Class #10 Spiritual battle

Temptations
➢ What is a temptation?
o This is anything that solicits or entices us to sin, whether by persuasion or offering us
some pleasure.
o St. Thomas Aquinas: “It is the proper office of the devil to tempt but not all temptations
proceed from the devil.”
• The devil is the one who orchestrates all the temptations because he is truly like
roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1Pet 5:8)
o Some common features of temptation
• The single purpose of all temptation is to separate us from God or to make us doubt
our being children of God. They all begin as they did for Jesus, “If you are the son of
God, then…”
• Temptations occur only in areas of weakness and vulnerability, in areas where we
are strongly attracted to the objects of temptation.
✓ This is why we must know ourselves i.e. we must know and acknowledge our
weaknesses and take preventive measures by the aid of grace.
• Temptations habitually catch us unprepared and wrong footed.
✓ The come suddenly and more easily when we are vulnerable like tired,
disgruntled, or in bad state of minds.
• In making progress in fighting one vice, we can leave the doorway open to another
vice.
✓ All around vigilance and humility is the solution here.
• Temptation can also be so undramatic that we do not notice it.
✓ Remember that by repeated actions, vice becomes a habit or a sort of addiction.
We thus begin to sin without a struggle and without even being aware of it.
• Temptations thrive on twisted thinking that blurs the distinction between good and
evil.
✓ Know the truth, avoid excuses and rationalization to convince ourselves that our
actions are perfectly natural, morally neutral, harmless, and usually unavoidable,
and do not repress feelings of guilt.
• One of the gravest effects of temptation is that it often causes us to lose heart,
become sad, have low self-esteem, despair and give up the fight.
✓ Remember God’s constant love and have hope in His grace and not in our effort.
• Temptation and failure can coexist with genuine spiritual progress and attainment.
✓ As we grow in our union with Christ, we begin to notice the little ways that we
compromise with sin in our lives, we see our true selves.
✓ Spiritual progress brings a new phase of struggle and defeat. It is also surprising
that our desire for God increases as we even see our sinfulness.
• Do not identify with your temptations or with your sins.
✓ Our temptations tell us a lot about us but they do not tell the whole story. “God
is greater than our hearts”(1Jn3:20) and “God knows of what we are made”(Ps
103:14).
 ✓ Temptations make us forget that, fallen though we are, we are greatly loved by
God. There is more to us than our sins, temptations and struggles.
• Speaking to someone about the specifics of our temptations greatly reduces their
power over us.
✓ Such openness saves us from repressing the temptations and opens us to better
counsel that leads to a more positive identity.
✓ Being listened to brings comfort and new resolution.
• Explore your fantasies in life because these fuel your temptations.
✓ What are the images that stimulate and move you most?
✓ These images sometimes indicate neglected elements in our depths. We can
make contact with these images through active imagination in prayer.
• In the case of obsessive thoughts that are probably due to some deep repression, it
is probably best to seek the help of a therapist.
➢ God and temptations:
o God never tempts us by inciting us to evil (James 1:3)
o But God permits us to be tempted by our spiritual enemies to give us an occasion for
greater merit.
o God will not let us to be tempted beyond our strength (1Cor 10:13)
o The example of Jesus shows us that if we truly love God, then we will fight and resist
temptations to the very end.
➢ Advantages of conquering temptations with the aid of God’s grace
o It humiliates Satan.
o Makes the glory of God shine forth.
o Purifies our souls and arouses us to prayer.
o Fills us with humility, confidence in God and complete distrust in self.
o Fills us with repentance and reminds us to be always vigilant and alert.
o Teaches us to mortify our personal tastes because these are avenues for temptation.
o Only the one who conquers temptation is happy and not the one who succumbs. (James
1:12)

Three – fold sources of temptations

The devil:
➢ Demonic temptations arise from instigations of the evil spirit, whose method is to
encourage every form of avarice or selfishness, in order to lead one to pride, and through
pride to all other forms of sin.
o According to St. Ignatius of Loyola, the devil tempts us from wealth to empty honors and
then to pride, then from pride to all other sins. All sins are possible to the proud
persons.
➢ From the fall of Adam and Eve, we learn that one key to overcome the devil is to terminate
the dialogue with him.
• The devil always begins his temptations from asking about general terms before
coming to the particular temptation.
