Battling Temptation, The Test

In the garden of Eden Eve gave in to the temptation of the serpent.  This fall has degraded man and especially woman from that moment on.  Mary explains, in The Gospel as Revealed to Me, by Maria Valtorta how she had to redo the error of Eve in order to destroy the four causative roots which caused Eve's fall:  pride, avarice, gluttony and lust.  There was the pride of believing that she could be something or know something without God.  The passion of avarice or greed in not being grateful for all that God had given her and in wanting more.  The passion of gluttony in wanting to experience enjoyment and sensations outside of God.  And the passion of lust which is gluttony more expounded in desiring physical sensation with another which leads to malice where one brings the other down into their own entrapment.  Misery loves company as the saying goes.

Eve's sin was a  four branched tree:  pride, avarice, gluttony and lust.  And all four were to be cut off, before the roots could be made sterile.

By deeply humiliating Myself, I defeated pride.

I abased Myself before everybody.  I am not referring to My humility towards God.  Such humility is due to the Most High by every creature.  Even His Word had it.  It was necessary for Me, a woman, to have it.  But have you ever considered what humiliation I had to suffer from men, without defending Myself in any way?  Even Joseph, who was a just man, had accused Me in his heart.  The others, who were not just, had committed a sin of murmuring with regards to My condition, and the rumor of their words had come like a bitter wave to beak up against My humanity.  And they were the first of the infinite humiliations I was to suffer in My life as Mother of Jesus and of mankind.  Humiliations of poverty, of a refugee, humiliations for reproaches of relatives and friends who, being unaware of the truth, judged Me a weak woman with regard to My behavior as a Mother towards Jesus, when He was a young man, humiliations during the three years of His public life, cruel humiliations in the hour of Calvary, humiliation in having to admit that I could not afford to buy a place and the perfumes for the burial of my Son.

I overcame the avarice of the First Parents renouncing My Creature before the time.

A mother never renounces her creature unless she is forced to.  Whether her heart is asked to renounce her creature by her country or by the love of a spouse or even by God Himself, she will resent and struggle against the separation.  It is natural.  A son grows in our womb and the tie that links him to us can never be completely broken.  Even if the umbilical cord is cut, there is a nerve that always remains:  it departs from the mother's heart and is grafted into the son's heart:  it is a spiritual nerve, more lively and sensitive than a physical one.  And a mother feels it stretching even to exceedingly severe pangs if the love of God or a creature or the need of the country take her son away from her.  And it breaks, tearing her heart, if death snatches her son from her.

And I renounced My Son from the very moment I had Him.  I gave Him to God.  I gave Him to you.  I deprived Myself of the Fruit of My womb to make amends for Eve's theft of God's fruit.

I defeated gluttony, both of knowledge and of enjoyment, by agreeing to know only what God wanted Me to know, without asking Myself or Him more than what I was told.  I believed unquestioningly.  I overcame the innate personal delight of enjoyment because I denied Myself every sensual pleasure.  I confined flesh, the instrument of Satan, together with Satan, under My heel and made of them a step to rise towards Heaven.  Heaven!  My aim.  Where God was.  My only hunger.  A hunger which is not gluttony, but a necessity blessed by God, Who wants us to crave for Him.

I defeated lust, which is gluttony carried to the extreme of greed.  Because every unrestrained vice leads to a bigger vice.  And Eve's gluttony, which was already blameworthy, led her to lust.  It was no longer enough for her to enjoy pleasure by herself.  She wanted to take her crime to a refined intensity and thus she became acquainted with lust and was a mistress of lust for her companion.  I reversed the terms and instead of descending I have always ascended.  Instead of causing other people to descend, I have always attracted them towards Heaven:  of My honest companion, I made an angel.

Now that I possessed God and His infinite wealth with Him, I hastened to denude Myself of it saying:  'Here I am:  may Your will be done for Him and by Him.'  He is chaste who not only chastises his flesh but also his affections and his thoughts.  I had to be the Chaste One in order to annul the One who had been Unchaste in her flesh, her heart and her mind.  And I never abandoned My reservedness, not even by saying of My Son:  'He is Mine, I want Him,' since He belonged only to Me on earth, as He belonged only to God in Heaven.

