Temptation and the Desire to Conquer
by Cardinal Henry Manning
Every one of us singly stands between two spirits -
there is the Spirit of God on the one side, there is the
spirit of Satan on the other; and the human spirit, that
is, the soul with its intelligence, heart, and will,
stands between. These two spirits, of God and of Satan,
are in perpetual conflict round about us and for us -
the spirit of Satan striving to pervert, to delude, and
to cast us down; the Spirit of God perpetually guiding,
strengthening, and upholding us. The thoughts of Satan
are infused into us, and also the lights of the Holy
Ghost - and sometimes we do not know the one from the
other. We sometimes mistake the false lights of Satan
for the lights of truth. We sometimes fancy that the
lights of truth which come to us, are only temptations.
Sometimes we imagine our own human thoughts to be the
thoughts and the lights of God; and so we deceive
ourselves. We are in this constant state of temptation,
which is common to all men. However much you may be
tempted, whether it be to deadly (mortal) sins or to
lighter (venial sins), it matters not - those
temptations will never be imputed to you as sins unless
you willingly consent to them. This is the way of escape
which is always open, the sure and certain issue by
which every soul may pass, even out of a furnace heated
sevenfold. You remember, some time ago we laid down as
the essential condition of sin, that it is an evil act
contrary to the will of God, with knowledge of the
intellect, with the consent of the will, and with the
consciousness of what we are doing. Now that one rule
will precisely distinguish between sins and temptations.
The Prophet says: "Death climbs up by the windows" (Jer.
9:21); which spiritual writers interpret of sin finding
its entrance through the senses - through the open eyes,
the open ears - which are like the windows of the soul
standing wide. Satan has no power at all to enter into
the soul against our will. These "fiery darts" are the
temptations which enter through the senses, fall upon
the passions, and kindling them, disorder the
affections, and through them affect the will; but if the
will does not consent, the presence of any amount of
temptation may be mere suffering, and however intense,
it will not be sin. So that the way to distinguish
between what is temptation and what is sin is to ask
yourselves: Do you welcome it? Do you open the door? Do
you throw up the window? Do you invite it to come in and
dwell? Or do you say: "The Lord rebuke thee - get thee
behind me, Satan"? How do you receive these temptations?
Another certain test whether it is temptation or sin is
this: Does the presence of the temptation give you
pleasure, or pain? Do you feel rather gratified by being
stirred up to a sense of resentment, or does it give you
pain that you have lost your calmness? If you have
pleasure in it, then most assuredly you have been
consenting; if it gives you pain, then as certainly it
is contrary to your will. Prayer, piety, watchfulness,
self-denial, and purity of heart - these five things
will keep your will firm, and if your will be firm, it
will expel every temptation that enters by the senses,
or by the passions, or by the affections, as the flame
of a furnace which consumes everything that approaches
to its mouth. It will expel and cast out of you all
things contrary to your sanctification.