 • We must fight the temptation from the very start of the temptation when
something evil is suggested to us.
✓ Once we submit slightly, we will be vanquished and defeated.
✓ We also learn that we realize the great deception only after the sin has been
committed.
➢ Have a battle plan for temptations
o Before the temptation:
• Embrace Jesus’ battle plan for His disciples: “Watch and pray.”
Vigilance and prayer are necessary.
• Vigilance at all times especially in times of calm because the devil will strike when
we least expect him to.
✓ Vigilance involves avoiding the occasions of sin, trying to anticipate unexpected
assaults of the devil, practicing self-control, making use of the particular examen
of our particular areas of temptation, frequently renewing our firm resolutions
never to sin again and avoiding sloth.
• It is only through prayer that we obtain the efficacious grace that we need to
remain in the state of grace and to be victorious over temptations.
✓ Prayer also means that we should invoke Mary who crushed the head of the
serpent.
✓ We can also invoke the aid of St. Michael and our guardian angels.
o During temptation
• Resist the temptation insistently.
• Don’t remain purely passive but employ positive resistance. Be conscious and
respond. This positive resistance can be either
✓ Direct resistance (resisting the temptation by doing the precise opposite from
what is being suggested). This is useful for all temptations except those against
faith or purity because a direct resistance will likely increase the intensity of the
temptation itself.
✓ Indirect resistance (this does not attack the temptation but involves withdrawing
from the temptation by distracting the mind to some other object that is
completely distinct). Some objects of withdrawal can be mental exercise that
will absorb our internal faculties, especially the memory or imagination, to
withdraw them from the objects of temptation. Indirect resistance can involve
use of some hobby or pastime or activity that is interesting enough to absorb
one’s attention for the moment. This is useful for temptations against faith or
purity.
• In temptations against faith and purity,
✓ Do not make great efforts to form acts of these virtues.
✓ Use the indirect resistance method above; distract the mind and imagination to
something else.
✓ Turn a pleading glance towards God and be aware of His presence in these
temptations without speaking to Him about the thoughts that beseech you
because these might root the temptations more firmly.
 ✓ Do not answer the tempter (Eve’s mistake) but ignore him.
• During temptations, resist repeatedly the same temptations. The insistence of the
devil is one of the best proofs that the soul has not succumbed to the temptation.
• If the soul repels/overcomes the temptation: Every victory over sin does two things
✓ The soul gains new merit before God.
✓ The soul also gains greater strength, freedom and energy.
o After the temptation,
• Manifest the temptations to the spiritual director or confessor to gain humility and
simplicity.
• Thank God if one is victorious and ask for continued graces to fight to the end.
• If one has yielded to the temptation, have recourse to the infinite mercy of God and
still thank God that, even though you fell, you did not fall worse than you did. It is by
the grace of God alone that we can even stop sinning.
• Seek to learn something about God and yourself through this temptation.

The World
➢ The world is both good and dangerous:
o As created by God, the world is good and is no obstacle to sanctification and salvation.
The world is the place where we walk out our salvation and sanctification.
o The world becomes an enemy of the Christian, a source of almost irresistible
temptation and a formidable enemy of the spiritual life only when we become so
attached to the things of the world that we fail to advance in the love and service of
God.
• Thus, it all depends on how we react to the things of the world and how we make
use of them in loving God, self and neighbor.
• The devil tempts us through the world too because “the whole world is under the
evil one.”(1Jn 5:19)
o A worldly or mundane spirit is manifested by the following:
• An excessive attachment to created things.
• Living only for the pleasures and satisfactions that we can be drawn from such
things.
• Attractiveness of bad example and the psychological pressures to conform.
o This mundane spirit can infect persons, cities or nations. In short, the spirit of the world
is manifested by
• False maxims that are directly opposed to the precepts of Christ. It exalts pleasure at
all costs, comfort, riches, fame, violence, and might, enjoyment of passing life, find
security in created things, neglect of the eternal life, maximize bodily comfort.
• Ridicule and persecution of those who strive to live honestly and decently. Any
authority or law is ridiculed and mocked.
• Endless pleasures and diversions by those who do not seek any control of their
lower appetites. Excess in sex, drugs, alcohol is considered normal.
• The scandal and the bad example that confronts the earnest Christian at every turn.
Christians give scandals to others.
o Remedies against the influence of the world include
• Flee from the world.
