3rd Sunday of Lent 12 March 2023 Fighting for life
Its easy to downplay the spiritual life or ignore it
altogether being caught up in the material world. Easy because the spiritual is
out of sight and can be out of mind.
If you see a random crowd walking along it is not likely
that many of them would be concerned for their spiritual wellbeing. If they are
worried it would be about other things.
How can we convince people that in fact although they cannot
see it, there are angels and demons fighting over them.
St Paul describes this in Ephesians 6. For we are not contending
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers,
against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts
of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ep 6,12)
There are no spears and swords being used. This is entirely
a spiritual battle but very intense all the same.
What are they fighting with? Truth v Lies. The truth will
prevail but it can be difficult for humans to recognize and to retain.
We feel the effects of this battle in our own hearts, minds
and souls. We feel ourselves to be torn this way and that, sometimes choosing
the right course, sometimes not.
We are what they are fighting about, both sides trying to
claim our souls for eternity.
At the ground level we take part in the battle, most of it
beyond our knowledge or comprehension, but nevertheless our role is important.
We take every chance to affirm which side we are on. Then we
back that up with a thousand daily decisions to do right not wrong. The little
things add up to a lot, especially if we consider that there are billions of
people involved.
Prayer and fasting are essential. As are good works, and
general Christian living, giving good witness to each other. And exhortation to
keep fighting.
We must be good not only in general, but in particular daily
actions.
This should go without saying but it does not go as it should.
A great deal of sin is committed the world over and this keeps the spiritual
battle from resolving quickly.
The problem comes back to visibility. If we could see
angels and demons we would find it very easy to choose which side to be on.
The devil is losing but we are not fighting hard enough , cooperating enough and we are missing
chances to finish things off.
We sin too readily, and repent too slowly.
Even the small sins can nag at us. we should have smashed
them decades ago and going into higher things. without relapses.
We don’t stay in grade 1 for fifty years at school, but in
spiritual terms we might go fifty years without any great improvement. This is
what happens if someone just rests with the sin without trying to uproot it.
We need to take a stronger hold on the wheel, that is of our
whole lives, keeping the spiritual foremost at all times. We deal with
practical matters but always with the spiritual perspective in view.
We take orders from above, but also from ourselves as we
command our wayward nature to step into line.
Doing nothing will let the demons back in, as we have in
today’s Gospel (Lk 11,24-26)
And not just back in, but worse than before. Seven demons
instead of one. This is how vital that we do not become complacent or lazy.
The victory has been gained on principle but still damage can
be done. Losing armies in war will destroy as they retreat. The devil has a
sting in his tail.
We should have got further than we have; we should be holier
than we are by now; the Church should be stronger than it is… no matter all of
these things are retrievable.
Jesus, the strong man, expels the demons from their
strongholds. We want to be around to be part of that, and eventually enjoy
demon-free life.
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