Temptation

“However great may be the temptation, if we know how to use the weapon of prayer well, we shall come off as conquerors at last, for prayer is more powerful than all the demons.” (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux).

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Unknown)

I heard a story about a devil the other day and I thought it was a very clever little example of how we humans fall victim to pride...

In the story – which is fictional – the devil was coming to negotiate with some souls.  He wanted to just stop and have a chat with them.  And the souls turned to the devil and decided to have a listen to what he had to say.  After all, they reasoned to themselves, what harm could be done by just listening to the words?  They knew the difference between right and wrong and good and bad and would never choose evil when they knew about good.  And so, the souls began to debate with the devil.  And they listened to what he said – obvious lies – but the more they spoke, the more muddled they became…  Because the devil is the master deceiver and he was able to deceive the souls and one by one they turned away from good as they listened to the false logic of the deceiver.  After all, Satan did not tell Eve to disobey God because God was bad.  He told her to disobey God because God was holding back all the extra good from her.  And she believed him.  And if Eve – who was without sin and completely innocent, living in a perfect world, which was Eden – could believe those lies, then who am I, as sinful as I am, living in such a sinful world, to believe in anything different?

It is said that the Saints were arguing about what argument they could use to convert the devil, and one of them responded that no argument would do – the only solution would be to turn their backs on evil.  And this is the experience of the Saints.  Saint Faustina and Saint Padre Pio and Saint John Vianney all experienced a variety of temptations by the Evil One and in all of those cases, they turned away from evil and refused to engage with it…

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux says, “However great may be the temptation, if we know how to use the weapon of prayer well, we shall come off as conquerors at last, for prayer is more powerful than all the demons.”

And I have been thinking about that in a practical sense today.  After all, prayer is the reliance on the power of God, which is exactly the opposite of pride and all the mess that we get ourselves into when we try to handle things on our own.

And it occurs to me today, that in the tens of thousands of years it has been since Eve first spoke to the devil, I have learned nothing, and I continue to do the same.  And knowing that, I have to wonder….  How could I ever become a Saint in this way?

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.