Avoiding the Near Occasion

One

Fighting Temptation

We’ve been talking about fighting temptation, which essentially means reforming our feelings through right behavior and a disciplined imagination. Now one of the key ways of overcoming temptation both behaviorally and imaginatively is to avoid near occasion of sin. But what, exactly, does that mean?

One of the most violent and disturbing things Jesus said in the Gospels is about getting rid of whatever causes you to sin. He says that if your hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off. And if your eye causes you to sin, you should pluck it out. After all, He says, graphically, it’s better to get into heaven missing a body part than have the whole of you get tossed down into the fires of Hell.

You may have to cut certain things out of your life, certain things that aren’t bad in themselves, but which, for us, are near occasions of sin. We have to cut those situations out and it’s going to be really hard. It might even feel a bit like an amputation. But it’s worth it.

Two

Situations and Sin

Our sins, our temptations, and our vices are nearly always linked to particular situations. Take, for instance, the use of foul language. Almost none of us would erupt into loud, uncontrolled vulgarity in the middle of Mass, or during an important business meeting. But plenty of us do struggle with vulgarity while we’re driving.

Sinful behaviors and addictions are largely environmental. If you put folks in a certain environment, they’re almost certain to give in to their temptation. But if you remove them from that environment, the intensity of their temptations and their likelihood of giving into it goes way down.

This is just what classic Catholic moral advice has always said: avoid near occasion of sin. The eye we need to pluck out, the hand we need to cut off, is the environment, the situation, in which we are prone to succumb to our particular vices.

Three

So what is your vice? When does it usually occur?

When it comes to our deep vices and addictions, willpower isn’t primarily about resisting temptation when the storm hits. By the time the temptation hits, we’re usually too far gone to resist. Willpower is about strategizing in advance. It’s about identifying the situations in which we’re tempted and avoiding them. Jesus doesn’t say, “If your eye causes you to sin, just resist the temptation next time.” He says pluck out your eye, cut out the occasion of temptation. 

For example, if you occasionally or regularly watch pornography, delete apps that are a temptation or Disable Safari on your iPhone. You still have access to phone, email, text, maps…but you remove access to porn.  Disable Safari by going to settings, screen time, content, privacy, allowed apps, select Safari, and then turn it off. Is your computer your problem? Only use it with your door open and the screen facing the door so others can see you. 

Is lust a problem for you at the Gym? Well, go to a different gym or lift at home and run or walk in nature. Change your environment and temptation will diminish. 

Do you really need these things more than you need salvation from sin? 

Four

What are the temptations you struggle with?

Do you occasionally or regularly engage in gossip, tearing down others? Who do you most do it with? Do you actually need to talk with that person? Really? 

The early saints used to say that gossip is the spiritual equivalent of cannibalism, eating the flesh of your brother or sister. So do you really need to keep hanging out with that person, even though you know it means you’ll keep ripping the flesh of your neighbors like two vultures tearing up roadkill? Maybe it would be better that you enter Heaven separately, instead of both being cast, along with your vicious words, into Gehenna together.

Do you engage in masturbation, or eating to deal with anxiety or boredom, or do you fly off the handle with anger and the appetite for control? What are the situations that lend to these sins? How can you change the situation so that you are less likely to give into the temptation?

Five

You can’t achieve virtue without sacrificing the situations in which you’re vulnerable to vice

The whole Catholic approach to temptation, to disordered vices, is to do whatever it takes not only to resist them but to make it less likely for temptation to in the first place. We don’t ask God to help us resist temptation. In the prayer Our Lord taught us, we ask the Father not to lead us into temptation in the first place.