| Blessed is the Man that Endureth Temptation |
At our Living Jesus Chat this Sunday we will be talking about the following article, taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Christ in the Wilderness by Ivan Kramskoy (Public Domain)To the Baronne de Chantal Sales, written 14 October 1604 (excerpt).. .For the third point you ask me what to do about the evil spirit’s temptations against the faith and the Church. I take it that is what you mean. I will tell you what God guides me to say. In this case you must act as one does in temptations of the flesh: do not make any attempt to argue. Do as the children of Israel did with the bones of the pascal lamb which they did not even break but simply threw into the fire. You must not reply at all or even show that you can hear what the enemy is saying to you; let him hammer on the door as much as he likes, you must not as much as say: ‘Who goes there?’That’s all very well, you will say to me, but he upsets me and the noise he makes is such that we can’t hear one another speak indoors. Never mind; be patient. You will have to use sign-language: cast yourself down at God’s feet and stay there. He will understand by this humble posture that you mean to be his and that you want his help, although you have no words to tell him this. But the chief thing is to keep the door well locked and not to open it, however little, to spy who is there or to shoo away this disturber of the peace. In the end he will get tired of shouting and will leave you alone. And about time too, you will tell me!Please have by you a book called On Tribulation written by P. Ribadeneira in Spanish and translated into French; Father Rector will tell you where it was published. Read it carefully. And now courage! Things will improve all in good time. Nothing is lost as long as the enemy does not get in. Meanwhile it is a very good sign that he is hammering and raging at the door because it proves that he is not getting what he is after. Had he got it he would not go on shouting; he would walk in and be quite still. Remember that so as to avoid scruples.And now I want to suggest another remedy. Temptations against the faith aim directly at the understanding, striving to draw it into argument, to occupy and absorb it. Do you know what to do while the enemy is wasting his energy trying to scale the intellect? Make a sally through the gates of the will and charge him roundly; when the temptation against faith presents itself in order to draw you into argument, saying: “How can this be? And if this applies, how does that fit in?” you arrange things in such a way that instead of arguing with the enemy by parleying, your will and your feelings round on him boldly while you cry out with heart and voice: “Traitor! Wretch!””You left the Church of the angels and you are trying to get me to leave the Church of the saints! You are disloyal, faithless, perfidious! You gave the first woman the apple of perdition and now you want me to taste it too! Get thee behind me, Satan; it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God. No, I will not argue, I will not dispute with you. Eve thought she could argue with you and she was lost. May Jesus reign supreme, I believe in him; may the Church triumph, I cleave to it!”And use other similar words of loving ardour. Speak to Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost in words which will be given to you; also speak to the Church, saying: “O mother of the children of God! I will never separate myself from you; I want to die and live in your keeping.”Am I making myself quite clear? I mean that you must fight back with your heart and will and not with reasoning, with passions and not with considerations of the mind. True that at this time of temptation your poor will is quite dry, but so much the better; its blows will be all the more terrible to the enemy, who seeing that far from hindering your progress, he is making you exercise many virtues, especially that of faith, will leave you in peace at long last.Finally, it would be good sometimes to take fifty or sixty strokes of the discipline, or else thirty, as you feel. It is amazing how effective this recipe has proved for someone I know. I suppose the reason is that outward feeling distracts from interior difficulty and affliction, and calls out God’s mercy; and also that the evil spirit, seeing his partisan and confederate, the flesh, being beaten, gets frightened and takes himself off. But this remedy must be used in moderation and according to the profit you derive from it after the experience of a few days. When all is said and done, these temptations are only afflictions like any others and you must take comfort from the words of the scriptures: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he has been proved he shall receive the crown of life.”I must tell you that I have known few people make progress without this particular trial and you must be patient; for after the storm God will send peace. Concentrate on the first and second suggestion I made ….If you happen to omit or forget anything that I tell you to do, have no scruples about it, for here is the general rule of our obedience written in capital letters:LOVE AND NOT FORCE SHOULD INSPIRE ALL YOU DO;LOVE OBEDIENCE MORE THAN YOU FEAR DISOBEDIENCEI want you to have a spirit of liberty, not the kind that excludes obedience, for that is the liberty of the flesh, but the kind that excludes constraint and scruples or over-eagerness. If you really love your obedience and submission, I want you to look on any right and charitable call made on you to leave your exercises as another form of obedience, and I want you to make up by love for what you happen to omit… Reflections: Why is it best to not argue with evil or temptations and instead just send the temptations “to the fire.”Why does God allow the devil to tempt us and try to get at us?Why do temptations against the faith aim directly at understanding?Why should we just directly rebuke the devil? And is it safe for us to do so?Discuss “taking the discipline.” Since this generally is not recommended today, are there substitutes for this that can be employed?What does obedience have to do with liberty? Isn’t it contrary to liberty? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time |