Fighting the Spiritual Battle: Part 1B: Know Your Enemy-Isolation

JMJ

Know Your Enemy-Isolation

If often seems the struggle for the Kingdom of Heaven is an internal one. Driven by the Holy Spirit, a man enters the desert alone and there he is tempted as though lost behind enemy lines he becomes the sole resistance. This is another trick of the Devil, like any abuser, Satan attempts to create a sense of physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological isolation in his victim, convincing the victim that God, his angels, saints, and faithful, despite all their lofty words and claims of love, have abandoned the victim. The Devil seeks to divide and conquer, to create despair. Satan assures the victim that these others do not care for the victim because the victim is unworthy and lacking, that the victim has no one on which to rely bar his self. Satan tell the victim, “if thou wilt eat, turn these stones into bread or thou shalt surely starve.” Satan insists: Only man can solve man’s problems; only man can alleviate his sense of isolation. Science and industry are no longer the tools of man, but have become his masters.

Jesus, our greatest ally, gives us the answer, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” Jesus is God’s Word. We live by Him. God speaks all creation into being, and if God ever ceased to call each creature by name, all would cease to exist. Man cannot be alone, for God eternally calls him. It is the very act of being called forth that bestows upon man being, and if God is eternally calling us, we are never be alone. Man is not alone. “Be of good cheer,” says the Lord, “it is I.”

Man is also eternally bound to one another. In Eden, looking at Adam, God said, “it is not good that man should be alone.” God created Eve. From that moment on, Man has been a community, a people.

When we stigmatize others rendering them outcast, we do not exclude them from society, we are merely abusing them. When we ostracize another, it is ourselves we exclude from society, it is us who step out of communion with our brothers and sisters, and it is us who, at that moment, reject God. We dare to say, contrary to God’s word, “It is good that man should be alone.” We, in this placing our will over God’s, in usurping the judgement reserved to the Son, condemn ourselves. We become the Evil One.

With this in mind, a few phrases to ponder:

• drive out demons
• visit the sick
• visit the imprisoned
• love your enemies
• pray for those who persecute you
• bless those who spitefully use you

God make the rain to fall on the wicked and the just (this is also true should it fall on only one man), we are a people, God’s people.

God says, “You will be my people and I will be your God.”

God does not say, “I will be your God and you will be my person.”

Remember, “We” are never alone!

We are called to love and to love is to will the good of the other. It is not good that man should be alone, therefore, we can shun no one, exclude no one. “All are welcome at my Father’s table,” say the Lord, we can decline His offer, but we cannot revoke it from another. No one, not you, not me, not harlot, not priest, no peasant, not king, not thief, not even saint is worthy, and still, Jesus bids us, “Come.” Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. The Word is given. The Lord summons us to a wedding feast abundant with the water become wine of the New Covenant through Christ at the Blessed Virgin’s behest. Sweet Mary’s “Fiat” is mankind’s prayer, and for us to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, we, too, must first answer, “yes.” God beckons us to the Supper of the Lamb. Will we not say, “ecce servus Domini! Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum!

TOTUS TUUS MARIA!

(C) Copyright 12 August 2020