Fausto Gomez OP
Temptations are invitations to do evil, to commit sin: consenting to a perverse thought, saying an unjust word, doing a bad action. Temptations are part of our life and will always accompany us. Thomas à Kempis writes: “The life of man upon earth is a temptation.” We all are tempted by three sources. Outside us: the devil tempts us and the world tempts us. Inside us: the flesh tempts us.
Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David, the prophets… all were tempted – like us. Jesus was also tempted. He goes to the desert to pray, meditate, reflect on his mission and ask God the Father to help him – as a human being – to fulfill his mission of salvation that included dying on the cross (cf. Lk 4:1-13). Satan also tempts him through Peter who asked him to abandon the road to calvary (cf. Mk 8:32-33). When He was on the cross, passersby asked him to come down from the cross (cf. Mk 15:29-32).
Temptations are solicitations to do evil, but also opportunities to do good by overcoming them. Temptations help us to become strong morally and spiritually. Moreover, they warn us to be careful, for we know that we are weak and could fall. Temptations aid us to be humble before God and to pray for help.
As pernicious invitations to do evil, temptations are contrary to true freedom and love – to happiness. Trials abound in our life. In a sense, we need them: they are like the wood of our personal cross, instruments towards purity of heart and steps to heaven, elements of our needed continuing formation and conversion. St. Augustine tells us: “We progress by means of trial, and that no one knows himself except through temptation, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.”
We cannot fight our temptations alone: “No man can defend himself from the temptations which assail him and from the evil of the world which attack him. Only in the company of Jesus can we walk in the world and keep our garments unspotted from it. Without him we are defenseless; with him we are safe” (W. Barclay; cf. Mk 6:30-34).
In the company of Jesus, with God the Father’s love and the grace of the Holy Spirit, we fight our temptations with the great help of the sacraments and penances. We practice vigilance, and prayer: “Watch and pray so that you may not fall into temptation” (Mt 26:41).
We are sure of one thing: God will never allow the devil to tempt you and me beyond our strength, and besides, because he is faithful “will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:13). With Jesus’ available help, the grace of the Holy Spirit and the mercy of God the Father, we reject sin and evil that are bad company and lies or “fake news.” Temptations, like the apple of Eve “look nice to be eaten,” but they inevitably produce – after inordinate pleasure – sadness, remorse, darkness. Furthermore, temptations consented increase our weakness, and “lead to sin and death” (CCC 2847).
Faith does help us overcome our temptations: “Resist him, steadfast in your faith” (1 Pet 5:9). We fight temptations by fleeing from them as fast as possible, by not conversing with them; fight, above all, at the beginning of a temptation, for “the longer a man is negligent in resisting so much the weaker does he daily become in himself, and the enemy becomes stronger against him; resist temptation in the beginning before passion gains the upper hand” (Imitation of Christ).
Prayer is one of the best weapons to win over temptation: “The old serpent will tempt you and give you trouble, but he will be put to flight by prayer; furthermore, the main entrance will be closed to him by useful exercises” (Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ). Karl Rahner encourages us thus: Keep close to God, beware of the enchanted circle of evil “that poisons.” And adds: the deepest meaning of temptation is this: “an invitation to pray; whoever prays during temptation will conquer it.”
The sixth petition of the Our Father: And lead us not into temptation. God does test us for our own good: to help us increase our faith in him. God, however, does not lead us into temptation: God “tempts no one” (Jas 1:13). St. Thomas explains, the petition “lead us not into temptation” means that Jesus “teaches us that we may be able to avoid sin – that is, that we be not led into temptation and thus fall into sin.” In 2017, Pope Francis approved a change in this petition of the common English version of the Our Father: instead of “lead us not into temptation,” the Argentine Pope approved, “Do not let us fall into temptation.” He explained: “A father does not do this; a father helps you to get up immediately. It is Satan who leads us into temptation – this is his department.” The Pope’s change is, in fact, a translation from the Spanish Padre Nuestro: “No nos dejes caer en la tentación,” that is, “Do not let us fall into temptation.”
An additional important point: we are asked constantly to resist temptations and remove the grave occasions of sin: “Whoever loves danger will perish in it” (Sir 3:26). “It is something lost if we do not remove wholly all occasions of sin” (St. Teresa of Avila).
If we use the proper weapons against temptations, we win. If, unfortunately, we fall we make recourse to our merciful Father, and – repentant – ask for his forgiveness appropriately, and learn not to fall in future temptations.
Temptations conquered help us grow in moral and spiritual strength, in love, in happiness – in holiness. If we overcome them, consolation from God comes: “To everyone who overcomes, I will give permission to eat of the tree of life that is in the paradise of God” (Rev 2:7).
(Image: 12th-century mosaic in St Mark’s Basilica, Venice. By anonimus – http://www.basilicasanmarco.it/eng/basilica_mos/patrimonio_interno2.bsm?cat=1&subcat=2#, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4150909)
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