Avoiding the occasions of sin
“When the doors were shut, where His disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst.”—John 20:19
In today’s gospel we find that after his resurrection Jesus Christ entered, though the doors were closed, into the house where the apostles were assembled, and stood in the midst of them. St. Thomas writes that the mystical meaning of this miracle is that the Lord does not enter our souls unless we keep the door of the senses shut. Mistice per hoc datur intelligi, quod Christus nobis apparet quando fores, id est sensus sunt clausi—“Mystically, by this is given to be understood, that Christ appears to us when the doors, that is the senses, are closed.”
If, then, we wish Jesus Christ to dwell within us, we must keep the doors of our senses closed against dangerous occasions; otherwise the devil will make us his slaves. Today I want to show you the great danger of losing God to which those expose themselves who do not flee the occasions of sin.
1. We read in the Scriptures that both Christ and Lazarus rose from the dead. But Christ rose to die no more—“Christ rising from the dead, dieth no more” (Rom. 6:9); Lazarus rose and died again. The Abbot Guerric observes that Christ rose free and unbound, but Lazarus came forth “bound feet and hands” (John 11:44). Wretched the man, this author adds, who rises from sin still bound by some dangerous occasion: he will die again, by losing the divine grace. Whoever, then, wishes to save his soul must abandon not only sin but also the occasions of sin: that is, he must give up such an intimacy, such a house; he must give up those wicked companions and all similar occasions that incite him to sin.
2. Through original sin we have all contracted an inclination to do what is forbidden. Hence St. Paul complained that he found in himself a law opposed to reason: “But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin” (Rom. 7:23). Now, when a dangerous occasion is present, it rouses our corrupt desires with great violence, so that it is then very hard to resist them; for God withholds his efficacious helps from those who voluntarily expose themselves to the occasion of sin. “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” (Ecclus. 3:27).
In his comment on this passage St. Thomas says: “When we expose ourselves to danger, God abandons us in it.” St. Bernardine of Siena teaches that the counsel to avoid the occasions of sin is the best of all counsels, and as it were the foundation of religion. Inter consilia Christi unum celeberrimum, et quasi religionis fundamentum est, fugere peccatorum occasiones—“Among the counsels of Christ, one is most celebrated, and as it were the foundation of religion: to flee the occasions of sins.”
3. St. Peter says that “the devil goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). He is constantly prowling around our souls, trying to enter and take possession of them. And so he seeks to set before us the occasions of sin, through which he enters the soul. Explorat, says St. Cyprian, an sit pars cujus aditu penetret—“He explores whether there is a part by whose entrance he may penetrate.” When the soul lets herself be drawn into exposing herself to the occasion of sin, the devil easily enters and devours her.
The ruin of our first parents came from their not fleeing the occasion of sin. God had forbidden them not only to eat the forbidden apple, but even to touch it; and so Eve herself answered the serpent who was tempting her to eat of it: “God hath commanded us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it” (Gen. 3:3). But the unhappy woman “saw, took, and ate”: she first looked at the fruit, then took it into her hands, and afterward ate it. This is what ordinarily happens to all who voluntarily put themselves in the occasion of sin.
Hence, when the devil was once compelled by exorcisms to tell which sermon of all displeased him most, he confessed that it was the sermon on fleeing the occasion of sin—and with reason, for the enemy laughs at all our resolutions and the promises we make to God. His greatest care is to lead us not to flee the occasion; for the occasion is like a blindfold placed over our eyes, which no longer lets us see the lights we have received, or the eternal truths, or the resolutions we have made. In a word, it makes us forget everything and, as it were, forces us into sin.
4. “Know it to be a communication with death; for thou art going in the midst of snares” (Ecclus. 9:20). Whoever is born into this world enters into the midst of snares. And so the Wise Man warns those who wish to be safe from these snares that they must guard against them and withdraw from them: “He that is aware of the snares shall be secure” (Prov. 11:15). But if, instead of withdrawing from the snares, a man draws near to them, how can he keep himself free of them?