And yet all this was not sufficient to achieve for woman the peace lost by Eve.  I obtained that for you at the foot of the Cross:  when I saw Him dying, Whom you saw being born.  When I felt My bowels being torn apart by the cry of My dying Creature, I became void of all femininity.  I was no longer flesh, but an angel.  Mary, the Virgin Spouse of the Spirit, died that moment.  The Mother of Grace remained, Who gave you the Grace She generated from Her torture.  The female reconsecrated 'woman' by me on Christmas night, achieved at the foot of the Cross the means to become a creature of Heaven.

This I did for you, depriving Myself of all satisfactions, even of holy ones.  And whereas you had been reduced by Eve to females not superior to the mates of animals, I made of you, if you only wish so, saints of God.  I ascended for you.  As I had done for Joseph, I lifted you higher up.  The rock of Calvary is My Mount of Olives.  From there I took My leap to carry to Heaven the resanctified soul of woman together with My flesh, now glorified because it had borne the Word of God and had destroyed in Me the very last trace of Eve.  It had destroyed the last root of that tree with four poisonous branches, a root stuck in the sensuality that had dragged mankind to fall and that will go on biting at your intestines until the end of time and to the last woman.  From there, where I now shine in the ray of Love, I call you and I show you the Medicine to control yourselves:  the Grace of My Lord and the Blood of My Son.

The Gospel as Revealed to Me, by Maria Valtorta.  pgs.  178-181




Now the temptation might have begun with Eve but it became confirmed and accomplished with the complacency of Adam.  If Eve had turned to God in her confusion there would have been no sin.

"Oh!  If she had called to God!  If she had hurried to Him saying:  "Father!  I am sick.  The Serpent has caressed me and I am upset."  The Father would have purified and healed her with His breath, which could have infused new innocence into her as it had infused life.  And it would have made her forget the snake's poison, even more it would have filled her with a disgust for the Serpent, as it happens in those who bear an instinctive dislike for diseases of which they have just been cured.  But Eve does not go to the Father.  Eve goes back to the Serpent."

The Gospel as Revealed to Me, Maria Valtorta, pg. 106-107

Adam also had that chance to turn to God in the temptation before him but he too turned from God and focused on himself turning his gaze to his own potential for pleasure and enjoyment from a source outside of God.

Why did Adam sin? Because he removed his gaze from the divine attraction, and as Eve presented to him the fruit to let him eat of it, he looked at the fruit, and his sight took pleasure in looking at it, his hearing took delight in hearing the words of Eve - that if he ate the fruit he would become like God; and His palate took pleasure in eating it. So, taste was the first act of his ruin. On the other hand, had he felt displeasure in looking at it, tedium and bother in hearing the words of Eve, disgust in eating it, Adam would not have sinned. On the contrary, he would have done the first heroic act of his life, by resisting and correcting Eve for having done that; and he would have remained with the everlasting crown of faithfulness toward the One to whom he owed so much, and who had all the rights for his subjection. Oh! how careful one must be with the different tastes that arise in the soul. If they are purely divine tastes, one must give them life; but if they are human tastes, or of passions, one must give them death; otherwise there is the danger of falling into the current of evil.”

Vol. 15, June 6, 1923



Here also can be seen the birth of the seven deadly sins and how they took root in man.  It is from these that all the passions come forth.  In looking at the fruit and hearing Eve's words Adam took pleasure in it and desired it, so begins Greed, Gluttony and the more extreme Lust.  He coveted what he thought Eve had and so enters Envy.  He took pleasure in believing that he could become like God.  That is pride in believing that one can be like God without God.  He committed Sloth in not immediately turning to God for help.  He was spiritually lazy.  And finally in believing that God might withhold a good from him, that He might in fact be lying to him and didn't love him totally, so entered Wrath or rage.  That doubt in the love of God is a form of anger.  So over the years we have marginalized Adam and Eve, and often Eve seems to get most of the blame.  This is nothing more than malice on our parts as we once again repeat the buck passing game.  But as Paul states in the Bible there is a great mystery and balance in the judgements and ways of God. "God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all."  We are each guilty before God and to think that one is better than the other is once again a form of pride, malice and wrath. 

