The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Luke 4:3-4
Do you ever wonder how Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days? It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “Jesus is God. He doesn’t need to eat!” But “Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine person…” (CCC 480). As a man, Jesus did indeed need to eat. Our Gospel reading from the first Sunday of Lent (Luke 4:1-13) gives us a clue about how Jesus survived in the desert that long without food: He lived on more than bread alone.
On refuting the devil’s first temptation, Jesus quoted Moses who reminded the Israelites how God cared for them during their forty years in the desert: “Remember how for these forty years the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness, so as to test you by affliction, to know what was in your heart: to keep his commandments, or not. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).
Jesus lived in the desert on all that comes from the mouth of God. And what comes forth is His Holy Word, the Scriptures. Additionally, prayer is talking with God one-on-one, so His word to each of us in our own hearts also comes forth from His mouth. Notice something interesting in the reading from Deuteronomy. The Lord allowed the people to be hungry as a test of the heart, to see where they would turn. But then He fed them manna, which is knowns as “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4; John 6:32). Sound familiar? Manna is an Old Testament type of the Eucharist. In eating the manna, they were to remember that they live on what is provided by God. The mystery of transubstantiation where the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ do so by means of the priest’s words spoken in persona Christi, the person of Christ.
“The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: ‘This is my body which is given for you’ and ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.’…It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. the Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion.”
CCC 1365 & 1375
These three things necessary for sustenance during fasting–reading Scripture, personal prayer, and frequent reception of the Most Holy Eucharist–is indispensable advice for us as we undertake our spiritual discipline of fasting this Lent. The end goal of fasting isn’t hunger itself; it’s reliance on God. My favorite way to get a taste of all of these is at daily Mass, three in one!
Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us the spiritual nourishment we need to persevere with our Lenten fasts. Help me to rely on Your word, Your guidance, and the bread of the angels this Lent, especially when I am experiencing temptation.