1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:27,600 Episode 100. Spiritual Warfare. This will be the last episode for Catholic Daily 2 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:36,200 Brief. Episode 100 is a good even number to end on, so I appreciate you listening. Spiritual 3 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:40,920 Warfare. An important topic, especially because we've in recent episode talked about the end of 4 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:46,200 the world and the tactics of the devil and how to die a happy death. This will be just kind of 5 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:50,640 reiteration a lot of those things, a summary as well of important things to keep in mind. 6 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:56,280 First, that spiritual warfare is always being waged. I mentioned that in the couple episodes 7 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:03,240 ago, I said that the devil and his angels do not tire, they do not grow old, they're not impatient, 8 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:09,560 and so they're trying to affect us and draw us away from God all day every day. You are dealing 9 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:14,680 with the influence of the evil one from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed every 10 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:19,960 single day. And so that's important to keep in mind that there's never a lull in the battle. But 11 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:24,200 of course keeping in mind all along that you are protected by God's grace. If you're in the state of 12 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:29,920 grace, you have your guardian angel to protect you, and God is infinitely more powerful than these 13 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:36,600 mirror creatures, which is what demons are. And in this context of spiritual warfare, it's interesting 14 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:41,640 to note that there's been a trend in the modern age to equate Christianity with kindness. You know, 15 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:46,080 that acting Christian quote unquote just means being nice to people, kind of smiling, you know, 16 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:51,480 which is misrepresentation of it and a dumbing down of it. And it also has the effect of making 17 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:57,480 us forget that we are soldiers, we're warriors in an ongoing spiritual battle. We're not living in 18 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:03,960 neutral territory. And so if we reduce the practice of our faith to simply, oh yeah, being nice to 19 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:09,000 people, letting people live their lives, and just being tolerant and forgiving, that's not the essence 20 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,080 of our faith. And the more we can keep in mind that we're supposed to be battling against the 21 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:17,960 forces of this world, the better off we are in the battle. The more we recognize that our defenses 22 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:22,600 need to be up, that we need to have moral courage, the more alert we are of all of the influences 23 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:28,600 that the world is pushing upon us under the guise of friendliness and tolerance and acceptance and 24 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:33,960 all that, the more we will be prepared for battle. So we are warriors, and we're not in neutral 25 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:38,280 territory, we're in hostile territory for the time being, the devil is the prince of this world. 26 00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:43,640 And so there's no such thing as being neutral or standing still with regard to our spiritual life. 27 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:48,520 If you're not seeking to grow in holiness, if we're not seeking to progress more and more into the 28 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:53,400 camp of the Lord, then we're making ourselves vulnerable and we're actually drifting into the 29 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:59,080 opposite camp, the camp of the enemy. You can't stand still, there is no leveling off in the 30 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:04,760 spiritual life. You're either seeking to grow or you're falling backwards. Remember on my recent 31 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:10,360 episode of how the devil is working on you, how little things can be used to eventually over time 32 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:15,560 really turn you against God. It's important to again read C.S. Lewis's screwtape letters and be 33 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:21,560 attuned to that, to be aware of that. The worst possible situation we can be in is being slowly 34 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:27,080 turned away from God little by little over days or months or years and not realize it. 35 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:33,160 So it's up to us to be aware of these tactics so that we can recognize them and stomp them out 36 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:38,200 as soon as we can with the help of prayer and the sacraments. In this spiritual battle, it's 37 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:43,480 important to remember what our weapons are. The most important weapons we have are the sacraments. 38 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:47,480 The devil is powerless against the sacraments. He hates the Holy Eucharist, he hates us going to 39 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:53,480 mass, he hates us going to confession. He will try and sow as many doubts as possible and fears 40 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:58,440 to prevent us from going to confession. However, if we are in a life of sin and we're not confessing 41 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:04,760 our sins, he wants us to go to the Holy Eucharist. He likes sacrilegious reception of Holy Communion. 42 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:11,000 There's an interesting exchange between French philosopher Voltaire and a person writing to 43 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,960 him saying that he's a believer but he doesn't want to be a believer anymore. Voltaire tells him, 44 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:20,040 well, keep living in sin and keep going to communion because the more you do that, 45 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,840 the more you'll lose your faith in the real presence. So it's not enough to just keep our 46 00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:29,800 Sunday obligation and go to mass once a week and receive communion. We need to receive worthily 47 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:34,680 and it's best to, if we haven't had the opportunity to go to confession, if we're in God's 48 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:39,560 grave sin, we still of course need to go to mass but we should refrain from receiving communion 49 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,920 because far from helping you, receiving communion in the state of sin harms you. And that's why 50 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:49,880 the devil is totally fine with many Catholics who never go to confession but keep up their Sunday 51 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:54,680 obligation. They're in a position of thinking they're growing closer to God but actually 52 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:59,400 harming their souls every time they receive communion. So that's why the devil hates confession 53 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:06,120 so much because it's the one thing that tears us from the power of the evil one and restores us 54 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:11,560 to grace and unites us to Christ and makes us worthy to receive his body and blood, soul and 55 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:18,360 divinity at mass. So one of the best things you can possibly do being a warrior in the spiritual 56 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:23,960 battle and being free from the clutches of the enemy is to go to confession regularly. The saints 57 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:28,360 would say do it often, probably every two weeks. Of course more frequently if you struggle with 58 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:32,840 serious sin, we have to always get to confession immediately if we become aware of any grave 59 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:38,200 sin that we've committed. But as a habit, going every couple weeks, going once a month is good to 60 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:43,160 keep us close to God, keep us mindful of the things that are harming our relationship with God, 61 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:47,800 and of course receiving an increase in grace every time we go, making our reception of the 62 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:51,480 Eucharist more fruitful. You can talk to your spiritual director about the frequency of going. 