Determination & Resolve
Bad habits or passions are powerful and hard to destroy once rooted in the soul. As outlined before, determination and resolve is absolutely necessary to change habits. According to the Church Fathers, this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force” (Matt 11:12) and “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” This becomes strikingly evident as passions are gradually destroyed and this interior kingdom attains some measure of peace. The process of habit transformation is tedious and requires a lifetime of commitment and patience, and it all begins with resolve. St. Peter of Damaskos:
“If you want to do something good, do it; and if you cannot do it, then resolved to do it and you will have achieved the resolution even if you do not fulfill the action itself. Thus a habit, whether good or bad can gradually and spontaneously be overcome.”
This resolve is seen in many of the lives of the saints such as St. Mary of Egypt. A woman consumed with lust and probably many other passions and insecurities, know for a life of prostitution suddenly decides to change and disappears into the near Jerusalem. In a matter of moments, St. Mary goes through the 5 steps of change: complacency, contemplation, determination, and goes into the desert to battle, and spends the rest of her life in watchfulness and prayer.
As mentioned above, changing requires an effort of the will with determination and resolve. When we are assailed by a passion, weather in thought or movements of body, a counter punch from a strong will is the defense. This will for virtue must be asserted at the provocation before we couple with the thought. “If the intellect is attentive and watchful, and at once repulses the provocation by counter attacking and gainsaying it and invoking the Lord Jesus, its consequences remain inoperative”. According to the book, Unseen Warfare, Here’s how we should repulse the provocation when attacked: