| April 1, 2023 -- Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1
“Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng.” Proverbs 7:15-26
“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41
Temptation is a very human problem which has been with us since the beginning of time, and is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. We first encounter the concept in the third chapter of Genesis, where the serpent tempts Eve into eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and the concept last appears in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation. All of humanity has encountered temptation at one time or another. It is present everywhere and at all times.
I see three possibilities here, and expect each of us has experienced each of them: we sometimes manage to avoid temptation; perhaps more often we meet it and manage to resist; but I fear that far too often we meet it and give in. Nobody is perfect, no matter what some say. We have all been put to the test and fallen short, either by doing what we should not be doing or not doing what we should be doing. Giving in to temptation is the most common of all sins. Listen to what St. Paul says: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”
There is one more, and necessary, step to the process. Having sinned by falling into temptation we need to recognize our shortcomings, repent of our failures, be willing to atone for the harm caused by our actions, and ask God’s forgiveness for them. God is always willing to forgive if we are truly sorry for what we have done (or have failed to do).
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