Hence David, after he had learned at such great cost the danger of exposing himself to the occasion of sin, says that, to keep himself faithful to God, he had forbidden himself to approach any occasion that could lead him to relapse. “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep thy words” (Ps. 118:101). He does not say from every sin, but from every evil way that leads to sin. The devil never fails to find pretexts to make us believe that the occasion to which we expose ourselves is not voluntary but necessary. When the occasion is truly necessary, the Lord will not fail to give us his help not to fall, even though we do not flee it; but at times we feign for ourselves certain necessities that are not enough to excuse us.
St. Cyprian writes: Nunquam securus cum thesauro latro tenetur inclusus, nec inter unam caveam habitans cum lupo tutus est agnus—“A treasure is never safe as long as a robber is shut up with it; nor is a lamb safe while it dwells in the same den with a wolf” (On the Singularity of Clerics). St. Cyprian is speaking against those who will not remove the occasion, and then say: “I am not afraid of falling.” No one, says the saint, can ever be safe with his treasure if he keeps a thief shut up along with it; nor can a lamb be safe of its life if it stays in the den with a wolf; and just so, no one can be safe of keeping the treasure of grace if he is resolved to remain in the occasion of sin.
St. James teaches that every man has within himself a great enemy, that is, his own evil inclination, which tempts him to sin: “Every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, drawn away, and allured” (Jas. 1:14). If, then, a man does not flee the external occasions that tempt him, how can he resist and not fall? Let us, therefore, set before our eyes that general counsel which Jesus Christ gave us for conquering every temptation and saving ourselves: “If thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee” (Matt. 5:29). If you see that your right eye is a cause of your damnation, you must pluck it out and cast it far from you—meaning that, where there is danger of losing your soul, you must flee every occasion.
St. Francis of Assisi used to say, as I have related in another sermon, that with certain souls who fear God the devil does not try at the outset to bind them with the rope of a mortal sin, because they would be alarmed at the sight of a mortal sin and would flee and not let themselves be bound. So the cunning enemy contrives to bind them with a single hair, which causes no great fear; for in this way he will more easily succeed in strengthening their bonds, until he makes them his slaves. Hence whoever wishes to be free of such a danger must, from the very start, break all the hairs—that is, all the occasions: those greetings, those notes, those little gifts, those words of affection. And speaking especially of one who has had a habit of impurity, it will not be enough for him to flee the proximate occasions; if he does not flee the remote ones as well, he will very easily fall again.
5. Impurity, says St. Augustine, is a vice that makes war on all, and few are those who come away victorious: “The fight is common, but the victory rare.” How many wretched souls have wished to set themselves to fight against this vice, and have been defeated! But to induce someone to expose himself to the occasion, the devil tells him: do not doubt; you will not let yourself be overcome by the temptation. “I do not wish,” answers St. Jerome, “to fight with the hope of victory, lest I should sometimes lose the victory.” No, I do not wish to set myself to fight with the hope of conquering; for, by setting myself voluntarily to fight, one day I shall come away the loser, and lose my soul and my God.
In this matter a great help from God is needed if we are not to be defeated; and therefore, on our part, to make ourselves worthy of this divine help, we must flee the occasion. And to keep chastity we must continually commend ourselves to God; we have no strength to preserve it—God must grant it to us. “And as I knew,” said the Wise Man, “that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, … I went to the Lord, and besought him” (Wis. 8:21).
But if we expose ourselves to the occasion, then, as the Apostle says, we ourselves shall furnish our rebellious flesh with arms to make war on the soul: “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of sin unto iniquity” (Rom. 6:13). St. Cyril of Alexandria comments on this passage: “You give a spur to your flesh; you arm it against the spirit and make it powerful.” In this war against the unchaste vice, St. Philip Neri used to say, the victory belongs to the cowards—that is, to those who flee the occasion. But whoever puts himself in the occasion arms his flesh and makes it so powerful that it will be morally impossible for him to resist.
6. “Cry,” says God to Isaias, “all flesh is grass” (Isa. 40:6). Now if every man is grass, says St. John Chrysostom, then for a man to want to keep himself pure while voluntarily putting himself in the occasion of sin is the same as expecting to put a torch into hay without the hay catching fire: “Put a torch into hay, and then dare to deny that the hay will burn.” No, writes St. Cyprian, it is not possible to stand in the midst of flames and not burn. Impossibile est flammis circumdari et non ardere—“It is impossible to be surrounded by flames and not to burn” (On the Singularity of Clerics).
