The Benedictine monks of the congregation of Saint Maur relegated this homily to the appendix of the sermons of Saint Augustine, being uncertain to what author it ought to be attributed. But that it must be assigned altogether to Maximus is established not only by the editors—Gymnicus, Galesinius, Cumdius, Combefis, Margarinus, Raynaud—but is also demanded by the authority of the manuscript codices: the Laurentian I, Plut. XIV; the Vallicellianus, vol. II, page 203; the Lucensis 85; the Augiensis; the Martinensis; the Taurinensis; to which is added both the wonderful similarity of style and the manner of adducing the testimonies of holy Scripture, which Maximus was accustomed to use. We have thought that it should be edited before the one that follows, not only because most codices so arrange it;
but also because this one seems to be referred back to the preceding one. The contest with the tempter, which was carried through by our Lord Jesus Christ, as was read, profits, dearly beloved brethren, for our security and salvation; because those whom of old, in paradise, the ancestral transgression, by the persuasion of the serpent, cast down into death, the Lord's triumph has now raised up to life. And so He conquered for us, who deigned to hunger for us. Therefore the devil sets about to tempt Christ, and anxiously probes whether perhaps he may detect Him to be the Son of God, in whom he sees no trace of his own corruption. He marvels and at the same time is troubled that such a man has come into this world, one who was indeed born of a woman, yet was not begotten by a man.
He suspects Him to be the Son of God, whom he sees to have completed a continuous fast of forty days; but again he doubts that a divine nature is in Him, whom he perceives to hunger like an infirm man among the rest of men. He stands astonished, thunderstruck, at what this novelty is: to have no human sin, and yet to sustain the necessity of a sinful man. But Christ our Lord and Redeemer, in order to recall lost and infirm man to God, took upon Himself hunger, weariness, sorrow, and all the infirmities of a human body. Amid these things, therefore, the devil, doubtful and uncertain, engages the hungering Lord with this speech: 'If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread' (Matthew 4).
Foolish and audacious was he, to think that the Son of God would do the devil's will out of the necessity of eating—as if it were impossible for Him to change stones into bread, He who once brought forth for the thirsting peoples in the desert most abundant streams of waters from the dry rock (Exodus 17); or as if He could not provide food for Himself hungering after the fast of forty days, at whose command heavenly nourishment flowed from the clouds, that the innumerable host of the Hebrews might be fed (Exodus 16). But truly the almighty Only-begotten, who hungered rather for our salvation, confounded His tempter with this answer: 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God' (Deuteronomy 8).
By which answer, dearly beloved, in order that the explorer, who had come uncertain, might be rendered more uncertain, the Lord of inestimable prudence neither denied that hunger was in Him, nor professed that He had the necessity of eating. 'Man,' He said, 'does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' That is: 'Although I hunger, yet, O devil, bread is not necessary for me; but the word of God works for all the faithful the substance of everlasting salvation.' But the enemy, incapable of being taught, said again to the Lord standing upon the pinnacle of the temple: 'If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down; for it is written that He has given His angels charge concerning you, that they may bear you up in their hands, lest ever you dash your foot against a stone' (Matthew 4). 'Cast yourself,' he said, 'down.'
It is of the devil's custom, dearly beloved brethren, to persuade to a fall; but He could not obey him, who knew not how to fall. Nor does the deceiver obtain anything concerning the Lord, because his words are not those of religion, but frauds. Him the Redeemer of the human race again beats back with the weapon of a heavenly sentence, saying: 'It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' By which answer, lest the author of falsehood should hear anything of the manifest truth, the Lord, the moderator of words and meanings, from on high neither betrayed that He was able, nor lyingly said that He was unable, but said, 'It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' That is: he tempts God who, by the vice of his boastfulness, wishes to make a display of superfluous and useless power.
'For what usefulness has it, what advantage does it confer, if I descend from here into the plain by a headlong fall? Or why do you urge these things by the enticements of your flattery, since it is the work of yourself to cast down to lower things one falling from higher?' After these things, indeed, as the reading gone through testifies: 'He led him onto an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, saying: All these I will give you, if you fall down and adore me': so that the deceiver, deceiving, offers what he does not have; and, being truly blind, promises the kingdoms of the earth to the Lord of the heavens: 'All these,' he says, 'I will give you, if you fall down and adore me.' Truly he falls down and falls, who acquires the dignities of the world, not by God's bestowing, but at the nod of the devil. But the Lord answered him: 'Get behind me, Satan;'
for it is written: 'You shall adore the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve.' He who by tempting came even to this point, that he demanded to be adored by the very Son of God whom he ought to adore, reckoning that Christ, who could not be deceived by the stealthy suggestion of praise, would betray Himself to the explorer by indignation at the insult offered. But the most valiant champion, who was waging a new war on behalf of our life and liberty against His own tyrant, is neither broken by flattery on the mountain, nor moved by the harshest injuries, but so answered all the enemy's temptations that the tempter could not detect the sacrament of the heavenly mystery in one and the same being who was both God and man.
And therefore, brethren, following the example of the Lord's contest and victory, and guarding against the devil's snares, let us celebrate this fast of forty days, acceptable to our God. For then shall we be able to overcome the deceits of the adversary, if by continual prayers we either restrain the vices of the body through chaste fasts, or cleanse our heart from all vanity and ambition; as the Saviour Himself says: 'This kind is not cast out except by fasting and prayer' (Matthew 17). And he fasts well, whoever sustains his own hunger by the fullness of the refreshed poor; he fasts well, who, restraining himself by the remembrance of the divine fast, holds himself back from every pleasure of enticements; he fasts well, who (chastises) his flesh sprouting the seeds of vices.
He fasts well, who chastises (his flesh) by meditation on holy virtues and by the love of sobriety; he fasts well, who forgives fraternal injuries with the gentleness of a peaceful heart; he offers a fast most pleasing to God, who keeps his mind from wicked thoughts, his eyes from concupiscence, his tongue and hands from strife. And after all things, brother, you shall be blessed, and you shall well hunger for bread and thirst for the cup, if with the affection of a Christian mind you have begun to hunger and thirst for righteousness, as the Lord Himself said: 'Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew 5). Wherefore, dearly beloved, if we wish to overcome the devil with Christ; if we desire, passing from the world, to reign with God;
if we wish to celebrate with joyful minds the most sacred day of the Lord's resurrection, let us indeed temper ourselves from food or drink according to our strength, but let us fast from vices with all our strength.