“The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” — Matt. xiii. 32.

The progress of spiritual life is slow with most of us, my dear brethren. We go along day by day, and it seems as if we had advanced but little since the day we began. It seems to us as if we were still standing at the starting-place, and the goal as far off as ever. The good resolutions which we made when we began to serve God are not forgotten, neither are they broken. But the same evil influences are all about us, tempting us and luring us on to commit sin again, as in the days of our wickedness — those sins which we renounced years ago, and which we have renounced many a time since. And the older we grow the fiercer, perhaps, become those temptations. We think it may be that now we ought to be free from them ; that as we have stopped sinning, the desire, even involuntary, of sinning again ought to leave us. And because temptations continue we imagine that sin is within us and that we must purge it out. So we try to make a general confession. The result is not satisfactory, and we fret and worry and delude ourselves with the belief that we are wholly evil and that we have made no progress since we started. We have fallen into the error so common, especially among pious people, that concupiscence is sin.

The truth of the whole matter is this, summed up in a few words of Holy Scripture: “My son, when thou comest to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation.”

God wishes us to purge our souls as well as to strengthen them, and He allows us to be tempted that we may have not only the merit of resistance, but also the strength which comes from repeatedly engaging in battle with the enemy. For the more you fight, the greater will be your experience in the battles to come ; and the more victories you gain, the more easily will you gain those which God puts in your hand.

The whole man is to be purged and cleansed. Nothing undefiled can enter Heaven. So if you have put yourself into the hands of God, you must let Him do with you what He pleases. He has His ways and means, and His ways are not your ways. So He allows Satan to tempt you as He allowed him to tempt St. Paul and Job, and indeed all His chosen ones. He has chosen you, and He asks you to be patient while He works out His purpose in your soul. Look, therefore, on the temptations with which you are beset as so many chances by which you may resist, and so advance. Indeed I would not bid you to ask anything else from God but grace to overcome. With each temptation that comes there comes a grace tenfold stronger, which is for your use. Use it then boldly for the honor of God and the good of your soul. And do not be discouraged if these temptations last as long as your life in this world. Do not get discouraged in the Christian life and be tempted to say : “I make no advance, because I am not free from temptation. “But rather in the midst of your trials say with St. Paul : ” I have fought the good fight ; there is laid up for me a crown of justice in Heaven.”

Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year
By the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul, 1893