How We Should Behave in Temptations of Evil and Impure Thoughts, and of Remedies against Them

IN this subject the first thing to observe is that there are some who grieve and afflict themselves greatly when they are assailed by evil thoughts of blasphemy, or against faith, or foul and impure thoughts, in so much that sometimes they fancy that the Lord has forsaken and forgotten them, and that they must be in His ill graces, since such things pass through their mind. This is a great mistake. Gerson tells of a monk who led a hermit’s life in the desert, who was much tempted and afflicted with thoughts of blasphemy and other thoughts very foul and filthy, and suffered this temptation for twenty years without daring to tell anyone, thinking that it was a thing unheard of and unseen, and that anyone who heard of it would be shocked.

At last, at the end of twenty years, he went to a very ancient and experienced father, but even then did not dare tell him by word of mouth, but wrote what he had to say on a paper and gave it to him. The old man read his paper and began to laugh, and said to him: “Put your hand on my head.” When he did so, the old man said: “I take all this sin of yours upon myself; let it not be on your conscience any more in future.” The monk stood amazed, and said: “But how? I thought myself already in hell, and do you say that I am to take no account of it?” The old man said to him: “Did you perchance take any pleasure in these evil and impure thoughts?” ‘Good heavens,” he said, “no, but great pain and torment.” “But at that rate,” said the holy man, “it is clear that this was no doing of yours, but you suffered it against your will, the devil using this means to drive you thereby into despair. So, my son, take advice, and if henceforth these evil thoughts return to you again, say: ‘On thy head, malignant spirit, be this blasphemy and this filthy thought; I have no mind to take any part in it, but I believe and hold all that Mother Church believes and holds, and would give my life rather than offend my God.’ ”’ Herewith the monk was cured, and from that time forward the temptation came to him no more. Here be it noted, by the way, for the benefit of those who fail to manifest their temptations for the difficulty they feel in doing so, how much greater pain and torment it is not to declare them than to declare them. For twenty years was this monk in great affliction and torment for not manifesting his temptation; and on manifesting it he became quiet and peaceful. How much pain would he have saved himself if he had done at the beginning what he did at the end of twenty years! Thus this temptation is no new thing, nor should we lose our wits over it.

It remains to say how we should behave in the like temptations of evil and impure thoughts. Some do not know how to defend themselves under them, since they use much force and put forth much energy to throw off and resist these thoughts, knitting their brows, wrinkling their foreheads, wagging their heads, shutting their eyes, as though they would say, “No way in here.” And sometimes, unless they speak and answer, “I will not,” they think they consent. The harm they do themselves by this is greater than the harm the temptation does. There was that courtier of King Saul, uttering loud cries close by his side, and scolding someone else, uttering similar cries at a distance, enough to awaken and disturb the repose of the king (I Kings xxvi. 14) : “Who art thou that criest and disturbest the king?” You are troubling and disturbing your own repose hard by, and do you complain of the temptation coming from afar? Take great notice of this, for it is a thing very apt to break heads, especially of scrupulous people. It is not prayer, nor spiritual exercises, that shatters and breaks heads and ruins health, but the man’s own scruples and indiscretions. That is what the devil is aiming at, who knows well how far you are from giving consent. And it is no small but a great gain for him when this works out. This is not a business to be dispatched by shakes of the head.

How, then, ought one to resist and cast off these temptations? The saints and masters of spiritual life say that the method of resistance should not be by struggling to cast them off, wearying and tiring oneself and doing violence to one’s imagination, but by taking no notice of them. They illustrate this by sundry comparisons, which, though mean, illustrate it well. When little cur-dogs come out to bark at a passer-by, if he takes no notice of them, they are soon gone; but if he does take notice and turns upon them, they turn upon him to bark. So it happens with these thoughts. Thus the remedy is not to take any notice of them, and in that way they will leave us very quickly. Or we ought to act, they say, like a wayfarer passing along a street, and the air is thick with dust blowing in his face, and he takes no notice of it, but shuts his eyes and goes his way. And for the greater consolation of those who are molested with this temptation, and that they may completely make up their minds to use this remedy, the saints observe that, however bad the thoughts, we must take no notice of them; or rather, the worse they are, the less notice should we take of them, for their being less dangerous. What worse thoughts can there be than those against God and His saints, against faith and religion? But these are the least dangerous, because the worse they are, the further are they by the grace of God removed from your will and consent. Thus you must not be troubled at their coming upon you, since it is no fault of yours, nor under your control, nor is it you that do it, but you suffer it against your will, the devil contriving it to discourage you, and make you fall into despair or into great sadness and affliction.

