The first and most obvious hint to help us against temptation is to keep clear of the danger when this is possible. There are times when the soul must flee, like the Holy Family before the naked sword of Herod. There is something fascinating in the eye of temptation and under its gaze there are times when all strength seems to pass out of us and there is nothing left us but to surrender.
When this condition of things has come about through no deliberate choice of our own, it is certain that God will give us sufficient grace to resist. Thus, if in the course of my work I am necessarily exposed to these dangers, it is dear that I am not bound, at least in many circumstances, to give up my job. But the real danger arises when I am free to avoid the source of the temptation, and all that is human in me longs to go and find it. Once more, grace will not be wanting to him who seeks it in such a struggle. "God is faithful . . ." "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God by Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Often God will leave me in circumstances where He foresees I shall be tempted. He knew that money would tempt Judas and He put him in charge of the purse. Why? He would provide for Judas, in this way, a magnificent opportunity of showing his love, and He would, beyond question, have given him grace to resist, had only Judas taken the means.
These means He Himself lays down when He bids us watch and pray. Poor Peter's eyes were heavy and he fell asleep just when most he should have been vigilant and persevering in prayer. "Nowhere," writes Father Faber, "is it a mere fight between man and the devil. Wherever temptation is, there is God also. There is not one which His Will has not permitted and there is not a permission which is not an act of love as well.... I do not know any picture of God more affecting or more fatherly than the vision of Him which faith gives in His assiduous solicitudes and paternal occupations while we are being tempted."
"If God be with us, who shall be against us?" Flight where possible, and boundless trust in the power of grace, to be obtained by earnest, persevering prayer, and devotion to Mary. These are the timehonored methods by which the tempted soul may promise itself victory.
Certainly I should grieve for my past failures. What graces I have squandered, what opportunities lost! If others had my chances, how they might have grown in divine love! Archbishop Goodier used to tell of a convict prisoner whom he confirmed, in jail, a day before the man was hanged. A Mahomedan soldier stood in the cell looking on uncomprehendingly. Next morning the confirmed man was led out. When the rope was around his neck and he was standing on the trapdoor, he raised his right hand for a moment's delay. "Gentlemen," he said, "before I die I want to say that this is one of the happiest moments I ever experienced. I am dying in the greatest peace and joy, and the reason is because I am dying a Roman Catholic."
If that man had had my chances and I had had his only, what might he have become, and what might have happened to me?
The temptations You permit or send, O Lord, are my golden opportunities of growing in love. While I fear all things from my weakness, I hope all things from Your strength. Mary, Health of the Sick, pray for me and all tempted souls.