Resisting Temptation - A Second Look

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and forever. Amen.

I'm in the middle of a Bible study at my local parish. The study topic is reconciliation, and we follow the study program called The Gift of Repentance: God's Call for a Change of Heart, authored by Kevin Perrotta. I was catching up on some homework for it last night, and this week's lesson regards Jesus' sermon on the mount teachings regarding the necessity of a change of heart, and a reinterpretation of the Law as pertaining primarily to inner obedience, over and above outer obedience.

I mention this because during my reading of it, I came across St. Augustine's reading of that passage, which I thought was very relevant to my discussion on resisting temptation. That made me happy, because I was super dissatisfied with my last take on the topic, and so in light of this, I'm going to have another go at it. Hopefully, this time will be a more scientific approach to the matter.

Spiritual Sin as Precursor to Bodily Sin

The teachings of Jesus in question, in particular, are those found in Matthew 5:[21]-30:

You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath any thing against thee; Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift. Be at agreement with thy adversary betimes, whilst thou art in the way with him: lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing. You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell.

Augustine was investigating what it meant to "look on a woman with lust." He concluded that it couldn't simply be the passive pleasure one experiences by observing a beautiful woman. Rather, he said, "it is the full consent to the pleasure: the forbidden craving is not checked, but given the opportunity, it would gratify its desire." What this means is that, the man has fully consented to pleasing himself by making of the woman an object. The implication is that, given the opportunity, he would use her in this way.

In making this observation, Augustine discerned three basic steps to sin:

1. A suggestion arises in our minds from something we observe or recall.
2. It brings pleasure, in some manner, whether the suggestion itself is pleasurable, or it offers pleasure.
3. We consent to it.

Please note, not all suggestions that arise in our minds are the sinful kind, nor are all pleasures that we enjoy to be thought of as sinful either. These are simply the steps involved in arriving at sin, not that these steps always lead, inevitably, to sin.

From this initial sin, the consent of the heart to some evil desire, we may or may not arrive at further sin, those that are found in action. And in this, there is also a threefold procession:

1. Consent to the desire within the heart.
2. Carrying out the sinful act itself.
3. Forming a sinful habit (repeatedly carrying out the sinful act).

So how should we approach this?

I read an article a few years ago about how there was an interest in recruiting hackers to join research in how to fight disease and microorganisms. Their reasoning was that hackers possess a certain skillset, something that makes them great at hacking, but would make them great at other things as well (like attacking viruses), a skillset that they wanted to take advantage of. They said that hackers think differently than most people in that when they are looking at solving a problem (such as hacking into a secure website), unlike most people who think of one or two strategies, a hacker looks to identify as many points of operation within the system as they can, and attempts to break through the system by attacking each and every one of these points. It's systematic, and considers every identifiable part of a system as a potential weakness. The idea was they could harness this thought pattern to find new ways to combat disease.

So, I'd like to take a similar approach to this question of resisting temptation. Above, I've laid out 6 points of operation in the process of thought and action that leads to sin. Augustine perceives rightly that habit is the most difficult sin to break. Therefore, if we are to avoid sin, we must begin before such habits are formed. However, even if a habit is formed, I feel like the following strategies will help in breaking it. So let us begin with our first point of weakness in the process.

A Suggestion Arises in Our Minds

Notice that Augustine identifies two sources of this suggestion: observation and recall. Since recall occurs after an observation, the first point in the process is observation. If we want to combat temptation, we must first, therefore, stop sin before it even enters our minds.

What kinds of observations are we talking about here? I would suggest anything we can sense, that is, sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. A sixth could be an imagined observation (such as something we've read in a novel). If we want to stop such things, we need to think ahead about what kinds of things could lead to sin. For example, let us say that I'm about to go watch a new movie in theater. I look at the movie poster, and it promises to be a fast action, adventure. Do I just walk in and watch it, or do I research to see if there might be inappropriate things in it? Do I check the rating? What do reputable online reviewers say? Will there be nudity and sex? Will there be cussing? Will I see peoples' heads getting cut off? Should I walk into the movie blind, and allow these things to enter my mind because I haven't taken the time to see what's there, or do I find out what is in it first, and then make the decision to protect my mind?

