In the meditation on the Two Standards we studied the manner in which the evil spirit tempts the souls of men, leading them from apparently innocent beginnings to total independence of their Creator. We must now consider the subject of temptations in further detail.
I
Why does the Devil hate men? Because he hates God, and as he cannot injure God, he wreaks his vengeance on God’s images and children. Now man is created in the image of God, and all men are, or at least are destined to be, elevated to the dignity of children of God. Besides, they are intended to occupy in Heaven the thrones which the evil angels have lost. Therefore Satan envies them, and wants to ruin them by every means in his power. The chief means is mortal sin, by which a man joins in with the tempter in rebelling against his Sovereign Lord. If Satan cannot succeed in leading us into mortal sin, he will strive to impair at least the beauty of the soul by venial sin, and worry it to deprive it of the peace of God.
God allows all this to happen that man may be further ennobled by his victories over temptations and be more richly rewarded; also that the power of the Lord may be more and more manifested, when He enables so weak a being as man to triumph over such powerful spirits. Thus Providence draws good out of evil, and the wisdom, power, and goodness of God are glorified, virtue is perfected in infirmity (II Cor. xii, 9), and the free creature is exalted. This is beautifully explained in the book of Tobias: “Thy counsel is not in man’s power. But this every man is sure of that worshippeth thee, that his life, if it be under trial, shall be crowned; and if it be under tribulation it shall be delivered, and if it be under correction, it shall be allowed to come to thy mercy: because after a storm, thou makest a calm, and after tears and weeping thou pourest in joyfulness. Be thy name, O God of Israel, blessed forever” (iii, 20-23).
II
All must expect to be tried by temptations; for the Lord assures us: “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent bear it away” (St. Matth. xi, 12); now our indolence tempts us to shirk this violence. Our Blessed Saviour allowed Himself to be tempted, and we are to be made like unto Him: “The disciple is not above his master” (ib. x, 24). Those who aim at a closer resemblance to their Divine Master must expect to be more violently tempted; and therefore Ecclesiasticus warns us: “Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation. Humble thy heart and endure” (ii, 1). In fact those who please God must be tempted; the two things are inseparable, as the Angel explained to Tobias: “Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee” (xii, 13). Read the lives of the Saints, and you will not find one who had not to endure severe temptations, from St. Paul and the other Apostles down to the latest Saint.
III
God will not allow us to be tempted above our strength, as He has graciously promised through St. Paul, who writes: “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue that you may be able to bear it” (I Cor. x, 13). This truth is strikingly illustrated by the history of Job, which is graphically told thus, in poetic language: “On a certain day, when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them. And the Lord said to him: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a simple and upright man, and fearing God and avoiding evil? And Satan answering said: Does Job fear God in vain? Hast thou not made a fence for him and his house, and all his substance round about, blessed the work of his hands, and his possession hath increased on the earth? But stretch forth thy hand a little, and touch all that he hath, and see if he blesseth thee not to thy face. Then the Lord said to Satan: Behold all that he hath is in thy hand, only put not forth thy hand upon his person.” He thus allowed Satan to deprive Job of his possessions, but not to go any further. We all know how Satan carried out this permission to the letter, and took away in one day all that Job enjoyed, his sons and daughters included, so that he exclaimed: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased to the Lord so it is done,” and he added with perfect resignation: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (i, 6-22). Next, Satan obtains power from God to afflict Job in his health, yet so as to spare his life; God controls all. “So Satan went forth from the face of the Lord, and struck Job with a very grievous ulcer, from the sole of the foot to the top of his head. And he took a potsherd, and scraped the corrupt matter, sitting on a dunghill. And his wife said to him: Dost thou still continue in thy simplicity? bless God and die, and he said to her: Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women; if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil? In all these things Job did not sin with his lips” (ii, 7, 8).
Such is the grand example of patience that Job gave for all subsequent ages. After his trials were ended, the Lord rewarded him abundantly in his wealth and in the excellence of his later children; “and Job lived after these things a hundred and forty years, and he saw his children and his children’s children unto the fourth generation, and he died an old man and full of years.” In the New Law, in which we live, the rewards of patience are far more precious than those here mentioned in the case of Job; for “The sufferings of this time,” says St. Paul, “are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us” (Rom. viii, 18). And St. James writes: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptations; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which God hath promised to them that love Him” (i, 12).