Why We Can Reform

Our helper is God, and he is such that no one can withstand him.
As long as we continue to look to this strong loving helper, we cannot be weakened by the thought of our own frailty.
It seems this is what that dear lover Paul saw when he said, “I can do things in Christ crucified, who is in me and strengthens me.”
For when Paul felt the annoyance and pricking of the flesh, he found strength not in himself, because he knew he was weak, but in Christ Jesus.
It was because of Christ Jesus and that fine strong armor God had given him, his strong freedom, that he could say, “I can do all things.”
For neither the devil or anyone else can force me to commit a single deadly sin against my will.
We can never be overcome unless we give up this armor and turn it over to the devil by our willing consent.
The temptations and wiles of the devil, the flesh, and the world may come shooting poisoned arrows – the flesh with ugly thoughts and sensations, the devil with his assorted temptations and deceit and trickery, the world with its pretentiousness and pride.
But unless lady freedom consents to these disordered suggestions, she never sins, because sin is in the will alone.
And God has given us this as a favor, not as our due.

-- Saint Catherine of Siena

Saint Catherine of Siena († 1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican stigmatist, and papal counselor.

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