IC I: 13; 19^th Sunday A

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This daily prayer that concludes the Our Father testifies to the omnipresence of temptation. As long as we live in this world, we can’t remain without it. Jesus told us to! Stay awake! And watch; St. Peter warned that the devil prowls like a roaring lion looking for prey. No one is so perfect and holy that he is never tempted nor immune from the possibility of falling into sin. Since there’s no guarantee that anyone will withstand every impulse to sin; great vigilance is a necessity for everyone.

Since this experience is familiar to you, I don’t need to explain what this is about. I also need not tell you how troublesome, how disturbing temptations can be. The desperate cry of Saint Peter in this gospel has no doubt often been your own: “Lord, save me!” Wouldn’t life be wonderful without being tempted to sin? Think how holy we might become, advancing from good to good, ever growing in grace. Do we not say ‘deliver’ us from evil? We would rather go about our lives without this menace to our spiritual security and we would rather remain tranquil without temptation’s commotion. Was it not on account of some temptation that we once went from being God’s friends to his enemies? It is evident, however, that these testing are permitted to pass our way with the permission of our good God. And so we must conclude that temptation, horrible and often hideous in itself, must be a good thing for us to endure: it must be profitable to us.

Among the benefits that temptation affords must be these: without the test, we would never develop the muscle of spiritual strength. Is it not because we find it attractive to act rashly, impulsively, that we can exercise the contrary tendency and become patient? Is it not because of the beauty of persons and the seduction of things that we have learnt to refuse sin and gained a measure of virtue? If the relish of every evil enticement were taken away we would never make advancement in moral perfection. And there’s another advantage, of course: temptation is the one thing that gives us the chance to demonstrate our loyalty to God and to merit spiritual rewards. God is always pouring forth upon us good, good, good from the store of His goodness. If He did not allow a little testing, there would be no such thing as loyalty. We would become God’s spoiled children, ungrateful and unmindful of His goodness, and we would expect heaven as if it were owed to us.

We know well the sources of temptations: the world, the flesh and the devil. Of these, the external sources are often readily admitted: we can and must avoid the occasions of sin. Our difficulty however is that there is a germ in us, a tendency, an inclination towards sin that makes temptation enticing. Instead of being repulsed by sin, in horror at the thought of opposing God’s will, we often find the suggestion to sin of ‘interest’ to us. Getting rid of the inward root of sin in our souls is a lot harder than fleeing from the external sources of temptation. Everybody who takes up the work of being a religious person has to learn the art of “self-mastery”. It’s a lesson that is hard earned and progress seems slow and toilsome, with many a setback along the way towards success. It’s the experience of being tempted that can make us humble and not be too harsh in judging our neighbor’s failures: we have felt the same lure, even if, by the grace of God, we have been able to resist.

One of the great errors that people make that causes them to sin is that they fail in resisting temptation from its beginnings. It’s most often the first movement, the first thought, and the initial impulse that is not immediately repulsed. The results are disastrous. You must recognize the psychological course of sin. Once the least suggestion to sin is accepted, no matter how strongly one makes subsequent counterattacks, he is most likely to fall into sin. ‘Nipping it in the bud’ is the apt expression here. One must cultivate the sensitivity to put / immediate stop to temptation in order to succeed. Recalling phrases such as “God says No”; “I deny myself”; “I refuse this”, etc, are the kinds of things we need to have ever ready when an attack is launched by the enemy. As the Imitation says, we have to confront the Enemy (the devil) at the threshold, as soon as he knocks. I quote this week’s passage. The usual trajectory is identified:

“First there comes to mind an evil thought; next, a vivid picture; then delight; then the urge to evil, and finally consent. In this way the Enemy gradually gains complete mastery, when he is not resisted at first. And the longer a slothful man delays resisting, the weaker he becomes, and the stronger his enemy grows against him.”

We should not make light of temptation. God knows us and he apportions just the right amount of it to us. We are never so greatly tempted that we have to yield up our wills to sin. Sometimes a person can be forced externally, but no one can ever give up the internal controls of consent: this is the sovereign property of everyone for himself. And so, no one should never despair when being tempted. But, in order to become well skilled in the art of winning over it, one has to pray daily. Saint Alphonsus once wrote that without prayer we will, in fact, sin. Therefore, he said, regular prayer is binding, obligatory for everyone.

Temptation is a thing that ought to make us humble and put ourselves under God’s hand. He will come to our help, if we resist from the very beginning of the temptation and if we persevere in prayer. And we should not forget that there is great merit for success in the contest. There’s no credit coming to us when things are going along well and we are not opposed. If we cannot exactly be grateful for temptation, at least let us acknowledge that it can be a source of good for us when we resist it; and let us be grateful to God for giving us the grace when we have been able to resist.