And the Holy Ghost said the same before, declaring it impossible to walk upon hot coals without burning one’s feet: “Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? or can he walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt?” (Prov. 6:27, 28). Not to be burned would be a miracle. St. Bernard writes that for a man to keep himself chaste while exposing himself to the proximate occasion “would be a greater miracle than to raise a dead man to life”—these are the saint’s words.
7. St. Augustine says: “He who is unwilling to flee from danger wishes to perish in it.” Hence in another place he writes that whoever wishes to conquer and not to perish must flee the occasion: “In the occasion of falling into sin, take flight, if you desire to gain the victory” (Sermon 250 on the Seasons). Some foolishly trust in their own strength, and do not see that their strength is like the strength of tow placed in the fire: “And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow” (Isa. 1:31).
Others flatter themselves on the change of life they have made, on their confessions, and on the promises they have made to God, saying: “By the grace of the Lord I now have no bad motive with that person; I no longer have even any temptations.” Listen, you who speak this way. In Mauritania, it is said, there are certain bears that go hunting for apes. When the apes see the bears, they climb the trees and so save themselves; but what does the bear do? He stretches himself out on the ground and feigns death, and waits for the apes to come down from the tree; and when at last he sees them down, he springs up, seizes them, and devours them. So the devil acts: he makes it appear that the temptation is dead; but when at last a man has come down to put himself in the occasion, he raises up the temptation and devours him.
Oh, how many wretched souls, even given to spiritual things, who practiced mental prayer, received communion often, and led holy lives, have, by putting themselves in the occasion, become slaves of the devil! We read in ecclesiastical history that a holy woman who practiced the pious office of burying the martyrs once found among them one who was not yet dead. She brought him into her house, and with physicians and remedies cured him. But what happened? These two saints—as they might be called: one who had been on the point of dying for the faith, the other who carried out that office at such risk of being persecuted by the tyrants—first fell into sin and lost the grace of God, and then, made weaker by sin, even denied the faith. St. Macarius relates a similar case of an old man who had been half-burned by the tyrant for refusing to deny the faith; but when he was brought back to prison, he, to his own misfortune, became intimate with a devout woman who served those martyrs, and fell into sin.
8. The Holy Ghost warns us that we must flee from sin as we flee from the face of a serpent: “Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent” (Ecclus. 21:2). Hence, just as we flee not only the serpent’s bite but even touching it, and even drawing near it, so we must flee not only sin but the occasion of sin—that is, that house, that conversation, that person. St. Isidore says that whoever wishes to stay near a serpent will not stay long unharmed: Juxta serpentem positus non erit diu illaesus—“He who is placed near a serpent will not long remain unhurt” (Soliloquies, Bk. 2).
Hence the Wise Man says that if some person can easily be your ruin, “Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house” (Prov. 5:8). He does not merely say, refrain from drawing near that house, which has become for you the road to hell—“Her house is the way to hell” (Prov. 7:27); he tells you not to come near it at all, but to pass it at a distance: “Remove thy way far from her.” But, you will say, by leaving that house I shall lose my temporal interests. It is better to lose your interests than to lose your soul and your God. You must be convinced that in this matter of chastity no caution is sufficient.
If we wish to save ourselves from sin and hell, we must always fear and tremble, as St. Paul exhorts us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Phil. 2:12). Whoever does not tremble, but ventures to put himself in evil occasions, will hardly be saved. And so among our prayers we ought to repeat every day, and several times a day, that petition of the OUR FATHER—“and lead us not into temptation”: Lord, do not permit me to find myself in those temptations that would make me lose your grace. The grace of perseverance cannot be merited by us; but God most surely grants it, as St. Augustine says, to whoever asks for it, since he has promised to hear all who pray to him. Hence the same saint says that the Lord, by his promise, “has made himself a debtor.”
Points for Reflection
1. “Whoever, then, wishes to save his soul must abandon not only sin but also the occasions of sin: that is, he must give up such an intimacy, such a house; he must give up those wicked companions and all similar occasions that incite him to sin” (§1)
2. “If you see that your right eye is a cause of your damnation, you must pluck it out and cast it far from you—meaning that, where there is danger of losing your soul, you must flee every occasion” (§5)
3. “In the occasion of falling into sin, take flight, if you desire to gain the victory” (§8)