Cornelius a Lapide

Watch and pray , lest ye enter into temptation . Of denying and forsaking Me for fear of the Jews. If My dangers move vol. hi. 0 210 you not, may your own do so. There hangs over you the great temptation of denying Me; watch and pray to overcome it “The more spiritual a man is,” says Origen, “ the more anxious should he be lest his great goodness should have a great fall” Watchfulness and prayer are the great means of foreseeing and overcoming the arts of devils and men. Enter into temptation . Be not ensnared, as birds in a net and fishes with a hook. Not to be tempted is often not in our own power, nor is it God’s will for us. He wills we should be tempted, to try our faith, to increase our virtue, and to crown our deserts. But we must not enter into temptation, so that it should occupy, possess, and rule over us. So Theophylact and S. Jerome. The spirit indeed is willing , but the flesh is weak. I know your readiness in spirit, but your weakness in the flesh. By the flesh is meant our natural feelings, which shrink from suffering and death. Pray, therefore, that your weak flesh may not enfeeble your spirit and compel it to deny Me ; but may God by His grace so strengthen both your spirit and your flesh, that ye may not only be ready, but strong to overcome all adversities, so that for My sake ye may eagerly wish for death, and bravely endure it. “ The more, therefore,” says S. Jerome, “ we trust to the warmth of our feelings, the more let us fear for the weakness of the flesh.” Some understand (less suitably) by “spirit” the devil, by the “flesh” man. That is, the devil is powerful to tempt, man is feeble to resist Origen, moreover, observes “ the flesh of all is weak, but it is only the spirit of the saints which is ready to mortify the deeds of the flesh.” S. Mark adds, “And they knew not what to answer, for they were struck down by their grief, and oppressed with sleep, and had neither sense nor understanding