Christian Warfare (Friday, Week 30, Year 2)

-

We come to the end of St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Softly but very persuasively he says to them, “Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” (cf. Eph. 6:10-20). And he goes further to use certain terms to describe how they can be strong in the Lord: take the WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD; fasten the BELT OF TRUTH; put on the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS; shoe your feet with the EQUIPMENT OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; take the SHIELD OF FAITH; take the HELMET OF SALVATION and the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT which is the Word of God. These items (“armor”, “belt”, “breastplate”, “shoe”, “shield”, “helmet” and “sword”) are all military equipment: they are items that every soldier must have before he goes to a battleground. 

In all these, St Paul reminds the Ephesians that Christian life is real warfare; a real battle. In fact, every Christian ought to know that he or she is already in a battleground. This warfare is more sophisticated because we are not fighting against flesh and blood, not fighting seen forces but unseen forces: St Paul describes them as “principalities, powers, rulers of present darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the sky”. From all these, we see that our situation as Christians is desperate, scary and extremely serious. And desperate situations demand desperate measures. For a Christian to remain strong in the Lord as he or she fights, he or she must fasten the truth as belt, must put on righteousness as breastplate, must wear the gospel of peace as shoe, must have faith as shield, must wear salvation as helmet and must have the Word of God as sword. The truth that we must be told at all times is that Christianity is not a platform for merry-making and entertainment; it is not a platform for lectures or speeches on material success or worldly conquest. It is real warfare: not a battle against human beings who we describe as witches, not a battle against the environment when we cut down trees in the name of fighting the devil. It is warfare against evil in its varied manifestations. And it does not call for physical killing and destruction of the environment or properties. We are already in that battleground but many of us do not have the protective and attacking materials needed for a successful engagement on the battleground.

When Jesus was on His mission on earth, it was always a battle: against the demons, against ignorance which ravaged the people, against His own people, against the Pharisees and the religious leaders, and so on. And the final battle was in Jerusalem where He triumphed over death, sin and evil by dying on the Cross and rising on the third day. In the gospel reading (cf. Luke 13:31-35), some Pharisees wanted to scare him by telling him that Herod was coming for His head. He told them that He must go on to Jerusalem for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Jesus was not perturbed; He was fully equipped and made up His mind to get onto to the highpoint of the battle which will be staged in Jerusalem.

We are already in the battleground: fighting against evil, against sin, the flesh, the world, principalities and powers and unseen forces of the sky. Let us not throw in the towel. We have a whole military gear and equipment at our disposal. If we must be victorious, we need the grace of God and we must be in the right disposition with the right fighting equipment.    



       

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts versus the Giver (Monday, Week 20, Year II)

-
Image
A gift, by the virtue of what it is, is given. In other words, there must be a giver. Gift can come or be in the form of a good friendship or relationship, material thing, good job, personal talent, and so on. Every cherished gift is the delight of our eyes, the pride of our power and the desire of our souls. The gifts that we possess should then remind us of the giver. It smacks of arrogance and ingratitude when gifts are used without acknowledging or making reference to the giver. For the Jews, the Temple or Sanctuary was the delight of their eyes, the pride of their power and the desire of their souls. It was a precious gift which they jealously guarded. However, they adorned the Sanctuary but did not truly adore the One for whom the Sanctuary exists. They were too attached to the “gift” (sanctuary) but were completely detached from the Giver of the gift – from Yahweh. Ezekiel prophesied to them that this sanctuary which was their delight will be profaned and taken away from them. M
Read more

Persecution and Triumph, the Two Realities of Christian life (Saturday, Week 33, Year 2, The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

-
Image
The book of Revelation is full of symbols and imageries that need to be carefully interpreted for us to understand the message they communicate. In today’s first reading (cf. Rev. 11:4-12), John was told about two olive trees and two lamp stands serving as witnesses to the Holy One. Who or what do these two sets of witnesses (olive trees and lamp stand) stand for? When we read further in order to understand what happened to these two witnesses, it may be a bit clear to us that the “two witnesses” may be pointing to Moses and Elijah, judging from what they did on earth and what they stand for. Moses stands for the Law; and Elijah stands for the Prophet. Anyone who bears witness as Moses bore witness to the Law of God must be persecuted by the beast as the first reading (from the Book of Revelation) recounted. Anyone who bears witness to the messages of truth as Elijah and other prophets did must be persecuted just as the prophets were persecuted. Persecution is a fate that awaits every
Read more

Enkindle the Embers of Unity, Quench the Fire of Disunity (Wednesday, Week 22, Year A)

-
Image
For some time now, we have heard Paul talk about the spiritual and the unspiritual: what it means to live and operate on the level of the Spirit (the spiritual) and on the level of the flesh (the unspiritual). Paul was very emphatic about this topic possibly because he was addressing a group of people who were too intellectual and academic in their approach to the things of God and all of that. Remember that the Corinthians were Greek; and the ancient Greeks were known to be too particular and more interested in intellectualism, sophistry, philosophy and human wisdom. And we must not forget that Paul has been very suspicious of over-reliance on worldly/human wisdom in understanding and appreciating the things of the Spirit. To rely more on human/worldly wisdom is a sign that one may be operating on the level of the flesh; and to operate on the level of the flesh breeds a whole lot of vices such as division or sectionalism, hedonism, and so on. In today’s section of that letter to the C
Read more