Three things to watch in our spiritual battle

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Life in general is a struggle.  We have to work to earn a living.  And prior to that we had to go to school for at least sixteen years to earn a degree to be qualified to work.  It’s the same thing with the spiritual life.  It’s not just a struggle but a battle.  The enemies we have to go against are the world, the devil and ourselves.  The world with its enticements of wealth, honor and pleasure.  Not that they are wrong in themselves but we can get attached to them or make them the most important thing in our lives.  Second, the devil who hates men and women since whomever God loves the most, the devil does the opposite.  And third, this might come as a surprise, our worst enemy in the spiritual life is ourselves.  Because of original sin, we are prone to sin.  We are weak by nature due to the effects of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve.  We have a strong tendency to be proud, envious, greedy, lustful, and lazy by default.  In other words, we don’t need the world and the devil to tempt us to sin, we can sin on our own because of our fallen nature.  Thus, the need to fight and struggle, otherwise we can become sinful and miserable.  Two things that always go together.

Fr. Terrance Chartier, a Franciscan Friar recommends three things to watch in ourselves or three signs that enable us to gauge how well we are doing in the spiritual battle.

1.)  Guarding our Tongue  

St. James says, “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3:7-8) Do we speak words that build others up or tear them down?  With the widespread use of social media, we can easily tear down others because we can hide behind anonymity by creating an alias account.  We should follow the simple rule of charity in this area:  if we can’t say something nice then we don’t say it.  It’s one thing to correct others (which should be done in private) and to criticize harshly others in public for their failings.  The same thing goes outside of the social media, we call it backbiting or engaging in gossip, talking about the defects of others without the intention of correcting them.

2.)  Are we Focused on Other’s Faults or our Own?

Our Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel of St. Luke, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:41-42) Do we magnify the faults of others and minimize ours?  It’s easier to criticize other people’s sins and defects than to correct our own sins.  We tend to play the “relationship see saw game”: we put down others so we can rise up.  We want to talk about the defects of others so we can feel superior over them.  And we cannot be in a position to correct others unless we have disciplined ourselves on that sin or defect, we want others to get rid of.  Otherwise, we would hear the reprimand of our Lord, “you hypocrite!”.

3.)  Do I respond Gracefully to Life’s Difficulties that Test my Faith?

No one gets to enjoy life when undergoing difficulties.  It’s ok to feel displeasure or pain and even complain to our Lord about it.  The Book of Psalms in Scripture is full of complaints towards God.  What we should not do is stop talking to God or worse curse God because of those trials.  We will learn to suffer if we see meaning in our suffering.  One of the clear purposes of suffering is for character growth.  Trials and difficulties in life makes us acquire patience, fortitude, closer union with Christ and more deserving of eternal life.