In knowing our own weakness, we pray that God not lead us into temptation because in being tempted we realize that we most probably will fall. St. Paul prayed to God to have his temptations taken away and was told that God’s grace is sufficient for him. God allowed Job to be terribly tempted but never more than he could bear.
When God wills that we be tempted it is always for our own good. These temptations offer us an opportunity to truly humble ourselves in seeing our own weakness; they offer us an opportunity to gain merit in the battle that ensues with the temptation; they offer us the opportunity to grow spiritually stronger with each and every victory; lastly, they offer us an opportunity to overcome the devils and humiliate/punish them even more. These temptations are necessary for us and may be considered as a cross that Jesus calls upon us to take up daily.
The matter is often quite the opposite when we willingly enter into the temptations. In our foolish pride and vanity, we most often overestimate our own strength. In this state of our own self-imposed illusion we are most certainly doomed to fail. We discover over and over again that those who play with fire eventually get burned. Likewise, those who dally with temptations eventually will fall.
The temptation to fall occurs in stages. The stages very often follow in a very fast progression, but are nonetheless discernible. The first stage is: suggestion. Wherever the temptation comes from: the devils, the world, or our own passions; it always begins with a suggestion. The suggestion usually shows us some immediate pleasure or gratification and attempts to blind us to the long-range effects of this course of action. This suggestion is designed to take us as quickly as possible to the next stage of pleasure. Once we begin to take pleasure in the thought of the suggestion, we have already fallen more than half way. We then become blinded to what is happening. Our thoughts are only directed to the pleasure; the consequences beyond the immediate gratification are hidden from view. This stage of pleasure also does not wish to dally too long before handing us over to the final stage of desire. If we give in at this stage we have already completely fallen. The sin has been committed. Sin is truly in the will and it matters not (as far as the guilt is concerned) whether we carry out any physical action in the material world.
This desire can become a very fierce monster to us if we give ourselves over to it. The desire can become insatiable and all consuming. The glutton even while he suffers the pains of the abuse he has heaped upon his body still longs for more. The same is true with all the evil passions, each one brings on its own peculiar pains and miseries but in spite of these the miserable sinner still longs for more. It is a most illogical paradox of our fallen human nature. We seek out and hold on to that which destroys us.
These stages: suggestion, pleasure, desire; progressively take away our strength and reason. The earliest stage is much easier to resist than the last. That is why it is so important for us to resist the temptation as soon as we see it. To entertain it for the slightest amount of time is more dangerous than we can imagine. That is why we pray that we not be led into temptation.
We see that the devil in tempting Christ never got past the first stage. Each of his suggestions was immediately silenced by Christ. This is the method that He has given us and invites us to follow. We cannot escape the first stage of the temptations that come with suggestions, but we can escape the others that follow if we will only fight valiantly in this first stage.
We must constantly be vigilant teaching ourselves to recognize these evil suggestions as quickly as possible so that we may reject them. This is more easily accomplished if we are truly striving to please God. With every thought that enters our mind we first begin to ask if this is pleasing to God (Is it good or bad?), then armed with this information we can progress accordingly. We must foster that which is pleasing to God and dismiss and drive away that which is not pleasing to God.
Temptations and crosses are often confused. They often come mixed together but they are discernible if we are constantly striving to love God more and more each day. The crosses we must learn to love and bear willingly and patiently as Christ has done for us. The temptations we must drive away as quickly as we can just as Christ did in today’s Gospel.