Bread and Circus

Thursday March 1st, Luke 4: 1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'" The Romans knew the secret of dealing with the masses. It was called “bread and circus.” Give them something to eat and entertainment and the government can get away with murder, literally. Not much different from our cry for tax cuts and war. As long as the war machine turns a good profit on Wall street for those at the top, and the rest of us can buy the illusion that we too can get there someday if only these little people don’t take it away from us. Jesus refusal to turn the stones into bread is a call for us also to return to the Word of God for our sustenance.