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Catechism of the Catholic Church 2516
“… it is part of the daily experience of the spiritual battle…”
It is important to recognize that we have powerful spiritual enemies. If we do not see this, we may think that the spiritual life is only about doing some generic “ good”, without resisiting evil. And it is not possible to beat an enemy we do not recognize.
In the Gospel, we see that Jesus both did the highest good and defeated the worst evil. Our spiritual enemy wants us to forget Jesus, lose heart and become discouraged in serving the Lord. Victory for him would be our decision to turn back on our resolution to glorify God, return to sin, stop improving, or be convinced that the struggle to be faithful to the Church is not worth it.
To gain the victory in time and eternity, Our Lord gave us the truth about: our enemies, strategy that wins, our weaknesses to defend, his invincible weapons, the prizes to be won, and the evils to be avoided. We spend our spiritual lives, in part, by improving our way of putting these truths into practice.
In particular, we resolve ( and ask divine grace) to RESIST FORCEFULLY the suggestions of evil. If we give only a half-hearted attempt to resist, or play with the evil suggestion, or fail to contradict its inclination, or lack proper reparation for past falls, we invite a stronger spiritual attack. If we resist strongly, St. Ignatius teaches, our enemy flees. If we do not resist strongly, the enemy grows ever more perverse and daring in his suggestion to sin.
–Fr. Robert Nicoletti, General Director
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