6th Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Tuesday - Persevering in temptation

 
One of my favorite parts of the whole Bible is the book from which our first reading was taken today: the New Testament Letter of St. James, one of the twelve apostles. There are two apostles named James, actually. James, son of a man named Zebedee, who was a fisherman with his brother, the apostle John, and the other James, the son of a man named Alphaeus. And it’s this second James who wrote today’s first reading.

Whereas many of St. Paul’s letters are written to particular groups of Christians in particular towns or regions, like the Corinthians, the Thessalonians, and the Galatians and Ephesians. St. James writes his letter to all the Church. To all of us.

His letter contains a lot of wonderful, practical advice, so many helpful truth for us to keep in mind as we seek to be faithful to Jesus.

Today’s passage comes from the very beginning of his letter. And St. James again gives advice that is helpful for all of us. James today speaks about temptation and trial.

Everyone experiences temptation. Temptation is when we know something is wrong, but there is a part of us that wants to do it anyway. I know it’s wrong to talk back to my parents, but there’s a part of me that is tempted to talk back. There’s a part of me that is tempted to fight someone who insults me. 

Everyone experiences temptation. Teachers, principals, parents, children, the elderly. And that’s why James wants to address this issue. He knows that we are all tempted, from time to time.

Sometimes we even begin to talk ourselves into following that temptation. We tell ourselves: it’s alright if I steal from my friend, he won’t miss it. It’s alright if I ignore my guardian when they tell me to clean my room or put away the video games, I’m having fun after all. It’s alright to treat people inconsiderately, after all, they’ve treated me without kindness, I might as well do it back to them.

But what was the opening line of St. James today: “Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation.” In other words, you grow in holiness, you grow in likeness to Jesus, you allow the life of Jesus to flow in your heart and mind when you resist temptation to do wrong. We become the people God made us to be.

James goes on to explain that when you give into temptation, that’s called sin, and when you sin, when you give in to the temptation to sin, something very sad happens, something in us dies, something good dies. And if you choose sin enough, if you just give in to every temptation, something inside of you might die forever. And that is very sad, because God didn’t create us for sin, he created us for grace, for life, for holiness, for joy.

Now again, every one of us has been tempted, and everyone of us, at some point, has given in to temptation. But it didn’t have to be like, and it doesn’t have to be like that in the future. And that’s part of the goodness of being followers of Jesus: just because we’ve chosen sin and evil in the past, doesn’t mean we have to continue to make bad choices. God forgives us when we ask for forgiveness, he gives us another chance.

With God’s help, may we all come to persevere in temptation, so that we may come to receive the crown of life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.