Another example might be the radio station that you listen to on your way to work in the morning. Does this radio station play music that sings about free sex and slapping hoes? How can I protect my mind from such messages? Should I select a different station, or not listen to the radio at all?

If sin is easiest to avoid by stopping it before it has a chance to come onto the radar screen of my mind, am I taking seriously enough the protection of my mind from the influences of a sinful culture? That's a good question.

It Brings Pleasure

This is a toughie. Naturally, many things bring us pleasure, and usually it's not really something we have any control over. However, there is something different about the kind of pleasure we receive at the thought of something sinful or forbidden, than the kind of pleasure we receive from observing natural goods. I don't think Augustine was suggesting, by this second step, that any pleasure we receive from any suggestion will lead to sin. Rather, I think he was speaking instead about illicit pleasures, and illicit suggestions.

For example, if a married man is sitting on a park bench reading the newspaper, and he happens to glance up as a beautiful woman is walking by, and he notices and passively receives the natural pleasure one feels by seeing beauty, smiles, perhaps says hello and good day, then returns to his newspaper, nothing wrong has happened here.

However, if this same man, upon seeing this woman and recalling how pleasurable sex is, has the suggestion in his mind about what sex with such a beautiful woman would be like, then arises in his mind a notion of pleasure that is illicit (namely, to have sex with this woman who is not his wife). It is this illicit pleasure, which, if he consents to desiring it in his heart, perhaps fantasizing about it, leads to sin. And this, I think, we are able to combat.

I think we are able to combat these kinds of thoughts of illicit pleasure by first developing a strong notion of why good and wholesome pleasures and goods are worthy and right, and why wicked and indecent pleasures and evils are worth avoiding, and why they are wrong. Going back to the example of the man on the bench, if, when this suggestion of sex with this woman arises in his mind, he keeps firmly in his mind that doing such a thing would destroy his relationship with his wife, the woman he knows and truly loves, who he has given his word (if it should be worth anything) that he would love her and be true to her always, and that he might even make this other woman pregnant and how damaging that would be for both of them, and all the sorrow and ruin that such an action would bring to his life, then dispelling the thought of pleasure would come much more easily, than if such thoughts were absent from his mind.

A strict, mental, "NO SIR, YOU CAN STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT RIGHT ABOUT NOW, THANK YOU VERY MUCH" is indeed in order.

We Consent to It.

We must remember that even if such thoughts arise in our minds, and even if such thoughts bring phantoms of pleasure with them, no sin is actually committed yet. The decisive moment is when we give consent of will to such thoughts and immerse ourselves into the pleasure of the notion. That is when we sin. So how to we defend against our own choices? Our own decision to enjoy the thought? How do we simply not give in, in the face of seduction?

It's essentially the question of the Ring of Gyges. If we found a ring, so the old philosophical question goes, that could make us completely invisible, in every way (sight, sound, smell, etc.), such that we could literally do whatever we wanted and there would be no consequences because nobody could observe what we do, would we continue to be moral men? It's an important question, because that's really what we're talking about it. It's the heart of Jesus' teaching. Nobody can see into our minds. Are we moral there too, or just on the outside? Do we give in to wicked lusts in our fantasies?

The answer has to be that we be moral even in our minds and hearts. We've already said why: all sin begins in the mind. If we are not moral inwardly, then we will be immoral outwardly. It would only be a matter of time before our inner ethic exposed itself in our actions. Why? Because we are not embodied spirits, and we're not mere animals. We're a body/spirit unity. Everything we do, we do both bodily and spiritually, as one. Hypocrisy is one of the universal evils that all societies make note of. If you are inwardly immoral, that has to manifest itself outwardly. And if you're outwardly holy, it will only ever be to those who would criticize you if you weren't, but in secret, in the dark, or in those places where you can find like-minded individuals, your real inner ethic comes out and the deep desires of your heart and mind come out.

