Principles of Spiritual Warfare (Part 2)

By  Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Continuing from the sermon given by Fr. Mark Goring in Canada back in October 2012 on the weapons we need to employ to win the battle against sin and the devil, are his last two principles.

Principle 3:  Keep Your Peace

There is a saying that in an argument or debate if you lose your cool, you already lost the dispute, even if your arguments are more convincing than your opponent.  Losing your composure is a discredit to your character because it means you can’t handle the dispute on ideas. Therefore, you don’t deserve to engage in a debate.  The same thing applies to the spiritual battle. The devil wants us to lose our peace when he offers us a temptation so that we will easily fall for his sinful invitations.

St. Sister Faustina (the founder of the Divine Mercy movement and the famous 3 o’clock prayer) was one day walking in a forest and was terrorized by devils appearing in the form of wolves scaring and telling her that they will tear her into pieces.  St. Faustina simply replied, “If that’s God’s will for me, then so be it.”  The devils went away angry and frustrated.  She turned the tables on the devils, they wanted her to lose her peace, but they were the ones who became angry.  The devils never have peace in themselves, we can only say they got angry, because they lost their internal peace after they rebelled against God.  Only God can give us true peace and it is only given to His faithful children.  “My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give it to you.” (John 14:27)

But even if we fall for the enticements of the devil and commit sin, we should not lose our peace, but get up, say sorry to our Lord in the Sacrament of Confession, and begin again.  The goal of the devil is to discourage us in the spiritual warfare and give up the fight, but our response to him should be that of humility and he is quite angry with this virtue because he does not have it in him since he is full of pride.  In the same way as the devil does not have peace, he likewise does not have humility, for humility and peace go together.  It’s his pride that precisely made him a devil when he once was a good angel (Devil’s motto: better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven).  He wants to be his own god and does not want to serve the real God.  When we repent of our sins we don’t want to be like the devil, because we are not god.  Only God is God and sin is self-worship (committing a wrongdoing for the benefit of oneself).  “I am the Lord your God…you shall not have other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)

Principle 4:  Know Your Weaknesses

We all have a predominant weakness, or an Achilles heel.  In the olden times the invaders would look for the weakest wall in a fortress and focus their attack there.  Our weakness can be any of the 7 capital sins: pride, lust, greed (for money), gluttony (food and drink), envy, anger, and laziness.  And the devil knows us well because he monitors us 24/7 and he takes no vacations and focuses his attacks on our primary weakness.  He knows the sins that we often say in confession and that would be our main weakness.  And the Church offers us the traditional strategies to counter our main weakness namely:  regular confession and attendance in the Holy Mass, regular prayer (at least 15 minutes daily and even more), avoiding occasions of sin (bad websites, bad friends, bad places, etc.), spiritual direction (having a spiritual adviser –a priest or layperson– who can give you good advice and pray for you), and keeping oneself busy with work because idleness is the workshop of the devil (the devil is happy when you have nothing to do because you become an easy target for temptations).

Remember that we are fighting against sin and the devil not just for the sake of fighting, or wanting to be spiritually clean, but we are emptying ourselves of sin so that we can be filled with God’s divine Life.  Because our God is not only giving us material gifts but gives us his very self by letting us share His Divine Life and we can’t have His life unless we empty first ourselves with ourselves.  “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:4)