As Christians we all wish to do good but as St. Paul teaches us through Scripture, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want." There is a continual ongoing war within our souls and our very beings of good vs. evil, it leads to spiritual tension that is as delicately strung as a violin, one wrong move and the string breaks, so it is when we move too close to sin, one sinful thought soon leads to sinful acts, for all sin begins in the mind, and it is here that Satan will tempt us, but that is all he can do is tempt.
At times in order to escape accountability many will blame Satan for the choices they have made this is not so, for we are not captured beings with no free will, indeed the old excuse of 'the devil made me do it' is as lame as it sounds. The Devil can do no more than what he did to Jesus in the desert and that is to tempt each of us with worldly delights by promising us what we most desire but that does not mean we must accept his evil invite. We must also not walk around fearing the Devil at every turn for did not Jesus Christ win the battle for our souls for all of eternity? Why then such timidity when God has conquered sin by the death and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our iniquities. Jesus conquered over sin therefore we have the victory through His Salvific Atonement, let us then walk with confidence in God who guides our path, as St. Teresa of Avila admonished in her works, "I'm sick and tired of those people who go about saying: 'The devil, the devil, the devil,' when instead they should be saying 'God, God, God'. I fear these kinds of persons more than the devil himself."
To walk confidently though we need to make sure that we are on the path of Righteousness we do this by living a right life in the sight of God, for nothing is hidden from our Loving God who pierces the depths of our soul and knows our thoughts and deeds. Therefore it is incumbent upon us to remove ourselves from occasions of sin, where as weak human beings we may find ourselves falling into the seductive voice of the evil tempter who beguiles us with promises of pleasures but fails to tell the many who listen to this seduction that his promises are empty and will lead a soul to hell. As that wonderful Saint Teresa cautions her readers with these words, "Beware, for the devil, through very small things drills holes through which very large things enter." Temptation begins in our thoughts and gains ground when we listen to the wrong voice, the 'good and bad angel' that sits on our shoulders and beckons us to do that which we know is sin and the opposing voice that tells us our actions are wrong and will lead to a deadening of our senses. Once again St. Teresa warns her fellow Sisters, "The devil needs nothing more than to see a little door open before playing a thousand tricks." The thousand tricks is the seduction of our senses to do that which we know is wrong and spend our time on meaningless things in order to weaken the power of the indwelling Spirit.
These are especially difficult times for the unwary soul as we live in a century where sin is no longer recognised and what was sin is now recognised by liberal society as a good. We live in a society where our senses are constantly bombarded with the wrong messages, where music promotes a lifestyle of gratifying mans base nature, through sex, drugs and course language. We see sin being glorified on the cinema screen as same sex lifestyles are being promoted as normal, where adultery is seen as liberating and gruesome murder is seen as entertainment. Even though we are bombarded with these images it does not mean we must consent to what we know is wrong and sinful.
This does not mean we must walk around with dour and long faced mourning as if God were a killjoy, interrupting our 'good times'. Every Christian knows within their own hearts what is pleasing to God and what is not and by embracing the worldly philosophy of 'anything goes' we not only harm our own spirits but also those who listen to us, for if we do not set a good example, who will? For an example if a person is struggling with an inner compulsion towards pornography do we buy this person a subscription to Playboy? Of course not! We instead encourage them to read wholesome material and with prayer and support help them to overcome their addiction towards lust.
If we wish to know what spirit we listen too, then ask within yourself when the Catholic Church speaks out on an issue or bans a movie or books, do we listen and obey the Church's admonition or do many stamp their feet and become determined to flout the instructions given by the Church and read and watch that which has been designated as harmful? Where does this dissident spirit spring from? For Christ cannot dissent from that which the Church instructs the faithful, so then why do you wish to do the exact opposite of the stance which the Church has taken? What 'voice' is directing you to disobey the Church as if one were more knowledgeable and the Church outmoded and outdated? Though we live in the world we are not meant to be a part of it no matter how alluring it may appear as St. John of the Cross cautioned in his works, "Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing." One may say this Saint is old and his sayings are no longer relevant, do they also say the same thing of Gods Word?
During our day we come across many distractions and can become overly busy in an attempt not so much as to achieve things but to drown out the still small voice that cautions us to direct our thoughts towards Godly things and not worldly matters, in the end what voice did we listen too? When we ignore that still small voice we do so at our own peril, for if we ignore it enough in time many will fail to recognise the gentle voice of the indwelling Spirit in preference for the more raucous voices of the worldly and sophisticated. It is prayer that strengthens us against the temptations of the world and the seductive voice of the evil one, as Saint Rose of Viterbo said, "Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home."
Though we live in the world we can still be God fearing souls when our entire focus is centred on God and what is pleasing to God. Our very work can be turned into prayer when we offer up our work for Gods Glory and not our own, this then ennobles the work done as God accepts our gift and returns it with His Divine Wisdom. It is through the indwelling Spirit that illuminates our own souls as to what is good and pleasing to God and what is displeasing and sinful for as the Word instructs us, "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace." Nowhere does the Word of God instruct us to obey the standards of 'Hollywood's movies that promote sinful behaviour and lifestyle choices!
It is not open minded to believe that wrong is right and right is wrong, that is deception! It is what the tempter wishes all of us to believe, how many of us do exactly that? Do we listen to the standards set by a society grown gluttonous and greedy as they disregard and hold in contempt all that God and the Church teaches as right and wholesome? When we begin to believe what the world teaches in preference to what God, The Church and the Saints teach us then who do we follow and what voice has gained control of our interior? Do many consider the Saints who went before us as boring or out of date? Therefore they turn to the TV, the internet and the cinema to ascertain what is more pleasing to the world and the worldly? Our Saints should be our hero's and not the celluloid hero's who promote deviant lifestyles, to heed the words of Saint Antony the Abbot, "The devil dreads fasting, prayer, humility, and good works: he is not able even to stop my mouth who speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the Sign of the Cross. The devils tremble at the Sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which He triumphed over and disarmed them."
There is an old cartoon where good and evil are represented as a good angel sitting on the right shoulder and the evil angel sitting on the left shoulder as both whisper into the ear of the recipient. The person in the cartoon is torn in two as he listens to one and a halo surrounds him, then the opposite voice whispers its seduction and the attention of the person turns to listen to the voice of the evil angel as he sprouts horns. This cartoon can be seen as representative of our own battle for in the end the voice that we listen to most will win our soul. In the words of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, "Owing to the spirit of the world and tepidity, if the Savior returned to earth today to announce His doctrine in person, He would find as many opponents as He did among the Jews."
Our Lord does speak out through The Catholic Church but how many listen and obey? Or do we disregard the Church as overbearing and dictatorial?
In the end do we sing praises to God or dance with the Devil if the tune sounds right or can many no longer tell the difference?
Peace of Christ to ALL
Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.
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