That Temptations Avail Us Greatly to Know and Humble Ourselves, and Have More Recourse to God

TEMPTATIONS are further fraught with another great benefit and advantage; they make us know ourselves. “We often do not know what we can do, but temptation shows us what we are,” says that holy man (A Kempis). This knowledge of ourselves is the foundation stone of the whole spiritual edifice. Without it nothing durable can be built; and with it the soul rises like foam, because she knows how to take her stand on God, in Whom she can do all things. Now temptations lay open to man his weakness and ignorance, whereas up to then his eyes were closed both to the one and the other, and so he was unable to think poorly of himself, because he had not had this experience. But when a man sees that a breath of wind knocks him over, that at a mere nothing he stops benumhbed, that when a temptation comes upon him he is disconcerted and gets into a heat, and counsel and good sense at once desert him and darkness envelops him—he begins then to moderate his high presumptions and to humble and think meanly of himself. If we had no temptations, we should thereupon have considerable conceit of ourselves and fancy ourselves very valiant; but when temptation comes, and man sees himself on the point of falling and apparently within the thickness of a penny-piece of plunging into the abyss, then he knows his weakness and humbles himself. Therefore St. Paul says (II Cor. xii. 7): “That the fact of my having been caught up to the third heaven, and the great revelations that I had had, might not move me to pride, the Lord permitted me to be tempted, that I might know what I was of my own self and humble myself accordingly.”

Hence follows another great benefit and advantage, which is that, as a man knows his weakness, he comes thereby to know the need that he has of the favor and help of the Lord, and of having recourse to Him in prayer, and ever clinging to Him as to his remedy and refuge, according to that saying of the prophet: Oh, how good it is for me to draw nigh to the Lord, and never go far from him—mihi adhaerere Deo bonum est—(Psalm Ixxii. 28). And as a mother, when she wishes her boy to come to her, gets other people to frighten him, that he may be under the necessity of going to her lap, so the Lord permits the devil to alarm and frighten us with his temptations, that we may have recourse to His lap and protection; or, as Gerson says, to provoke us as the eagle provokes her young to fly (Deut. xxxii. 11); or as a mother lets go of her child for a short interval that he may call on her more earnestly, seek her more diligently, embrace her more closely, and she in her turn may fondle him more affectionately—quo instantius ille clamet, accuratius quaerat, arctius stringat, et illa vicissim blandiatur suavius. St. Bernard says that the Lord at times loosens His hold on the soul that she may cry out to Him with more longing and fervor and hold fast to Him more strongly. So He did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, pretending that He wished to go further forward, that they might importune and detain him. Stay with us, since the evening is coming on, and the day is waning (Luke xxiv. 29).

Thence it comes also that a man sets more store by the favor and protection of the Lord, seeing the need that he has of it. St. Gregory says that on this account it is expedient for us that the Lord should withdraw His hand just a little from us, since if we always alike enjoyed His protection, we should not esteem it so much or take it to be so necessary; but when God leaves us a little to ourselves and we think we are going to fall, and then see that He gives us His hand at once—if the Lord had not come to my aid, my soul had almost dwelt in hell (Psalm xciii. 17)—then we set a high value on His favor, and become more grateful, | and recognize better His goodness and mercy. In whatever day I call on thee, I at once know that thou art my God (Psalm lv. 10). One cries to God in temptation, and feels His aid and experiences the faithfulness of His Majesty in the good protection that He affords in time of need. So one recognizes Him for Father and Defender, and is inflamed more with His love and breaks out into His praises, as the children of Israel did when the Egyptians went in pursuit of them, and they beheld themselves on the far side of the sea, and the enemy drowned (Exod. xv. 1). Hence also it comes that one does not attribute any good thing to oneself, but attributes all to God and gives Him the glory of all, which is another great benefit and advantage arising out of temptations, and a great remedy against them, as also a means of gaining great favors and rewards from the Lord.