A couple months ago when I went to Confession, the priest asked, "What are your strategies for resisting temptations?" I didn't come up with a particularly impressive answer, given where I was sitting.
His pointed advice was threefold:
- there is an Enemy who wants to draw us away from the peace and joy and the confident trust which we can experience living in right relationship with God;
- the sooner we recognize the Enemy's tactics, the quicker we can push back against them;
- we need to have a few "go to" resources in our spiritual repertoire.
He recommended naming the specific temptation and then casting it out, either by invoking the Holy Name of Jesus or by asking for the intercession of Mother Mary. (The prayer to St. Michael the Archangel also came highly recommended!)
As a nation, we continue to lose spiritual battle after spiritual battle because we continue to fail to acknowledge that we are in a state of spiritual warfare. St. Paul reminds us that "our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens" (Eph 6:12). We must recognize this basic fact and start identifying the Enemy's tactics, so that our resistance can be prompt and unwavering.
One of the greatest temptations of this historical moment is to allow fear to control us--whether we allow ourselves to be swallowed up by it or justify lashing out at others because of it. We must remember that the Father of Lies is the aboriginal Fearmonger. Satan knows that the antithesis of faith is not doubt but fear. To best drive out faith in a God whose providential Love holds us in existence, moment by moment, the Enemy wants to paralyze us in our fears or to allow our fears to drive us to irrationally target some convenient scapegoat(s).
To identify and respond to potential threats is, of course, a natural reaction rooted in legitimate self-defense and protection of innocent life. It is ultimately motivated by healthy love of self and love of neighbor. But the fear which renders us inert or apoplectic is the subtle poison against which we must find a personal antidote.
So let's explore this spiritual exercise today:
- identify the specific fear which most controls or drives me;
- name it;
- then cast it out by invoking Jesus, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, at whose names the demons recoil in fear.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you--
DDS