✓ This is not possible and not the Christ-like thing to do because Christ lived in the
world and was opposed to the spirit of the world and has made it possible for us
to strive for perfection in the world.
✓ We are to flee from the world in terms of not letting this world to hold our
affections.
• Avoid all occasions of sin.
✓ Occasions of sin that tempt us include worldly possessions, mundane pleasures
and inordinate attachment to creatures.
✓ The occasions that are sinful for one person may not be so for another but
certain occasions are poisonous for any Christian.
✓ Learn from experience where your weakness lies and then practice self-denial
and self-control. “He who loves danger will perish in it.”
• Vivify one’s faith.
✓ “This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith” (1Jn 5:4). Our faith
(intellectual assent to revealed truths) gives us an attitude of mind and a way of
judging things in a divine manner so that we see things through the eyes of God
and value things thus.
✓ By a strong faith, one sees God in all things, is able to rise above things that are
temptations for others, has a strong conviction to withstand the persecution and
taunts of worldly people, and is able to peer into eternity and be focused on the
divine with the hope of heaven.
• Meditate on the vanity of the world.
✓ The world passes quickly and human life passes quickly too.
✓ Nothing is stable and permanent and nothing is completely satisfying in its
delights.
✓ The praise and esteem of men and their fortunes change constantly.
✓ Only God and His holy will abide forever and satisfies completely. Those who do
the will of God abide forever (1Jn 2:17)
• Ignore what the world thinks.
✓ We must not be concerned about what the world says. Jesus will only
acknowledge those who acknowledge Him before others (Mt 10:33). “He who is
not with me is against me.”(Mt 12:30)
✓ Disciples of Christ cannot be focused on pleasing men (Gal 1:10).
✓ To reach sanctity, we must be absolutely indifferent to what the world thinks or
says.
✓ Our only concern is to do the will of God no matter the cost. Make this decision
from the very beginning. Christ warned us that the world will hate and persecute
us (Jn 15:18-20).
o In dealing with the world, we must cultivate the following attitudes:
• Steadfastness in our decision to follow Christ, His laws and His will alone is the only
key to success and peace.
 ✓ The world will give up and leave us in peace only when it sees our steadfastness
in following Christ.
✓ We overcome the world only in taking an unswerving stand in renouncing its
false maxims and its vanities. Do not yield an inch to the world.
• Avoid the “double soul.” What this means:
✓ In the human heart, there are two tendencies or inclinations, one to good and
the other to evil. (Gen 6:5,8:21)
✓ “Double soul” is the result of following now one inclination and now the other
inclination.
✓ The “double soul” is manifested in doubt, hesitation, wavering faith, and
inconstancy.
✓ It is characterized by inner division, conflict in decision making, inconsistency of
external actions with inner aspirations (Rom 7)
✓ It is expressed in tepidity and mediocrity, a desire to find easy compromises and
an avoidance of commitment.
✓ It leads to a double life which the person attempts to cover up by repression,
rationalization, and lies.
✓ Only remedy is steadfastness in following the way of Christ.

The flesh
➢ This is our internal and ever-present enemy.
o The world and the devil are our external enemies. We may have respite from the world
and the devil, but the battle against the flesh is unceasing.
➢ The flesh wars against us in two distinct but related ways.
o An insatiable desire for pleasure.
• This can compromise our eternal salvation.
• Desire for pleasure is a characteristic tendency of our sensuality.
✓ Concupiscence is our tendency to pleasure.
✓ Note that sensate bodily pleasure is not evil of itself because God has willed to
attach these pleasures to certain natural operations for the conservation of the
individual and of the species (pleasures from food, drink and sex).
✓ This is the reason for the pleasures experienced in food, drink and sex – God
has attached pleasures to these natural operations to facilitate the use of these
faculties and to stimulate us to their exercise.
✓ But original sin has so affected the appetites that these pleasures are sought
after against the demands of reason and the divine plan.
✓ We are thus witnesses to a war between the spirit and the flesh to subject our
bodily instincts to the control of reason illumined by faith (Rom 7:14-25, 1Cor
12:1-7).
✓ The principal struggle revolves around the two tendencies that are necessary for
the conservation of the individual and of the species: nutrition and generation
(i.e. food and sex). Other sensitive inclinations are almost always placed at the
service of these two.
