Avoid or Face Temptation?

[MamaGeek]

I have recently found myself slacking off at work, so I arranged for a transfer to another department where I worked on detail last year, and where they always kept me busy. The move was prompted by other motivators besides the avoidance of temptation, but it still led me to consider this question:

If there are known influences that lead one to sin, is it better to avoid those situations, or to look at them as a cross to bear, and face them down as a spiritual battle with one’s human nature?

 

[csr]

A standard distinction in the progression of the spiritual life is between interior and exterior means of perfection. Adolphe Tanquerey, in The Spiritual Life, makes this distinction (e.g. §408 ff.). The exterior means include spiritual direction. How exactly an occasion of sin should be handled would benefit from and perhaps require spiritual direction–but this is extremely hard to come by. We can also learn things by reading and comparing notes, of course.

Whether a remedy is to be found by facing or by avoiding the occasion must depend partly on the occasion at issue. I think most any competent spiritual writer would argue that sins of the flesh ought not to be daringly faced down, as we are especially weak in this area: but instead one ought to flee the occasions. So, for example, we keep “custody of the eyes”. As I am a man, I have not for more than a very brief accidental moment observed the quasi-pornographic volleyball exhibitionism in Athens, as I have no business gazing upon such extensive feminine detail. And I do my best to avert my glance when someone in public is dressed inappropriately–which is a very common experience. I rarely watch television, as the language and images are generally keyed to flattering my concupiscent side. And when I do watch, it is with chagrin that such evil could be so widespread, and with sorrow for those who watch with darkened hearts and a dulled sense of the higher things.

However, there is a concept known as “mortification of the senses”, which in some sense implies facing down the sin. For example, if I hate work, I can force myself to work, and thus in effect face down the occasion of sin.

These are both examples of “stripping ourselves of the old man with his deeds and putting on the new”. The difference may be that we don’t have to be able to withstand blatant sin, but we do have to work. Priests who hear confessions have extra graces from their education and ordination to withstand the evils of what they hear, but laypeople don’t have to hear filth; having to work unhappily is a consequence of the sin of Adam, from which we now “toil”.

Note that laypeople should be strong enough to withstand a brief exposure to filth; the idea is not that we are pale wallflowers who wilt at the slightest error. But with blatant sexual sin, the best thing to do is to flee. Otherwise, one should adapt as per the needs of one’s perfection in Christ, accepting mortification as necessary.

 

[baltobetsy]

MamaGeek:

If there are known influences that lead one to sin, is it better to avoid those situations, or to look at them as a cross to bear, and face them down as a spiritual battle with one’s human nature?

When we make our act of contrition, one of the things we “firmly resolve” is to avoid the near occasions of sin. St. Therese of Lisieux would always flee from situations where she would be likely to sin. That’s what keeping custody of the eyes, as the previous poster mentioned, is all about. Practicing voluntary mortification is an active way to prevent sin without actually facing it down. When we say no to ourselves concerning a legitimate, non-sinful desire, it becomes easier to say no to sin.

In my opinion, it is unwise to set oneself up for a spiritual battle. The enemy, as a fallen angel with superior intellect, will always be stronger, and even if (with God’s help) we prevail, we’ve set ourselves up for pride. My advice - flee!

Betsy

 

[cmcruz]

I’d just like to echo baltobetsy–the first two things that came to my mind when reading your original post were the Act of Contrition and St. Therese. So I agree–FLEE!

 

[Teresa9]

I would say avoid it, but that isn’t always possible and maybe sometimes we are not meant to avoid it but to face it in humbleness, firm resolve in Christ Jesus and bravery with trust in God.

 

[csr]

How we handle the matter depends on what we know of the matter from other teachings of the Church. For example, we are not supposed to fornicate. So, anything that smacks of the spirit of fornication we should flee. But, we are supposed to work even though it is now toil. So, while we may be “tempted” to not work, we can, in some sense, face down that temptation and get to work. It may in some sense seem like bringing on an occasion of sin to go to a place where we typically don’t work, but if we have to work there, we must find some way around the problem. That’s one we have to ‘face down’. But we never need to feel able to ‘face down’ the spirit of fornication, because we don’t need to become able to fornicate. There, we must be able to flee, so we practice fleeing–except for priests who must be exposed to a certain expression of this in the confessional. They have graces and training for dealing with those situations.

Here are some bits from Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.

No man is so perfect in holines that he hath never temptations…Yet, notwithstanding, temptations turn greatly unto our profit, even though they be great and hard to bear…

This sentence shouldn’t be taken to mean that one should seek out temptations for the sake of bearing them–that sounds almost Lutheran! iick! But when they occur, and when we master them, we grow in holiness. It’s just an example of God drawing good from evil.

Many who seek to fly from temptations fall yet more deeply into them. By flight alone we cannot overcome, but by endurance and true humility we are made stronger than all our enemies.

And prayer too, as it also says.

Nor is it a great thing if a man be devout and zealous so long as he suffereth no affliction; but if he behave himself patiently in the time of adversity, then is there hope of great progress. Some are kept safe from great temptations, but are overtaken in those which are little and common, that the humiliation may teach them not to trust to themselves in great things, being weak in small things.

The other day I became annoyed at a very minor frustration. This is humbling considering my having left greater sins aside!

Anyway, those are bits from Book I, Chapter 13. Chapters 18 and 25 of that Book are also helpful.