It is told of St. Catherine of Siena that one time she was much fatigued and afflicted with these thoughts, when Christ our Redeemer appeared to her, and all these clouds forthwith dispersed. She complained gently to her Beloved: “Alas, Lord, where wert Thou when such things passed through my heart?’ He said to her: “Daughter, I was there in the midst of thy heart.” “My Jesus, wert Thou in the midst of such foul and evil thoughts?” He said to her: “Tell me, daughter, didst thou perchance take pleasure in having such thoughts?’ “O Lord, how the pain of it reached to my very soul, and I do not know what I would not choose rather than entertain them.” ‘But who, then,” He said, “made thee detest them but Myself, Who was there?” Thus, however evil and foul be the thoughts that you have, if you take no pleasure in them, but rather pain and annoyance, not only has God not forsaken you, but you may take that for a sign that He dwells in you, since it is He who gives you this abhorrence of sin and this fear of losing God. I am with him in tribulation, says the Lord (Psalm xc. 5). God was in the midst of the bush and the thorns and the fire (Exod. iii. 2).

St. Bernard says: “This conflict is painful and troublesome; but for all the pain and affliction thrown into it, so the greater the increase of the reward and crown. Sin is not in the feeling, but in the consenting’”—Non nocet sensus ubi non est consensus. Blosius says in confirmation of this: “Anyone taking complacency in himself, though once in a while, only makes a worse figure in the eyes of God than one would do, suffering for many years the like motions, however evil, provided there be given no consent.” Thus here is no ground for being distressed or for taking much notice of these feelings and thoughts; you should behave in them as though they were passing in the mind of someone else, and not in yours; and you may well reckon that they pass outside of you, says a saint, since evil thoughts are in you only in so far as the will consents and no further; and by your not consenting they gain no entry into your house, but only shout and rap at the door from outside.

Hereupon the masters of spiritual life observe that to get frightened over these things and take much notice of them is not only not a good plan, but evil and hurtful, inasmuch as it increases the temptation. This is borne out by experience, and there is a natural reason for it, and philosophers themselves teach it; for fear rouses the imagination, and thinking and letting the mind waver to and fro for a long time on one thing causes it to make a deeper impression on the memory, whereby increase and life is given to the temptation. We see that a man walks unconcernedly along a narrow plank when it lies on the ground; but when the plank is up in the air, fear makes him walk no longer safe and sure, but in great danger of falling, because fear makes the blood rush to the heart and paralyzes the limbs, so he walks with great danger and comes to fall. This is also the effect of fear and pusillanimity in temptations. Thus it is not well to let fear go all lengths in these temptations, nor take much notice of them, because by not noticing them they are the sooner forgotten. But here Gerson and others observe that, though this particular fear is not good at such times, yet fear of sin in general is good and very profitable, begging God, “Lord, let me not be separated from Thee,” and making acts and resolutions rather to die a thousand deaths than commit a mortal sin, without thinking of or bearing in mind this particular temptation which troubles you at the time.

I add to what has been said another expedient which the saints greatly recommend, and it will serve as a general remedy against all kind of interior temptations. It is, when an evil thought comes, to try and divert the understanding to some good topic or reflection, as death, Christ crucified, or the like. And this must not be by doing violence to the imagination, or tormenting or fatiguing oneself, but simply by stealing oneself away, as they say, from the bad thought and occupying oneself with a good one; as when one man goes up to speak to another, and that other never disengages himself to listen to him or give him room to get anything in; or when they say silly things to a sensible man, and he turns his head away, not caring to listen or reply to them. This is a very good way of resisting those temptations, and a very easy and safe way; for the more we are taken up with a good thought, the further we are removed from consenting to a bad one.

For this purpose it will be a great help to dig and delve down deep at meditation time on some good subjects such as are most apt to move us, familiarizing ourselves therewith. By this means one finds there a refuge ready to hand when one is fatigued and worried with temptations and bad thoughts. Thus for this purpose it is well for each one to have certain harbors of refuge to which he can betake himself in such conjunctures, as people take sanctuary. Some betake themselves to the wounds of Christ, especially to that of His side, and find there very good protection, in the holes of the rock, in the hollow of the wall (Cant.

ii. 14). Others find it well to think of death, judgment, and hell. Let everyone put his hand to that which does him most good and moves him most, and endeavor to dig and delve well in one of these grounds, that so he may be able to have ready recourse thereto, and find entry and security in it at such times.

The Abbot Smaragdus tells a very amusing story, but pat to this purpose. He says that a religious one time saw two devils standing chatting together. One said to the other: “You there, how are you getting on with your monk?” “For me, I am doing very well, I put him a thought, and at once he sets to work thinking over it, and makes reflections again and again: How was that thought? Did I dwell on it? Was there any fault of mine init? Did I resist it? Did I consent to it? Whence came it to me? Did I give any occasion for it? Did I doallI could? And with that I twirl him round and round, and drive him half mad.” The devil has his way when a man takes to reasonings and questions and answers about the temptation, for there will be never wanting to him arguments and replies. The other devil said: “For me things are going very badly with my monk, for no sooner do I put a kad thought before him than he at once has recourse to God or to some other good thought; or he gets up from his seat and takes up some other occupation, not to think of it or make account of it, and so I cannot get at him.”

This is a very good way of resisting these temptations and thoughts, to give them no entry and make them no reply, nor reason at all with the temptation, but turn one’s head and avoid facing them or taking any notice of them. It is better when this avoidance and refusal to listen is done by turning the attention to some good thought, as we have said; and when that does not suffice, it is good to take up some exterior occupation.