¹³ Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry ¹⁴ in order to make my own people^[ jealous, and thus save some of them.

¹⁵ For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead!  ²⁹ for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰ Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, ³¹ so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. ³² For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

³³ O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Romans 11:  13-15, 29-33




Again in the Poem of the Man God there is another section which focused on Jesus' test in the desert.  Here He speaks about how the devil attempted to seduce him and how he rebuffed him and defeated him.  The pattern from the temptation of man in the garden of Eden repeats itself but Jesus shows us the way through.  For brevity's sack I will post the section of Jesus' interpretation of the devil's temptation.

As you have seen kindness is always Satan's disguise when he presents himself.  He looks like an ordinary person.  If souls are careful, and above all, if they are in spiritual contact with God, they perceive the warning that makes them cautious and prepares them to fight the devil's snares.  But if souls are distracted, separated from God by an overwhelming sensuality, and are not assisted by prayer, which joins them to God and pours strength into the hearts of men, then they seldom perceive the snares hidden under the innocent appearance and they fall into the trap.  It is then very difficult for them to free themselves.

The two most common means adopted by Satan to conquer souls are sensuality and gluttony.  He always starts from material things.  Once he has dismantled and subdued the material side he attacks the spiritual part.

First the morals:  thoughts with their pride and greed; then the spirit, obliterating not only its love - which no longer exists when man replaces divine love with other human loves - but also the fear of God.  Then man surrenders his body and soul to Satan, only for the sake of enjoying what he wants, and enjoying it more and more.

You saw how I behaved.  Silence and prayer.  Silence.  Because if Satan performs his work of a seducer and comes close to us, we must put up with the situation without any foolish impatience or cowardly fears.  We must react with resolution to his presence, and with prayer to his allurements.

It is useless to debate with Satan.  He would win, because he is strong in his dialectics.  Only God can beat him.  And so you must have recourse to God, that He may speak for you, through you.  You must show Satan that Name and that Sign, not so much written on paper or engraved on wood, but written and engraved in your hearts.  My Name, My Sign.  You should answer back to Satan, using the word of God*, only when he insinuates that he is like God.  He cannot bear that.

Then after the struggle, there comes victory and the angels serve and defend the winner from Satan's hatred.  They restore him with celestial dews, with the Grace that they pour with hands into the heart of the faithful son, with a blessing that caresses his soul.

One must be determined to defeat Satan, and have faith in God, and in His help.  Faith in the power of prayer, and in the Lord's bounty.  Then Satan can do no harm.

(*word of God:  which Jesus has taken from Deuteronomy 6:13.16; 8:3.)

The Gospel As Revealed To Me, by Maria Valtorta, pgs 303-304





So temptations must be met with patience and a humble spirit.  By doing so we can make of them an offering to God.  Another nice way to frustrate the devil.

...patience, humiliation, and offering God what one suffers in time of temptation is nourishing bread that one gives Our Lord, which He accepts with great pleasure.

Vol. 2, September 30, 1899   

 

 Jesus also states that along with patience temptations should be met with resolution and prayer.  We can in fact make an act of resolution in advance of any temptations that might come and use it as a way to confuse and frustrate the devil.  We can also frustrate the devil by doing an act contrary to that which he is tempting us. 

Jesus Christ taught me that the most effective means for the soul to be freed of every vain apprehension, of every doubt, of every fear, was to protest before Heaven, earth and the very demons, that she does not want to offend God, even at the cost of her life, and that she does not want to consent to any temptation of the devil.  And this, as soon as the soul feels the coming of the temptation, in the act of the battle, if she can, and as she begins to feel free - and also during the course of the day.  By doing this, the soul will not waste time in thinking about whether she has consented or not, because the mere memory of her promise will already give her peace; and if the devil tries to disturb her, she will be able to answer that if she had the intention of offending God, she would not have protested the opposite.  In this way, she will remain free of any concern.

