Vigils Reading

THE SHIELD OF FAITH

By William of St Thierry4

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To the devil who was tempting him to blasphemy and saying: All this I

will give you if you will fall down and adore me, the Doctor of truth [Jesus]

opposed only the shield of truth and authority, saying: It is written: you will

worship the Lord your God, and him only will you serve. But in the Book of

Kings, when the minions of the Assyrian king blasphemed the Lord, Hezekiah

ordered his own, saying: Give them no answer!

For we must not answer the spirit of blasphemy in any way or converse

with it, but only oppose to it the shield of faith. Its virulent malice tries to pollute

whatever you bring against it. It does not do this to get a satisfying answer, but

is only putting on pressure to sadden the conscience of the believer or somehow

to corrupt the purity of his faith.

These are twin evils; one is the sting of the flesh, the other that of the soul.

Among lazy persons they are both like a natural reminder which takes its origin,

as I have said, from [Adam,] the one who yearned to be like God because of the

incantation of the old serpent. Immediately given over to the yearnings of the

flesh, he blushed at himself and covered those parts of the body which He, who

had created them, created without any need for covering. Each vice must have

its own antidote. The same remedy does not apply to all members. What heals

the head does not heal the foot, nor can what heals the weakness of the soul heal

the weakness of the flesh. Temptation of the flesh needs afflictions of the flesh

and physical labors, but temptation of the soul cries out for the help of prayer,

reading and meditation and any other spiritual study there may be.

In particular one never acquires purity of faith except by true and

profound humility of heart, dutiful devotion and unflagging perseverance in

prayer. We must pray frequently, therefore, and must say: Lord, increase in us

our faith! Often those who are advancing in it, if they do not have the grace that

helps them, suffer a natural uneasiness.

Rationality, in itself restless and impudent, often assaults faith there,

where it possesses the faculty of reasoning, although with no intention of

contradicting it; not so that it can run against faith but so that it can run with

faith. As human reason is accustomed to act in human realities through, as it

were, the unavoidable medium of believing, so it tries to break through into the

recognition of divine realities. But since it mounts from a different direction, it

slips, it stumbles, it sinks until it turns back to the door of faith, to him who

said: I am the door. And once humbled beneath the yoke of divine authority, as

it is more humble, so more securely does it enter in.

4 (CF 15:37-38).9