• Principal remedies include:
✓ Custody of all the senses: (Sight, Hearing, Eating, Touching, Tasting). The
stimulation of the senses can overcome any will no matter how resolute the
will is. When one of the senses is stimulated the entire organism vibrates and
the appetites of the other senses are awakened. The moment one is caught up
in the fascination of sin, no matter how sincere the resolutions made may be or
how unswerving the determination is not to sin thus, the will is usually
overcome. This is because once the senses are aroused, the imagination is
excited, passion is strongly stirred, self-control is lost and sin is committed.
Necessary to exercise vigil over the sense of vision: “What the eyes do not see
the heart does not desire.”
✓ Self-denial: Never go to the limit in regard to satisfactions that are permitted.
Self-denial should be extended to lawful pleasures. “Those who do everything
that is permitted will very readily do that which is not permitted.” Be willing to
mortify one’s tastes and desires.
✓ Engage in beneficial occupation: The seed of sensuality finds fertile ground in a
soul that is unoccupied and slothful. Sloth is the mother of all vices, especially
the sins of the flesh. One useful occupation to control sensuality is intellectual
work that stimulates the imagination too. “The sins of the flesh weaken the
spirit, whereas temperance and chastity admirably predispose one for
intellectual work.”
✓ Have a sense of Christian dignity: Remember that one is not only a rational
animal above the animal world as well as a child of God. How then can we live
like slaves to the animal desires? To overcome disorders of the flesh, one must
have the sense of being elevated by divine grace to being a child of God, a
member of Christ’s own body here on earth and a heir of the heavenly kingdom
(1Cor 6:15,19-20)
✓ Reflect on the punishments for sin in this life and in the life to come. Remember
the temporal punishment for sin in this world in the form of penance or in the
pains of Purgatory even after the sins have been forgiven and repented of, the
loss of control over the senses, the darkening of the intellect and the
weakening of the will here on earth and hell for all eternity. It is surely not
worth the pleasure.
✓ Remember the Passion of Christ. Motives of love and gratitude are much
nobler than those that originate in fear of punishment. Jesus was nailed to the
Cross because of our sins and we must be ashamed to indulge in bodily delight
to the detriment of our souls. Mortification of the flesh is a decisive prove of
those who belong to Christ (Gal 5:24) and since Christ suffered in the flesh, it is
necessary to break with sin (1 Pet 4:1)
✓ Humble and persevering prayer. Without the grace of God, it is impossible to
triumph completely over our concupiscence. This grace is received through
humble and persevering prayer. (Wis 8:21, Sir 23:6)
✓ Devotion to Mary. Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces and the Refuge of sinners.
She provides us both good example and hope in her protection. We become like
what we love.
 ✓ Frequent sacraments especially the Eucharist and Confession. These are certain
and efficacious remedies for all sins, especially against the attacks of
concupiscence.
• Need for Mortification:
✓ It is so easy to cross the line from honest pleasure to disorder and forbidden
pleasure.
✓ Frequently the enjoyment of lawful pleasure becomes an occasion or incentive
to disordered and unlawful pleasures.
✓ Christian mortification calls one to deprive oneself of many lawful things and of
many lawful pleasures as a defense of the good, which is endangered if one
imprudently approaches the borderline of evil.
✓ In addition, the satisfactions granted to one sense awaken the appetite of
other senses. Sense pleasure is diffused throughout the entire body such that
when one or another of the senses is stimulated, the entire organism vibrates
and the appetites of each of the other senses are awakened.
✓ Concupiscence is always on hand to seek pleasure without any regard for the
conservation of the individual and the species. Reason must intervene to keep
these instinctive appetites within just and reasonable limits; if not these
appetites will ruin both the individual and the species. The application of reason
to moderate the appetites’ drive is what is called Mortification. No perfection or
eternal salvation without mortification. Unmortified/sensual persons are not
united to God and lose taste for divine things (1Cor 2:14)

o Instinctive horror of suffering. This is an obstacle to sanctification and a logical

consequence of our insatiable desire for pleasure.
• Perfection of sanctity is impossible if one does not overcome the dread of suffering.
• Love of suffering is important for two reasons
✓ To make amends for past sins. Jesus, by His Passion and Resurrection, has
reestablished the balance of divine justice which was disturbed by original sin.