Now, who can tell the rage of the devil because, by acting in this way, all of his tricks resolved into confusion for himself, and where he thought he would gain, he would lose, and his very temptations and tricks were used by the soul in order to make acts of reparation and love for her God.

The other way He taught me to cast away temptations, was the following:  if they tempted me to suicide, I was to answer:  ‘You have no permission from God; on the contrary, to your annoyance, I want to live so as to be able to love my God more.’  If then they beat me and hit me, I was to humiliate myself, kneel and thank my God, because this was happening as a penance for my sins; not only this, but to offer everything as acts of reparation for all the offenses against God, which were made in the world.

Vol. 1, Jesus teaches Luisa how to drive away the infernal spirits, thus overcoming the test she was subjected to.

Temptations can be conquered easily in this way however when the soul struggles and falls to a temptation it is a sign that there is a deep rooted passion in the soul where the devil can attack.



 

“Daughter, temptations can be conquered easily, because the devil is the most cowardly creature that can exist, and a contrary act, a contempt, a prayer, are enough to make him flee. In fact, these acts render him even more cowardly than he is, and in order not to bear that confusion, as soon as he sees the soul resolute in not wanting to pay attention to his cowardice, he flees terrified.

Now, if the soul cannot easily free herself, it means that it is not only a temptation, but a passion rooted within the soul, which tyrannizes her together with the temptation. Therefore, she is unable to free herself; and where there is passion, the devil has more strength to make fun of the soul.”

Vol. 8, March 25, 1908

 

This is a way that the soul examines itself.  Where there is no passion there is no temptation.  So those moments which disturb us and cause us to lose peace are a sign of a passion that we need to turn over to God for absolution and to receive the grace to overcome it.

 

“My daughter, the soul can know whether she has dominated her passions, if, touched by temptations or by people, she takes it into no consideration.  For example:  she is tempted to impurity; if she has dominated this passion the soul takes it into no consideration, and her very nature remains in its place; if on the other hand she hasn’t, the soul becomes annoyed, she afflicts herself, and feels a rotten stream flow within her body.  Or, one person mortifies or insults someone else; if this one has dominated the passion of pride, she remains at peace; if on the other hand she hasn’t, she feels a stream of fire, of indignation, of pride within herself, which turns her completely upside down.  In fact, when the passion is there, at the occasion, it comes out into the field; and so with all the rest.”

Vol. 6, April 20, 1905

 

God never leads us into temptation but Jesus added the line in the Our Father, "And lead us not into temptation..." because God will never take away man's gift of free will.  Man will always have the right to chose and in this line he reminds us that we must always turn to God in everything and every moment. 

 

And if I added, ‘And lead us not into temptation’ - how could God ever lead man into temptation? - it was because man is always man, free in himself, since I never take away from him the rights I gave him in creating him; and he, frightened and fearful of himself, tacitly cries out, and prays without expressing it with words: ‘Give us the bread of your Will, that we may reject all temptations; and by virtue of this bread, deliver us from every evil. Amen.’

Vol. 15, May 2, 1923

 

If God does allow the soul to be confronted with temptations it is a way to shake the soul out of complacency, self-esteem and ego so that she might advance and refocus herself on God

“My daughter, many times it happens to souls what happens in the air.  Because of the stench that emanates from the earth the air becomes greasy, and one feels such a thick, heavy, oppressive and nauseating air, that winds are necessary in order to remove that grease from the air.  Then, after the air has been purified, the finest breeze blows, such that one would remain with one’s mouth open in order to breathe that purified air.  All this happens in souls.  Many times complacency, self-esteem, ego, and all that is human, grease the air of the soul, and I am forced to send her the wind of coldness, the wind of temptation, of aridity, of slander, so that these winds may remove the grease from the air of the soul, may purify her, and bring her back to her nothingness.  Then, nothingness opens the door to the All - to God, and the All makes many fragrant breezes blow, such that, with her mouth open, she swallows that air and remains all sanctified by it.”