So, what do we do about it? Well, protecting our minds, and forming our consciences to what is right and good and beautiful, these are the starting points to keep us from having to get to this point of decision. But if these defenses are bypassed, we must make a stand. Rather than giving up and giving in to the seduction of evil, we must stand firm and refuse. Guard your heart. Realize that once you've given into the desiring what is wicked, you've already sinned. You just haven't had the opportunity to carry out your desire yet.

Call out to God for help. Call out to a friend for help. Immediately fight to get the idea out of your head. Go for a walk. Go to the gym. Read a book. Start a conversation with your wife. Whatever it will help you to say no to the suggestion, to the seduction.

We Carry out the Sinful Act.

Once we've given our consent to the evil desire, however, it's really a matter of opportunity before we carry out the act. Does this make it inevitable, though? I answer no. If you've formed yourself properly, both in conscience and in habit, then you have a good likelihood of regretting the desire before you ever act on it. That's a really good thing, and you should do what you can to make amends to those you've offended by the thought. Namely, God. If the wicked desire was against another person, it may do you well to confess the desire, along with your regret over it, and your desire to make amends for it, however you are able. Confessing it in the Sacrament would be a good step, too, as well as praying to God for strength against such temptation in the future.

With this in mind, timing plays a role. If, as I've suggested above, you've been well formed, then the longer you go without having the opportunity to sin after giving in to the desire, the greater the likelihood you will overcome the temptation to act on it. If, however, the opportunity to sin immediately presents itself, there is a greater likelihood you will act on it, than not.

So, if we wanted to prepare ourselves for the possibility that we could give in to such desires (and I think it would be prudent to prepare for this), then there are certainly steps we could take to make acting on the desire more difficult, or inopportune. For one, we can keep a busy schedule. There is a reason for the old saying "idleness is the devil's playground." When we are idle, we have plenty of opportunity to get into trouble. When we're busy, not only do we have less time to entertain illicit ideas, but even if we did, we would be hard pressed to act on such ideas by the simply fact that we don't have the time.

Keeping good company is another strategy. If you keep yourself among people who are good and honest and honorable and virtuous, you're not going to nudge your buddy and say, "hey do you want to go out back and take a hit?" Actively placing yourself in situations that cause pressure to be virtuous and honest is a good thing to do. Let's do it.

The basic idea here is to make your situation non-conducive to actually carrying out sinful acts, so that when the time comes that you do give in to the sinful desire, it's very difficult for you to act on it. Yeah?

Forming a Sinful Habit.

This is absolutely the last bastion of defense. Once we develop a sinful habit, it's really very difficult to put an end to. So, we need to curb the sin now, before it goes further.

So, you've given in to the wicked desire, and you've actually acted on it now. You wanted to punch that guy's lights out, now you have. You wanted to watch pornographic videos, now you have. You wanted to dine and dash, now you have. What next? Do you do it again? Eventually, you're going to remember the pleasure you got out of it the first time, and you're going to want to do it again. What can you do to prevent yourself from forming a sinful habit?

Well, I would say the first thing to do is go back to the start, and reinforce all those good things you put in place to prevent you from sinning in the first place. Yeah, your defenses failed, but that just means you build them back up, make them stronger. The last thing it means is you give up altogether.

I think at this point, though, it's absolutely essential that you admit your wrongdoing. Confess to a priest. If you've made offenses against people, apologize. If you've stolen something, return it (or equivalent value). Making restitution for your wrongdoing is the responsible, honorable thing to do. Real men do this. Moreover, doing this will help you to recognize the consequences of your action, which will help in resisting future temptations. All of this is what we call repentance: turning away from sin and making your wrongdoings right. It is the restoration of justice.

Finally, I think it's also really important to recognize the seriousness of the sin, and that allowing our moral structure to crumble into wanton vice is absolutely unacceptable. We should not allow ourselves to be driven by guilt, or a picture of ourselves as worthless weaklings. Failure doesn't define us. We must strive always to pick ourselves up out of that failure and make things good and right. If we find ourselves to be weak, then we must strengthen ourselves, not wallow in weakness. We must exercise those virtues that will strengthen us against the sins we have a proclivity for.

I think we can do it. And if we can't, we can always fall back on the one who was strongest of all: Jesus Christ, who is willing to give us any strength against sin we ask Him for.

