177 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year after a mild temptation to resist another more serious one. As the religious man says, “When one temptation (...) passes, another comes along,”64 and often a graver one. You must not, however, yield to the evil spirits, but go against them more daringly, although you may not know any peace in your whole life. And thus, indeed, there are numerous battles so that triumphs may also be many. Therefore, double the fighting to double the crowns of glory. For this reason, the Lord grants you frequent access to the sacred table, so that you grow stronger against the more frequent attacks of your enemies. SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT Before Holy Communion 1. “Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother” (Mt 17:1). Reflect on the reason for which these three disciples were led by Christ to Mount Tabor: it was so that, having gazed at the radiance of His glorious Transfiguration, they would not experience later a fearful shock at His disgrace and His shameful death on the summit of Golgotha, and so that, by the love and example of their Master, they would easily undertake all toils, and be ready to suffer death itself, although a terrible one (which they actually did suffer) for heavenly glory, a part of which they already saw in the Transfiguration. [f.32r] To you, also, the same Lord shows many times His glory in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, allows you to savor the greatest sweetness and grants you internal consolations, so that later, when they are taken away from you and the most complete abandonment befalls you, you would undertake and accomplish all works with a greater willingness and steadfastness of spirit; and so that you would accept and carry any cross, even the heaviest one. Through His favors the Lord wants to bring you closer to 64 Cf. IC, Bk. I, Ch. 13, § 3.
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