Temptation

Falling to temptation can bring undue suffering.


Every Christian knows what it is to experience temptation and to suffer from sin, both ours, and those of others. But we believe that God restores, confirms, strengthens, and establishes us after we suffer for a while because he is merciful to repentant sinners and brings good out of evil.


12 Things to Know About Temptation:

1. Temptation is an attraction, either from outside oneself or from within, to act contrary to right reason and the commandments of God (CCC 538).
2. The capital sins: pride, greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth/laziness are at the root of all temptation.
3. “Man is never wholly free from temptation… but with patience and true humility we become stronger than any enemy” (Pope Benedict XVI).
4. “The patience and humility required to defeat the enemy come by following Christ every day and from learning to build our life not outside of him” (Pope Benedict XVI).
5. The victory that conquers the world is our faith (1 John 5:4). When we fall, begin again in faith.
6. The gift of faith is dynamic. It leads us into God’s victory over temptation and sin.
7. The opposite of faith in God is pride because a proud person thinks that everything depends on him, as if God did not exist in his life. Self-reliance in the face of temptation is folly.
8. Temptation closes us in, takes away the ability to see ahead, closes every horizon and in this way leads us to sin” (Pope Francis).
9. Christ is always willing to teach us how to escape from temptation. Jesus is great because he not only brings us out of temptation, but also gives us more confidence (Pope Francis).
10. If our faith becomes lukewarm and has no expression, God can allow us to fall. God does not want evil but may want its consequences, since the consequences of evil impart grace and the call to be converted (Fr. Tadeusz Dajczar).
11. “No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength, but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
12. When our bond of love for God is fortified by sacramental confession, our spiritual armor is strengthened for resisting continuous temptations from the world, the flesh and the devil.

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