FIGHTING THE SPIRITUAL BATTLES

THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eph 6:1-9; Ps 145:10-14; Lk 13:22-30

Spiritual Battle for Christian Families

In yesterday’s Gospel, the Lord strongly admonished the one who asked him whether those God would save are few. The Lord’s difficult teaching must have prompted the question. The Lord did not answer his question directly but urged him to do his utmost to enter through the narrow path. The reason is that many who want to would be unable to enter. The Lord’s answer to the question is quite intriguing and disturbing at the same time. But it reminds us of the emphasis on the Christian journey as a journey into the mystery of Jesus Christ. It is the journey that will demand everything we have. God called us to embark on the journey of total transformation into Jesus Christ. The journey is a personal journey, though done within the faith community. Thus, the answer to the general question of how many would God save follows the answer to a more personal question of salvation: Am I saved? Our Lord answered this second question. If we receive salvation, God will save many through our testimony to the Gospel. We presented the Christian family as a model of the Church to emphasise that God works with us when we obey his will. The Lord used the family setting yesterday when he informed us that the master would lock the door against all who disobey his will. The obedient ones will sit around the table as children around their father. 

Those admitted to the eternal banquet with Abraham and all the faithful have passed through the narrow path. The Lord called those locked-out workers of iniquity. What is the nature of their iniquity? It is simply their disobedience to the will of God in the family and elsewhere. To obey the Lord in marriage and family matters is to walk the narrow path. We are mentioning marriage and family, not to exclude other areas of life but because marriage and family are intricate and close to each of us. For the sake of a religious person, we add that our religious communities and convents model the family of God for us, where the superiors represent the will of God. St. Paul reveals why we have more difficulty in these areas of our Christian life. The difficulty of walking this narrow path of marriage, family, and religious vows comes from our struggle against dark spiritual forces. These dark forces fight against these divine institutions because they realise the presence of God among us through these institutions in a fundamental manner. These institutions, marriage, family, religious vows, and convent are basic units of God’s operational presence among us. The forces of evil direct their witty and subtle attacks on these to prevent souls from being saved. We must use every grace we have received to fight them. “Put God’s amour on so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens.”

To defeat these enemies of our salvation, we must abandon everything humanly ours and embrace all God’s armour. The heavenly armours are not difficult to use. We have been harping on the most important one, the word of God which is truth. We must live by the word to be immune against evil. This gives us integrity which Paul called a breastplate. Living the word also goes into the shoes for our safe walk which is eagerness to preach the Gospel. A faithful Christian life preaches the Gospel and promotes vocal preaching. Letting faith inform every action means we carry our shield to put out the burning arrows of evil. Acceptance of salvation as God’s gift of his Son is a helmet protecting our head from injury. If Christ is our salvation, we protect it by having the greatest reverence for him and the mystery of his love for us. When we commune constantly in Spirit, he gives us the word of God as a sword to attack evil spirits when they come with their hellish insinuations. Our Lord’s example in the Gospel is very illuminative. They informed him of Herod’s intention to kill him, but he immediately waved it aside because of his faith in his Father’s providential care. We come to this level of loving trust in God through constant communion with God in prayer. “Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion.” Because of these spiritual dangers, these institutions, marriage, family, and religious life, are vocations to prayer and spiritual life.

Let us pray:  Grant us, Lord, the grace to grow in our prayer life, that renewing our profession of faith in the life, death, and resurrection of your Son daily, we may give up all that hinders us from making progress on the narrow path, and hasten to the banquet of life and love in your heavenly kingdom.