As we continue our
meditation of The Lord’s Prayer, we will consider the somewhat curious line “…and
lead us not into temptation.
James 1:13: 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.”
When I began to carefully study the Our Father, I was a
bit taken aback when I realized that I was not saying what I thought I was
saying. My mind said, “and pull us away from temptation” but what I was
actually praying was, “Oh Abba, (Oh Daddy), please don’t lead me into
temptation.” What child of a loving father ever asks his daddy not to lead him
into temptation? It sounds as though we are expecting God to take us directly
into temptation unless we ask Him not to do it. Given that this prayer comes
from the lips of Jesus Himself, I knew there had to be more. Obviously the clue
had to exist somewhere in the translation of the words ‘lead’ and ‘temptation’.
So I began to research. The answers that
I think are most succinct are from the Catechism and from Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI. Let’s start with the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Catechism of the
Catholic Church 2846:
This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for
our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father
not to "lead" us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the
Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both "do not
allow us to enter into temptation" and "do not let us yield to
temptation." "God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself
tempts no one"; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil.
We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in
the battle "between flesh and spirit"; this petition implores the
Spirit of discernment and strength.
Pope Benedict XVI
(Jesus of Nazareth, Ignatius Press, 2007):
The way this petition is phrased is
shocking for many people: God certainly does not lead us into temptation. In
fact, as St. James tells us …. ‘He himself tempts no one’.
Okay, now I
understand that the word “lead” is not the literal English translation, so what
I had been praying and meaning were really the same thing. Now, let’s move onto
the word “temptation”.
2847 The Holy Spirit makes us discern between
trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and
temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between
being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the
lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the
eyes" and desirable, when in reality its fruit is death.
Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI (Jesus of Nazareth):
The Book of Job can also help us to
understand the difference between trial and temptation. In order to mature, in
order to make real progress on the path leading from a superficial piety into
profound oneness with God’s will, man needs to be tried. Just as the juice of
the grape has to ferment in order to become a fine wine, so too man needs
purifications and transformations; they are dangerous for him, because they
present an opportunity for him to fall, and yet they are indispensable as paths
on which he comes to himself and to God. Love is always a process involving
purifications, renunciations, and painful transformations of ourselves – and that
is how it is a journey to maturity… When we pray the sixth petition of the Our
Father, we must therefore, on the one hand, be ready to take upon ourselves the
burden of trials that is meted out to us. On the other hand, the object of the
petition is to ask God not to mete out more than we can bear, not to let us
slip from his hands. We make this prayer in the trustful certainty that Saint
Paul has articulated for us: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted
beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of
escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13).
Aha! That’s it! The
truth lies in the difference between a trial and a temptation. God always
allows trials. If we want to see how that works, we really should read the Book
of Job. Every one of us is constantly undergoing trials. Some of us are
surrounded by difficult people; others have constant illnesses, and still
others pray for the fulfillment of dreams that may never happen. God allows
trials because that is the only way we will grow in our faith. As Michael
Jordan discovered when he was cut from the freshman basketball team in high
school, our reaction to trial is what makes us failures or great people.
Michael worked and trained and threw himself into becoming an outstanding
basketball player. He didn’t give into the temptation to become discouraged,
hate the coach, and whine about not getting what he wanted. No, he turned
himself into a superstar on the basketball court. That is how we are to react
when God sends us yet another trial. We pray that we not yield to the
temptation to reject Him, to give up and to cave into the devastation of sin.
The trial is from God; the temptation to turn it into evil and sin is from the
devil. We pray to be delivered from those wicked hands, and to be place into
the loving hands of a loving Abba.
A Prayer Against
Temptation
Behold me, O my God, at Your feet! I do not deserve
mercy, but O my Redeemer, the blood which You have shed for me encourages me
and obliges me to hope for it. How often I have offended You, repented, and yet
have I again fallen into the same sin. O my God, I wish to amend, and in order
to be faithful to You, I will place all my confidence in You. I will, whenever
I am tempted, instantly have recourse to You. Until now, I have trusted in my
own promises and resolutions and have neglected to recommend myself to You in
my temptations. This has been the cause of my repeated failures. From this day
forward, be You, O Lord, my strength, and this shall I be able to do all
things, for “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” Amen. http://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/prayers-against-temptation.html
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