Spiritual Warfare

By Joe Sullivan, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

This past week while I was driving around Phoenix taking people to and from their doctor appointments as part of my job, I ran into an immigrant from China. We began talking and she said she gets a lot of inside news from her family in China. Needless to say, she had much to share with me. 

It is true that the past three or four years have been rough. Catholic values and principles are constantly being attacked everywhere by the ever-growing anti-Christian and pro-death advocates. It is easy to want to give up the fight. But what is that fight? Sure, doing some activism, going to protests and marches have their role, but are these the most effective weapons? 

Ultimately, it is a battle of good vs. evil. Without God, evil wins every time. It is mostly a spiritual battle. History is full of these spiritual battles when evil seems to have the upper hand but, through prayer, God triumphs. The wars in which mostly human efforts were deployed and good did come about, that good was only for the short term. In the long-term, evil keeps marching on. 

After two world wars and a cold war last century, look at where the world is now. Atheism grew in the U.S. in the last thirty years from 6% to 24% and this growth has been mostly with people under 30 years of age. 

This is a spiritual war, and the only way to fight this kind of war is with spiritual weapons. At the top of the list is prayer and fasting, the daily rosary, frequent reception of the Sacraments, and adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We should set aside time for daily prayer, Lectio Divina, learning and practicing virtue, befriending others and bringing them to Christ. 

The first battle is with ourselves. We all know this. We need to be constantly yearning for Our Lord, despite our shortcomings, with humble heartfelt prayer. When we do this, good triumphs and the devil has no chance!