Temptations and sin

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE have to learn to distinguish between the two. And more than that, we have to learn how to take advantage, deriving a greater good from them. This is always possible as long as they are referred immediately to God through Christ in the Spirit who is behind what St. Paul once said: “We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8,28)

Temptations are enticements or attractions to act against the laws of God that are supposed to constitute our values, principles and better judgments. They are part of our condition here in this world, given our wounded condition, that is, deprived of the original grace that was meant for us from the beginning but which was lost because of the sin of our first parents and our sins also.

We should not be too surprised by them, much less, overreact to them which can only make us more vulnerable to fall into sin. Instead, we should try our best to ignore or dismiss them quickly in the same way Christ dismissed the temptations made on him by the devil. (cfr. Mt 4,1-11)

When temptations come, we can take advantage of them by making them the occasion to know where our weaknesses are. They should lead us to come up with a plan to cultivate the relevant spiritual and moral skills needed to counter them.

When temptations come, the first thing we have to do is to immediately go to God, to run to him, to stick to him as closely as possible. That’s simply because God is our rock and fortress, the ultimate source of strength. Missing this reaction, we open ourselves to a long, tortuous episode that can end badly.

Missing this reaction is actually a common thing to happen because in the first place our relation with God is not strong. If ever there is some relation, it is more on the theoretical level and hardly on the practical, much less something that involves our feelings and instincts.

And so, we have to work hard in building up this relation with God if we want to keep some safe distance away from temptations. If our love for God is hot, the devil will find it hard to get near us, just like a fly would not get close to a hot soup.

Our usual problem is that we tend to be by ourselves when temptations come, and to rely simply on our powers which actually are already heavily compromised since our wounded flesh is an ally of the enemies of our soul. We always have a Trojan horse in our personal lives.

We should not allow temptations to stay long in us to the point that they fester and become irresistible for us not to commit sin. What is even worse than just falling into sin because of them is when we start justifying them that would lead us to make them the normal or ideal condition for us to be in.

Unfortunately, this is what is happening these days when our temptations and sins of the flesh have led people in many places to legalize such disorders as abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. Also, the temptations and sins of greed and lust have led many societies to practically build up the so-called structures of sin where it is almost impossible to avoid sinning.

We need to see to it that we nip the temptations in the bud before they practically become an incurable spreading cancer.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com