Thanks for reading. God bless!

The Code of Chivalry

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and forever. Amen.

Good evening, folks! I've got a great topic for tonight, which I plan to expand on in future entries: the Medieval Code of Chivalry. I think this is an important topic for a few of reasons. First, this code and ethic was something that the Crusaders of the Middle Ages lived by. So, if we want a deeper insight into the kind of men these were, taking a look at their rules for living will help big time.

Second, I think men of our era only have loosely defined moral rules, and that can be problematic in many ways. What happens when a difficult situation arises that they haven't thought about very much, or at all? Indecision, a sense of uncertainty and helplessness that often manifests as aggression, perhaps making a bad choice that he later regrets. Having a well defined set of rules for conduct assists us in making decisions, both simple and difficult, and will help us succeed in both our personal and our professional lives.

Third, we often hear how "chivalry is dead" these days, a phrase often used with regard to how men and women interact. It is interesting to note that the code of chivalry was originally developed as a habit and discipline for knights (which is what the word chivalry actually means: knight, or knighthood. See Chivalry at etymonline, the etymology dictionary), and only later expanded to include rules relating to courtship and romance. For the purposes of this blog entry, I will not be looking at these later associations, but rather on the codes of knighthood as they were originally envisioned.

Finally, I tend to find that this kind of old wisdom will help us to understand our world today in a new way. One of the great plagues these days is the way we use other people, as though they are there for our pleasure or satisfaction. As we will see, people were treated as subjects to be appreciated and loved for their own sakes, and not looked at from a selfish standpoint.

The Codes and Virtues

There have been more than one formulation of the code of chivalry. The earliest one we know of comes from an epic poem called the "Song of Roland" which was about the eighth century knights of the Dark Ages, and the military exploits of Emperor Charlemagne. The poem was written between 1098 and 1100, so during the latter years of the first crusade. The code of chivalry described in this poem is referred to by some as Charlemagne's Code of Chivalry. It consists in seventeen directives:

1. To fear God and maintain His Church.
2. To serve the liege lord in valour and faith.
3. To protect the weak and defenceless.
4. To give succour to widows and orphans.
5. To refrain from the wanton giving of offence.
6. To live by honour and for glory.
7. To despise pecuniary reward.
8. To fight for the welfare of all.
9. To obey those placed in authority.
10. To guard the honour of fellow knights.
11. To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit.
12. To keep faith.
13. At all times to speak the truth.
14. To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun.
15. To respect the honour of women.
16. Never to refuse a challenge from an equal.
17. Never to turn the back upon a foe.

In the fourteenth century, so within a century of the final crusades, the Duke of Burgundy described the chivalric virtues relating to this code as the following:

• Faith 
• Charity 
• Justice 
• Sagacity 
• Prudence 
• Temperance 
• Resolution 
• Truth 
• Liberality 
• Diligence 
• Hope
• Valour

In future entries, I will be examining each of the directives individually, associating them with their relevant virtues, as described by the Duke.

Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, an historian by the name of Leon Gautier lamented the loss of the chivalric code in a society that preferred the mythical Arthurian Knights over our own notable history. In an effort to try to revive the code, he formulated the code of chivalry as a set of what are known as the "Ten Commandments of the Medieval Code of Chivalry." It reads as follows:

1. Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions.
2. Thou shalt defend the Church.
3. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.
4. Thou shalt love the country in the which thou wast born.
5. Thou shalt not recoil before the enemy.
6. Thou shalt make war against the Infidel without cessation, and without mercy.
7. Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.
8. Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word.
9. Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone.
10. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

I'm not sure I prefer his rendition to that of the Song of Roland. I take particular issue with item number 6 on the list. This kind of language is absent from the Song of Roland. However, this interpretation may be due to the fact that service to one's liege lord during crusader times could have meant the waging of war against "the Infidel." I think, though, that this is an interpretation coloured by the glasses of historical retrospection, rather than the way the Medieval Knights actually thought.

