When we are tempted, we are battling an envious enemy who wants to separate us from God. All temptation should be resisted with God’s grace.
Temptation is an attraction, either from outside oneself or from within, to act contrary to right reason and the Commandments of God. Jesus himself during his life on earth was tempted, put to the test, to manifest both the opposition between himself and the devil and the triumph of his saving work over Satan.
All of us face difficult choices:
The original temptation continues to affect us today:
For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
1 John 5: 3-4
Jesus resisted temptation with Sacred Scripture:
“Lead us not into temptation” implies a decision of the heart: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. . . . No one can serve two masters.” “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” In this assent to the Holy Spirit the Father gives us strength. “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2848
Resisting temptation with the true, the good, and the beautiful:
When does temptation become a sin?:
Therefore let us not be afraid either of facing the battle against the spirit of evil: the important thing is to fight it with him, with Christ, the Conqueror. And to be with him let us turn to his Mother, Mary; let us call on her with filial trust in the hour of trial and she will make us feel the powerful presence of her divine Son, so that we can reject temptations with Christ’s word and thus put God back at the center of our life.
Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, February 17, 2013
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
As Catholics, we are sent out to proclaim Him:
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