the grace of the Spirit.





The bread of life





The Gospel for the fourth Sunday is that of the feeding of the multitude with loaves and fishes. Anthony’s treatment is short, and again concerned with repentance, but we may also see the Gospel as a reminder of the importance of the Eucharist in our daily spiritual journey through the desert. This follows on from the theme of the previous week – a spirituality that is just a cold moralism, avoiding sin, will not do. We must have a living relationship with Jesus Christ, and the way that He has given us Himself is pre-eminently through frequent sacramental Communion. Even where this is difficult to practice, there can be regular spiritual Communion, carefully prepared for by (for instance) reading the texts given for Mass, as well as other devotional books.





Desert and paradise





On the Fifth Sunday, Anthony returns to the theme of the desert, which is the overall background to Lent. He quotes Jeremiah, “Am I become a wilderness to Israel?” “The Lord is no wilderness,” he answers, “or a late-yielding land which produces little or no fruit. He is the paradise of the Lord, a land of blessing in which whatever we sow we reap a hundredfold.” It is easy, as we march through the desert, so barren and unfriendly, to lose sight of the Promised Land. Abstinence, discipline and prayer can become a burden at times, but we must try always to have our Lord in view.



Jesus Himself, our Lord and our God, did not enter into glory until He had passed through the agonies of Gethsemane and the Cross. The Palm Sunday crowds spread their garments in the way, carried branches, and shouted Hosanna. As we prepare to unite ourselves with the Passion, we should humble our bodies, and gather the ever-green examples of holiness in our Lady and the saints. Then we should praise our Saviour with hearts and voices.