Vol. 11, March 21, 1913

We must particularly be wary of temptations which come under the appearance of good.  All those times we rationalize or start to justify ourselves should be a red flag.  Prayer and staying focused on God are our defense in order to recognize these for what they are.


 

Then, a man who is false in the good which he apparently does and says is incapable of giving light to others, since he has closed the doors to it.  So they act as incarnate devils, who many times attract men under the appearance of good.  In seeing this good, men let themselves be drawn in; but when they feel most secure, they make them fall into graver sins.  Oh, how much safer are the temptations under appearance of sin, than those under appearance of good!  In the same way, it is safer to deal with perverted people than with good people, but false.  How much poison do they not hide?  How many souls do they not poison?  If it wasn’t for pretenses, and all made themselves known for what they are, the root of evil would be removed from the face of the earth, and all would be stripped of illusion.”

Vol. 13, November 22, 1921

 

But there is good news.  Jesus underwent and passed the test in the desert so that we would not have to undergo the test of Adam and Eve.  He has closed the ways for the devil to ever enter the garden again that is the garden of the Kingdom of the Divine Will living in the soul.  He, himself, has passed the test for His children to live in the Divine Will.  Now it is only for them to decide to enter or not to enter into His Kingdom.  By living in the Divine Will we place ourselves under it's guardianship and rule.  It's a place where the devil can not enter or even approach.

Follow Me step by step, and you will feel the life, the heartbeat, the happiness of this Kingdom which I contain within Me, and which wants to come out in order to reign in the midst of creatures. And my love for It is so great, that if I allowed the infernal enemy to penetrate into Eden, I will not allow him to set foot in the Eden of the Kingdom of the Fiat. And this is why I permitted that he draw near Me in the desert – to debilitate him and put an end to his steps, and to close the way for him, that he might not dare to enter. Don’t you yourself feel how your presence terrorizes the enemy and he takes flight so as not to see you? It is the strength of my victory that hurls him down, and, feeling confused, he flees. Everything is prepared; there is nothing left but to make it known.”
Vol. 23, February 9, 1928

My abandonment in the Divine Will is continuous; but while I was all abandoned in It, I was thinking to myself: ‘What might be the proof that Jesus will want from those who will live in the Kingdom of the Divine Will? If Jesus wants a proof of loyalty from everyone in order to confirm the state to which He calls them and to be sure of being able to entrust to the creature the goods He wants to give her, much more will He require this proof from the children of His Kingdom, which will be the most sublime state that can exist.’ But while I was thinking of this, my always lovable Jesus moved in my interior and told me: “My daughter, indeed there is no certainty without a test, and when the soul passes the test, she receives the confirmation of my designs and everything that is necessary to her and befits her in order to carry out the state to which she has been called by Me. This is why I wanted to test Adam – to confirm his happy state and his right of kingship over the whole Creation; and since he was not faithful in the test, by justice he could not receive the confirmation of the goods which his Creator wanted to give him. In fact, through the test man acquires the seal of faithfulness, which gives him the right to receive the goods that God had established to give him in the state to which his soul had been called by Him. It can be said that one who is not tested has no value - neither before God nor before men, nor before himself. God cannot trust a man without a test, and man himself does not know what strength he possesses.

