At the beginning of His ministry the devil tempted Jesus to test God to throw Himself down, but also to look for the help of the angels. This is not the path He has chosen. Though he was in the form of God Jesus did not cling to His equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant and submitting to death, even death on a cross. The devil tempted Jesus with the idea that He was too great to fall without being born up on angels’ wings. But He really did submit to be what we are. He willed to share our human mortality so that we could be united with His divine life. So He took the cross and at once fell with it to the dust. And no angel came.

Father though Jesus fell to the dust, when we fall you raise us up, not on angels’ wings, but in His wounded hands. give us thankful hearts and teach us so to live that we neither fall ourselves nor cause others to stumble.