Our actual (personal) sins also disturb this balance and add a weight of
pleasure on the scale because all sin carries with it some pleasure or
satisfaction. We must then atone for this sinful pleasure or satisfaction by the
suffering and sorrows offered in reparation. Christ’s reparation is the principal
reparation and the sacraments apply these to us. But by our incorporation into
Christ, we must add something to what is lacking to the suffering of Christ (Col
1:24)
✓ For the sanctification of the soul. Sanctification means that we are intensely
united with and incorporated into Christ, the suffering servant. Jesus Christ
shows us the only way of uniting ourselves to Him and being transformed in
Him – the Cross: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce
himself and take up his cross and follow me.”(Mt. 16:24) No sanctification or
sanctity without sharing in the suffering of Christ.
• Benefits of suffering
 ✓ It forms the character of the soul for all eternity. “We are chosen by the
Father in Christ to be conformed to Christ.” Remember, “The suffering
passes, but the one who has suffered well will never pass; it leaves it’s mark
on the soul for all eternity.”
✓ Only by means of suffering and privation can we make the body serve the
soul. The more comforts and pleasures that we give the body, the more
demanding the body becomes. St. Paul treated his body hard to make it
obedient (1 Cor 9:27)
✓ The pains of suffering are perfect to detach us from created things and to see
their true inability to satisfy us. Suffering makes us raise our eyes to heaven,
our true home, long for heaven and disdain the things of this world.
✓ God never ignores the tears and sighs of a heart that is afflicted with sorrow
and suffering. His most stupendous miracles were occasioned by great
sufferings e.g. the widow at Nain whose son was raised from the dead (Lk
7:11-17), Father’s daughter raised to life (Mt. 9:18-26), Lazarus raised from
the dead at the tears of his sisters (Jn 11:1-44), blessed are those who mourn
(Mt. 5:5)
✓ By being incorporated into Christ, we share in His suffering as well as in the
redemption of the world by uniting our suffering to His own with an ardent
love and a living faith. Only a soul in the state of grace can merit graces for
other souls. This is how we share in His merits and become channels for His
grace to others.
✓ Suffering souls are configured with Christ in His sufferings and in His death
(Phil 3:10). Mother Mary is co-redemptrix of the human raise, configured and
united to Christ the sole Redeemer. No sanctity or perfection without
embracing the suffering willed and permitted by God in our lives.
• To overcome this instinctive horror for suffering and to have some love of the
cross, some helps in ascending hierarchical order include (Degrees in the love of
suffering)
✓ Acceptance of the duties of our state in life no matter the suffering involved
or the difficulty. Perform all your duties no matter the repugnance you feel.
The exact fulfillment of all of our duties and obligations according to our
state of life is absolutely indispensable for the crucifixion of self. No amount
of penances or mortifications can suffice.
✓ Be resigned to the Crosses of the moment after all remedies have failed. The
crosses of the present moment which God sends us directly or permits to
befall us are instruments of sanctification. God’s own crosses sanctify us
more than the ones we choose voluntarily. Like Jesus Christ, God’s crosses
are mediated through others in community. The mediated crosses, expressed
in the words, thoughts, or actions of others, help us to conquer our
sensuality and sentimentality.
✓ Voluntary mortification of our bodies and egos prepares us to embrace the
crosses that the Lord will send our way. Voluntary mortification will be
determined by the state and condition of the soul being sanctified.
✓ Preferring suffering/sorrow to pleasure. This is possible only when we have
an instinctive horror for anything that would satisfy only their tastes and
comfort, rejoice and thank God for all things, including the failures and
persecutions, tremble at the praises of men,
✓ Offering oneself as a victim soul. This is an offering of oneself as a victim of
expiation for the sins of the whole world. Not for beginners who are still not
perfectly purified. For those invited and prepared by the Holy Spirit. It
demands a purity of heart, a detachment from all creatures, an intimate
union with Jesus Christ, a heroic abandonment to all kinds of sufferings,
humiliations, a good schooling in suffering, and capable of enduring an
ineffable obscurity. This offering is based on the supernatural solidarity
established by God among the members of Christ’s mystical body, whether
actual or potential. It is Christ alone who invites and forms the victim souls
who have so completely offered themselves to Him and to His work of
redemption so that they too, by their prayers, merits and sacrifices, may
contribute to the application of the merits of the redemption by Christ. Only
those invited by the Holy Spirit should make this offering; it does not really
add to their sanctification but it adds to the spiritual benefit of others.