63 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:56,040 There's not really any possibility of going too frequently. If someone actually is struggling with 64 00:05:56,040 --> 00:06:01,880 scrupulosity, then your spiritual director will tell them don't go as often because you're doubting 65 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:05,560 the power of the sacrament. But if you don't struggle with scrupulosity and you just love the 66 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:10,040 sacrament of reconciliation, you can go weekly. There's nothing wrong with that. Some priests 67 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:15,240 get annoyed about that, but that's not your problem. To go and humbly confess even very small sins 68 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:19,880 is something that's pleasing to the Lord and it's something that the saints do. So aside from the 69 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:26,280 sacraments, especially the Eucharist and confession, other weapons at our disposal are of course daily 70 00:06:26,280 --> 00:06:30,840 prayer, meditation. I did an episode on that. What mental prayer is, so go back and listen to that 71 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:36,040 if you need some ideas to what that entails. But any kind of prayer that we, any simple elevation 72 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:41,160 of our mind and our heart to God throughout the day is very helpful in protecting us from the evil 73 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:46,280 one and bringing us into closer union with God. It can be guided prayer, it can be meditations 74 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:51,480 that you read, it can be a simple wordless meditation in the midst of your day. But to do it 75 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:57,080 regularly, to do it every day, to do it throughout the day and to be disciplined in that schedule of 76 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:03,560 prayer. Not as if it needs to be overly formal and rigid, but I mean to make sure that you carve out 77 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:08,840 time for prayer during the day and that you incorporate prayer into your various activities. 78 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:13,480 St. Paul says we should be praying at all times and we can do that even if we're not kneeling down 79 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,880 in a church saying particular prayers. Of course the rosary and the other devotions the church 80 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:22,280 gives us are very important. The rosary being the principle of all of the devotions that we should 81 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:27,320 pray daily, staying close to Mary who is our greatest intercessor of all the saints, who being the 82 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:32,360 mother of God and free of all sin and most beloved by God is the one that can protect us most among 83 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:36,520 all the saints. She's the one that crushes the head of the serpent. So the devil hates the rosary 84 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:41,160 very much, he hates Mary very much. And all the devotions the church gives us are worth looking 85 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:45,480 at. Some people have different spiritual temperaments, some people have different ways they like to 86 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:50,040 pray, certain ways that don't work for them. The church has a huge rich treasury of devotions 87 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,280 and prayers and most people aren't familiar with even a small percentage of them because you know 88 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:59,240 catechesis in recent decades hasn't been very good. But investigate the various devotions and 89 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:04,280 ways of prayer that the church gives us because almost certainly there is a form of prayer or a 90 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:08,600 devotion that will be very helpful for you individually. We should also pray for an increase 91 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:13,240 in the virtues of faith, hope and charity every day obviously. But in particular in these times 92 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:18,920 to pray for an increase in hope we can get really depressed and we can be tempted to despair because 93 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:23,960 of the way things are in the world. But that is a dangerous thing to give into. We always 94 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:28,440 ought to have hope because the battle is really won already. Christ has won the victory over death 95 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:35,000 and over sin and right now all we're doing is trying to cling to Christ as long as we live in 96 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:41,240 this world. And there can be no death blow dealt to us that is fatal that we can't recover from. 97 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:46,040 There's no sin we can fall into that we can't recover from because God's mercy is infinite. 98 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:51,560 So as long as we're breathing, as long as we're alive, we can always hope for eternal glory. 99 00:08:51,560 --> 00:08:56,520 The devil wants us to think that there's nothing that can save us. He wants us to think that if 100 00:08:56,520 --> 00:09:01,480 we've fallen into sin, it was won too many times or this one was too bad that God can't help you. 101 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:06,840 Well, the devil can't kill us. He can't kill our souls. Only we can do that. He can't remove hope 102 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:11,960 of God's mercy. Only we can fall into that false belief. So we always need to pray for an increase 103 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:18,040 in hope. We know we're in a battle. We know that the battle is already won by Christ. We know the 104 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:22,920 means and weapons at our disposal to share in that victory with Christ. And we know that there's 105 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:29,240 always the opportunity to begin anew if we've failed in any way. So when you put it that way, 106 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:34,040 the battle doesn't seem as frightening as it might otherwise seem. You know, we're surrounded by so 107 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:39,080 many ugly things, so many false things, so many evil things that we might get the impression 108 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:45,000 that we're losing or something. Well, there's no way to lose if we are with Christ. I guess I'll 109 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:51,160 just end with using a trite phrase that's bad advice, but it's actually good advice if understood 110 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:56,440 properly. And people say, live every day as if it were your last. And by that, they usually mean, 111 00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:01,800 hey, live it up. You know, just abandon yourself to life and, you know, have all the pleasures that 112 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:06,280 you want and just do what you want to do. So you live life to the fullest. That's terrible advice. 113 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:09,960 You know, you ask a lot of people what they would do if they knew it was their last day in this world 114 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:16,440 and they usually say stupid stuff like, I'd go do this amazing vacation or this, you know, risky 115 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:20,920 thing or whatever. But the response should be, you know, if you knew it were your last day, that 116 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:27,480 is a great blessing. If you knew it were your last day on earth, what would you do? You'd pray intensely, 117 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:33,960 you'd avail yourself of the sacraments, you'd try and purify your heart and you'd try and kindle 118 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:39,800 longing and desire to see God and become very joyful that you're going to see God. So live every 119 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:46,200 day like that. That's a good way to follow that otherwise silly aphorism of live every day as if 120 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:50,680 it were your last. You really should. It's not even just a thought experiment. You really don't know 121 00:10:50,680 --> 00:10:56,840 what day is going to be your last. So live as if you knew that at the end of this day, you were going 122 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:22,120 to meet God face to face.