We are under attack.

 

This is a development of the temptation theme.

 

The spiritual exercises of Lent are more than holy calisthenics.  We are under attack and unless we are fit for battle we will succumb to the enemy.  We must do penance not only because we realize we have sinned but also to prevent us from sinning again.  Which we’re liable to do if we don’t make any change in our lives, if we take no corrective measures.

 

Going into dour combat without first being combat ready is a simple recipe for disaster.  But how is it possible to replicate in training the temptations of the enemy which have evil built-in without ourselves also becoming evil.  This is the brilliance of the works of penance: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  They are excellent ways to get us combat-ready.

 

One way that cultivating this spirit of penance helps us is by contrast.  Performing righteous deeds, praying and fasting not so that others may see them but in secret makes the disruption which the attack of the enemy brings all the more evident.  It’s harder for an evil temptation to go unnoticed when the soul has become so sensitive.

 

It takes away—though not entirely—the sneak attack.

 

Temptation is the preliminary to sin.  Failing to guard against it shows a lack of preparation.