It is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened, you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden, you are close to yourself, your own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience.
St. John of the Cross
Friends, remember that virtues are mountains: with the pinnacle being the pinnacle of perfection, and on either side of the mountains there being two valleys of vice: the vice of excess, and the vide of deficiency. So on the mountain of courage there lies rashness on one side and timidity on the other. On the mountain of hope there lies presumption on one side and despair and despondency on the other. When trials occur, we have the chance to climb the mountain, but also we should, in humble self-knowledge, recognize the particular dangers of our situation and dispositions: what vice do I have a habit of? Which valley do I tend towards, or might I fall into now without God’s help? God disciplines and chastises His children, but do not forget that by Baptism you are His child whom he loves, His son or daughter whom He receives. (Heb. 12:6) “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12:11)
Recognize your tendencies and temptations, but keep your focus on Jesus Christ and the righteousness that comes through faith. When tempted or tending to seek self-confirmation through money, let that be an opportunity to cast your anxieties on God, and trust in Him. Do not struggle against your temptation alone. Think of Him, and He will think of you and take care of you. When tempted to lust, disregard the thoughts of temptation and replace them with the Cross and the crown of thorns. Think about these and ask the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead—the one who raises us up from our sins—to help you see Christ’s purity and chastity in His suffering. For “chaste is the heart that loves without seeking reward.” When you want to consider the opinions of others or status, look at Her who did not fail to obey God, even if it meant sleeping in a stable in the cold, being exiled in a foreign country, and for a time going unrecognized by men as the Mother of God. When battling gluttony, do not think about what you are tempted to, for you will fail on your own. Think of the rewards of Heaven, if provided we suffer with Christ (Rom 8:17). When tempted to wrath, breathe deeply, use your imagination to make reasonable excuses for others (they may be going through something I don’t know about, and if I were in their shoes, I might do even worse than they are doing), and remember that you are a creature who will die soon—you have enough responsibilities, and governing the country or other people’s souls is not one of them. When tempted to sloth, use your imagination to think of the spiritual battle being fought around you, and you—you will flee, or sit on the sidelines while souls are led by demons into Hell, and saints are fighting valiantly, slaying monsters on their way to Heaven to win glory? And you will sit there? God will requite us according to our works (Ps. 62:12). Think of the rewards for those who suffer with and fight for the Kingdom of Heaven! Read the end of The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis. And are you fighting against envy? Make a list of things to be grateful for that you have received from God. Then read the Sermon on the Mount and the rest of the Gospels and listen to our Lord’s words of what He values and what His immense rewards are for those who forget about themselves!
Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.
James 1:12-15
The form of every virtue is charity. The rock of every mountain of virtue forms one mountain, Charity. Charity does not think of itself as much as it thinks of God, and it considers others as itself—it holds the good of another to be its own good. So if you try to fight vice and temptation by focusing on the vice, on the temptation, more than you focus on God and His path of love, you will fail. Firstly, you will be fighting alone, on your own strength, weak as you are. Secondly, you will begin to imagine that evil is greater than good, or sin more pleasurable than righteousness, since you are thinking of it more (even if it begins as fighting it)—so you will succumb to sin and its fruit of death. Thirdly, you will get distracted from the path of righteousness, like a driver looking at something to the side of the road and then veering towards it and off the road. Christ was tempted and tried, and prevailed over sin and death. Through holy Baptism, we share in this triumph. But through faith and hope we will attain to His resurrection, in which glory and power we already partake. Not by our power—but by grace, and faith, and hope.
Philippians 3:8-16Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
The Curious Critic 