Friends
Peace be with you.
There’s a famous picture entitled The Preaching of the Antichrist painted by the Italian Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli in the Chapel of San Brizio in Orvieto Cathedral in the town of Orvieto Italy. In the foreground, there is a man who looks very much like the classical image of Jesus standing on a box preaching. To his left, stands a man with horns, obviously the devil, whispering in his ear and it appears that the preaching man’s left arm may actually be the left arm of the devil who is feeding him his lines. It’s quite a striking image of the antichrist, the one in Sacred Scripture who is meant to confuse and, ultimately drive us away from the faith. What I, personally, find so compelling about the image is how closely the antichrist appears to what we have always imagined Jesus to have looked. In this image, the antichrist seems to be pointing towards his heart, very much like the classical images of the Sacred Heart. He even has what appears to be the sun emanating from there. I find this to be a great image because there have been many times when I’ve experienced people behaving in evil ways and the evil ideologies that undergird them which use Christian imagery for their own evil purposes. The satanic movement, for instance, will do what they call a black mass, which mimics our celebration of the Eucharist. I’ve noticed a real concentrated effort on the part of movies to denigrate Christian symbols in favor of more pantheistic, meaning god is in everything, or atheistic, meaning there is no God, messages. Sadly, a few examples of this are the last few Marvel Movies that I’ve seen where Christianity is imaged as the oppressor and baptism imaged not as dying in order to rise but simply as death to an indigenous culture.
But, before we start to think this is something new, let’s look closely at the first reading and the gospel. In the first reading, the devil appears to the first woman, Eve, to tempt her into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Notice he did not lie to her, he just twisted the truth. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they did not die but were able to be like God in knowing good and evil. In the Eucharist, there are four verbs that are consistently used to describe what happens, they are take, bless, break or give, and eat. Notice the description of how Eve eats the forbidden fruit, she takes, eats, and gives. It’s like the Eucharist but it’s missing something. She doesn’t bless God or give thanks as you can translate it. She also eats before she gives. It’s like the Eucharist, but missing something.
The devil, in the gospel, uses scripture to try and tempt Jesus in the desert. In one way or another, each of these temptations are mirroring times when the Israelites were grumbling in the desert on their way to the land they were promised, either about food or testing God’s patience or when they committed idolatry. And the devil even quotes scripture as he is lifting Jesus to the parapet of the temple, encouraging him to subject the Lord’s promises of angelic protection to verification.
The message seems to be that we need to be cautious about what appears to be of God. The evil one knows Sacred Scripture and can quote it to his own use. He can even make advocates that appear like Jesus but are, in truth, listening to the evil one. I once heard that it would make sense that the antichrist would come out of the church, for example if he would be a credible church leader. Indeed, I think of the number of priests and bishops who gain a big following but turn out to be acting in ways that are far from Christlike.
If there’s one thing that we can take from these readings, that should mark our actions and beliefs it’s that they should be marked by a healthy sense of humility. Jesus is tempted three times by the devil he made, the fallen angel he watched walk rebelliously out of heaven. Yet, instead of simply telling the temptor that he has no interest engaging with his enemy, he listens and responds. This is a beautiful model of humility for us. Jesus is not doing it because there is hope the devil will reform. He cannot. He has already condemned himself in his own actions and beliefs. Jesus’ humility, instead, is simply who he is and who we should want to be. How does Jesus’ humility mark our lives?
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