Nevertheless, along with these Commandments, Leon Gautier also supplied us with his own list of chivalric virtues, which is much shorter than that provided by the Duke of Burgundy. They are:

• Loyalty
• Forbearance
• Hardihood
• Largesse or Liberality
• The Davidic ethic
• Honor

So there you have it. These are what we have relating to the Code of Chivalry, both from the times when these mandates were formulated in their historical circumstances, and from the perspective of historians looking back on those times. I think these are really interesting and worth delving into more deeply. I think that by the end of this series, I will propose a new Code of Chivalry for men of our time. This will require some thought, indeed!

I hope you enjoyed! God bless!

Resisting Temptation

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and forever. Amen.

Tonight, I'm supposed to be talking about resisting temptation. Unfortunately, I still haven't really figured this one out for myself yet, so this is unlikely to be a lengthy entry. That said, I'll share with you some of my thoughts. I don't think I'm going to have any particular format here, with subheaders and such. Perhaps, this will be more of an exploratory entry.

So, first off, I'm just going to say that both prayer and fasting are excellent places to start when it comes to resisting temptation. I think they're both the starting and ending places, with a whole lot of other stuff in between. I say both starting and ending because I think when you start, they are excellent weapons to help with your inner transformation, and I think when you end, these are things you're going to want to do anyway.

What's really the end goal here? Why do we even care about resisting temptation? The answer, I think, is love for God. That always has to be our starting point, the directive that informs everything else. We have this phrase, "first things first," and it makes a lot of sense. When you do things in the right order, things come out the way they're meant to. If you build a building, you start with the foundation. So it is with all things. When you learn mathematics, you need the foundational understanding of the basic operations before you can move into more complex matters.

Likewise is it with morality, with righteousness. You must place those things that are most important, and everything else will follow from it. Consider authority. A child must first love its parents before it should obey them. Otherwise, it simply will not obey them. If fear is the motivating factor, then they might obey for a while, but eventually will rise up in rebellion. Authority, if it is to be obeyed, must be loved and respected, and this requires the authority figure to serve those whom it expects to obey.

Love is the foundational principle, and love of God is the first of all loves. When you have this, all righteousness should follow. This is why prayer and fasting aid in our inner transformation, because through prayer we grow in our love for God, and through fasting we grow in our desire for Him. Once our love for God is perfected, we will pray and fast freely, because we love.

So, ultimately, this is what, I think, will help us to resist temptation: love for God. After all, is it not the deep, abiding love of a husband for his wife, or a wife for her husband, that motivates each of them to do all they can to please the other, and to do whatever it takes to avoid displeasing them? So let this be our basic principle: love for God. Jesus even points to this during His final temptation in the desert, when He says, "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matthew 4:[10].)

How do we foster love for God? Well, prayer and fasting (communication and the expression of desire), for starters. We should also inform our consciences according to the teachings of the Church, and through the reading of Scripture, through whom and through which God communicates His wisdom. For, in order to fall in love with God, you must first come to know Him. So, educate yourself, immerse yourself in His words. Consider Jesus' own words when He was tempted: "Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:[4].)

What else does Jesus say? "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." (Matthew 4:[7]). So, here we come to another excellent strategy for resisting temptation: don't place yourself in situations you know will tempt you. If you pray the Our Father, ever, you should understand that at the end of the prayer, you're asking God to "lead us not into temptation." So, if you're going to ask God to do His part to keep you holy, you should be willing to do your part, as well. He won't tempt you, you don't tempt Him. Capiche?

I think this leads into an important part of resisting temptation: help. We can usually feel when we're moving in a direction that leads to sin. A lot of times, when I'm feeling that way, I try to be around people who can help me resist such urges. For those more serious sins, the pernicious ones that are very much like an addiction, it also helps to have an accountability partner, someone you can confide in, and who can coach you, without judgment. Spiritual advisors fill this role very well, and we would all do well to seek one out.

I'm not really one for "mental tricks" to helping avoid temptation. For one, I've never really been good at them, and for two, I feel like it's more therapeutic to address a problem head on, than to sidestep it. That said, I don't want to put down any success people have had with such things. The avoidance of sin is a good thing to accomplish, however you do so.

I think that's really all I have to say on the matter. If you have any other ideas, please share them in the comments section below!

God bless!