All Manner of Temptations Are Sent for Our Good

So that it may be clearer to you how all temptations in general are sent by God for our benefit, take into account what I will say. Man, by the pull of his corrupted nature, is proud, vainglorious, loves outward show, holds firmly to his own thoughts and decisions, and always desires to be highly esteemed by everyone—far more than he truly deserves. This self-esteem and self-conceit are supremely destructive in the matter of spiritual progress, so much so that even the shadow of it is enough to prevent a person from attaining true perfection. Therefore our compassionate heavenly Father, wisely caring for all of us—especially for those who have sincerely devoted themselves to His service—places us through the temptations He permits to come upon us in such a disposition in which we can easily avoid the terrible danger of this self-esteem and are almost compelled to arrive at true humble self-knowledge: as He did with the holy Apostle Peter, permitting him to deny Him three times, so that he might know his own weakness and cease to rely upon himself; and with the holy Paul, upon whom—after he had been caught up to the third heaven and had been shown God’s divine ineffable mysteries—He laid a certain persistently burdensome temptation, so that, carrying within himself this indication of his powerlessness and nothingness, he might advance in humility and boast only of his infirmities, and that the greatness of the revelations with which he had been accounted worthy from God might not lead him into arrogance, as he himself testifies concerning himself: ”And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure” (2 Cor. 12:7).

Thus God, moved by compassion for this unhappy lawless inclination of ours—always to think highly of ourselves—permits temptations of various kinds to come upon us, often very heavy ones, so that by knowing our own weakness we may be humbled. In this the Lord manifests at once His goodness and His wisdom, for through what appears most harmful He bestows upon us the greatest benefit, since He humbles us—and humility is above all things needful and beneficial for our soul. If in this way all temptations are given for the instruction of humility, it follows that the servant of God also, who feels in his heart the said bitter states—dryness, spiritual tastelessness, scarcity of spiritual consolations—experiences this so that he may learn to be humbled, thinking that this is how it is with him on account of his sins; that it is impossible for anyone to have a soul so destitute of everything as his; that it is impossible for anyone to serve God with such coldness as his soul; and that such states come only upon those whom God has abandoned—and consequently he too has been abandoned, and deservedly so. From such humble thoughts the following good is produced: that he who previously thought of himself as being something, and something very significant, now, having tasted the bitter medicine sent to him from above, begins to think of himself as the most sinful man in the world, unworthy even of the name of Christian. And truly, he would never have come to such a low opinion of himself and into such deep humility, had he not been compelled to it by these special temptations, this great grief and bitterness of heart—which are therefore a great mercy shown by God in this life to the soul that humbly surrenders itself to Him, so that He, as He sees fit, may heal it by such medicines as He alone perfectly knows and finds necessary for its healing and bringing into a good condition.

Besides this fruit brought to the soul by the said temptations through the scarcity of spiritual consolations, there are also many other fruits from this. One who has been humbled by such interior heaviness is necessarily compelled to have recourse fervently to God for swift help from Him, diligently does everything considered suitable for the healing of the soul’s grief and the banishing of the heart’s bitterness, and—in order to be delivered in the future from such spiritual torment—forms a firm intention to walk the rest of the path of spiritual life with full attentiveness to the movements of the heart, avoiding even the shadow of sin and every, even slight, irregularity capable of separating him from God and God from him in any way whatsoever. Thus that grief which he had considered so contrary to his aims and so harmful afterwards becomes for him a goad spurring him to seek God with greater warmth and with greater zeal to remove himself from everything that he finds inconsistent with the will of God. In brief—all the sorrows and torments that the soul endures during interior temptations and the scarcity of spiritual consolations and sweetnesses are nothing other than a purifying medicine arranged by the love of God, by which God purifies it, if it bears them with humility and patience. And they most certainly prepare for such patient sufferers a crown that is acquired only through them—and a crown the more glorious the more painful the torments of the heart endured during them.

From this it is evident that we should not greatly trouble and torment ourselves—whether on account of other outward temptations that come upon us, or on account of the said interior temptations—as do those who have little experience in this regard, and who count what proceeds from God as proceeding from the devil or from their own sins and imperfection; who count the signs of God’s love as signs of His wrath, who ascribe benefactions and gifts to blows and strokes dealt in extreme displeasure with them; who consider all that they have done and are doing as superfluous labor deserving nothing, and the loss they have endured as having no remedy. For if they believed that from such temptations there is no diminishment of virtue but rather a great increase of it, when the soul receives them with humility and bears them with thanksgiving; and if they believed that these temptations are arrangements of God’s loving good will toward them—then they would not be extremely troubled and would not lose peace of heart from being subjected to such temptations, experiencing inappropriate and shameful thoughts, and being dry and cold during prayer and other spiritual exercises. Rather, they would then the more humble their souls before God and place in their heart the resolve to fulfill the will of God in everything—for it is only in this way that God desires to be pleased in this world—and would strive in every way to keep themselves peaceful and quiet, receiving all that occurs as from the hand of the Heavenly Father, from whose hand also comes this bitter cup that they are drinking at the present time. For even if some temptation comes from the devil, or from people, or on account of sins, it is in any case dependent on God and sent by Him for our good and for the turning away of some greater temptation.