TEMPTED IN THE DESERT

“Abba Evagrius said, ‘Without temptations no one will be saved.’ "

I like some sins more than others. There are a few I’ve never been tempted to commit, but even some of the more unlikely have flitted before me at one time or other, promising unthought of delights.

I’ve never considered worshiping Ishtar or forsaking the Faith for the enticements promised in the Afterlife by Islam, but before I can safely say I’m immune from temptations to Idolatry, I have to admit I put myself in the place of God all the time. If I’d composed it, the Lord’s Prayer would read “MY will be done on earth as it is…”

I may not be seriously tempted to steal stuff but there are all kinds of things I want I don’t need; I don’t have to think back very far to recall the whispered temptation that I deserve better.

Most of us aren’t tempted to murder anybody, or lie under oath and so take God’s Name in vain. Few of us have coveted our neighbor’s ox, but how many times have I wished somebody would just go away, or told myself that since “everybody” bends the rules now and then, I can decide what rules apply to me and what ones don’t. While I may not want your ox or ass, I have little doubt I’m much more deserving of admiration than you.

Whether I look at my sins from the perspective of the Ten Commandments or the Seven Deadly Sins, after not too-much reflection, I come off guilty.

The pathetic thing about my sin is that as much as I enjoy the temptation, as real as the pleasure of sin promises to be, it’s rare, after the fact, that I don’t feel as if my mouth is full of ashes. Sin doesn’t deliver on its promise. The result of sin is disappointment and regret, even if I don’t stop to notice.

The battle with sin isn’t with sin itself, but with the temptation to sin. The battle isn’t with my bloated and aching stomach on Thanksgiving night, but with the assumption as I go down the Thanksgiving buffet that a three-pound plate of food is what I really need. The danger isn’t the regret I feel after I’ve told somebody off, but the delight I take in fantasizing how great it will be when I finally put that person in their place (and, of course, if the devil plays me just right—and I so want to be played!—I’ll unwittingly sign on to continue in my sin by replaying in my imagination how clever I was when I did it).

“Abba Evagrius said, ‘Without temptations no one will be saved.’ "

Our spiritual lives, most of the time, are about temptation. That’s where we grow in Christ. Immediately after His baptism, the Gospel tells us, “Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” The Lord Christ’s temptations tested His human nature.

He was as much a human being as you and me. His humanity was subject to the same temptations you and I face. He overcame His temptations the same way you and I, if we want to, can overcome ours. He surrendered His humanity to His Father. We can surrender our love of sin to Him.

Abba Evagrius doesn’t tell us to go looking for temptation to face it down and conquer it. It’ll come of its own, without us having to look for it, and it’ll be tailor-made for you. The devil has impeccable credentials for his work. A verse in the Psalms says “He” (meaning God) “knoweth whereof we are made.” The devil has a pretty good idea of how we’re made, too, and he knows how to play us like the proverbial violin he’s reputed to play so well.

We don’t have to be masters of psychology to wrestle with temptation, but practitioners of prayer. Abba Evagrius knows temptation comes to us all; he knows temptation is overcome only by surrender, following the Lord Jesus in His time temptation, placing ourselves in God’s keeping and giving ourselves to prayer.