If Adam had passed the test, all human generations would have been confirmed in his state of happiness and of royalty. In the same way, I Myself, loving these children of my Divine Will with a love all special, wanted to go through the test for all in my Humanity, reserving for them the one test of never allowing them to do their will, but only and always my Will, so as to reconfirm for them all the goods needed in order to live in the Kingdom of my Divine Fiat. With this, I closed all exit doors for them; I anointed them with an invincible strength, in such a way that nothing else will be able to enter the very high fences of my Kingdom. In fact, when I command that something should not be done, it is a door that I leave, through which the human will can make its exit; it is an opportunity that the creature always has, by which she can go out of my Will. But when I say: ‘from here there is no exit’, all doors remain closed, her weakness is fortified, and the only thing that is left to her is the decision to enter, never to go out again - or not to enter at all. Therefore, in order to live in the Kingdom of my Will there will only be the decision – the decision will carry the accomplished act. Am I not doing the same with you? Do I not cry out constantly from the depth of your heart: ‘nothing dare enter but my Will alone’? As center of life, with Its omnipotent strength, with Its dazzling light, my Will keeps everything outside of you; and eclipsing everything, It makes Its prime motion of life flow in all of your acts, and It dominates and reigns as Queen.”
Vol. 24, April 1, 1928

“My daughter, one who is completely in my Will is not subject to temptation, because the devil does not have the power to enter my Will.  Not only this, but he himself does not want to enter because my Will is light, and before this light the soul would recognize his tricks very easily and would therefore make fun of the enemy.  The enemy does not like this mockery, which is more terrible for him than hell itself; so he does all he can to stay away from her.  Try to get out of my Will, and you will see how many enemies will swoop down on you.  One who is in my Will carries the flag of victory always high, and none of the enemies dares to confront this impregnable flag.”

Vol. 11, December 14, 1912

 

 

As an end note Adam and Eve have often been villainized because of their fall in failing the test.  It should be noted however that Jesus often speaks so fondly and lovingly of Adam.  And that although Adam did sin in the garden of Eden, afterwards knowing the great fall he had made he never sinned again and spent the rest of his life trying to do the little good that he could now that the greater had been lost to him.  What saint is there that only sinned once and then never again, who spent his entire life mourning that sin and trying to make up for it in what ever way he could?

 

 

I said to Him: ‘My Love, Jesus, so, your eyes have shed also my tears, as well as those of our first father Adam. And I want You to pour them upon my soul, to give me the grace not only to do your Most Holy Will, but to possess It as my own thing and my own will.’ At that moment, Jesus shook His head, and from His face tears flowed onto my poor soul; and He added: “Daughter of my Will, indeed I shed your tears, so that, as they would pass through my eyes, I might give you the great gift of my Will. That which Adam could not receive with his tears, even though they too passed through my eyes, you can receive. In fact, before sinning, Adam possessed my Will, and with the possession of my Will he grew in the likeness of his Creator; and he grew so much as to form the enchantment of all Heaven, and all felt honored in serving him. After sin, he lost the possession of my Will, and even though he wept over his fault and he sinned no more, he was able to do my Will, but not to possess It, because the Divine Offended One was missing, who was to form the new divine graft between the creature and the Creator, in order to let him cross again the thresholds of the possessions of the Eternal Volition.

Vol. 18, December 20, 1925

 

From this you can comprehend how the good produced by the human will, though it cannot form the day, is always a good for man; and creatures receive the utility of light in the night of the human will. It serves them so as not to die in the thick darkness of sin. Those lights, though small, direct their steps, allow them to see the dangers, and draw my paternal goodness toward them, seeing that they make use of the night of their human will to form at least little lights, so as to direct their steps along the path of salvation.

It was precisely this that drew all Our tenderness and Our paternal goodness toward Adam. He had comprehended what living in Our Divine Will meant, and with his littlest acts, just as with the greatest, he ran inside Our creative virtue, and they were invested by the Sun of the eternal Fiat which, being Sun, had the virtue of being able to form as many suns as he wanted. And in seeing himself emptied of this creative strength, he could no longer form suns; and so - poor one - he tried as hard as he could to form little lights; and in seeing the great difference between his original act and that after sin, he felt such grief as to feel himself dying at each act of his. The Supreme Being felt touched, and admired the industriousness of poor Adam who, no longer able to form suns, did his best to form little lights with his acts; and because of this, He kept for him the promise of the future Messiah.”
Vol. 23, November 2, 1927