Ephesians 6:12 Douay-Rheims
12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
For some reason, the thin line between heaven and earth which one senses in Europe, that barrier which has become a threshold over which one can cross for prayer, seems to be a thick wall here.
Thinking about the fact that I am not fed spiritually in this place except through direct prayer, meditation and study, I ponder today as to what was missing in the sermons, homilies of daily and Sunday Mass in so many of the NO parishes.
Suddenly, I knew what was missing--the awareness of what St. Paul writes to us all about in Ephesians, the understanding, the knowledge of spiritual warfare.
Now, as you all know, I have written about this many times on this blog, and especially in reference to the two retreats I attended this year given by the excellent presenters mentioned in those posts. My soul desperately needed to hear the reality therapy missing in the many, many daily homilies which I have heard.
What is missing are references to the greatest battle ground, that of the unseen powers which want to destroy each one of us and the Church.
Our wrestling, states St. Paul, is not against people, unless they have chosen to work for the dark side, and there are many of those around. Do not lie to yourselves about those who have willfully chosen satan and his power, the power of earth, not heaven.
What priests have not addressed is how spiritual warfare occurs in our lives. I know this, and many of my dear readers know this.
But, sadly, many do not understand that spiritual warfare must be fought daily, without respite, and we all need to see this in order to fight for God and His Church.
My series on discernment addresses some of the problems of spiritual blindness, but I think the most common reason why even good priests never address spiritual warfare is that they live too much in the material world themselves, and they lack the eyes of Christ, seeing into the frontiers of where evil and good fight for the souls of all men, women and children.
Perhaps fear prevents this sight, perhaps denial that evil is a person with cohorts even within the Church.
When I go day after day to a parish and never hear a reference to the soul, the spiritual world, I wonder why this message is missing. Yes, priests must stick to the theme of the day, but in the past almost eight full months since I have left Europe, at NO Masses, in four states, I have yet to hear a Mass addressing those unseen powers which hate you, me, the Pope, the Church, Christ Himself..
Why? Why the silence on spiritual warfare? Why the lack of realization that people through bad choices, even Catholics, align themselves with darkness and evil? Why the missing link to the spiritual life of those who listen day after day for guidance on how to withstand evil and find the ultimate goal of union with God in heaven?
Priests seem to ignore the fact that those who have chosen disobedience to the Church have left the Light of Christ. Priests seem to ignore the fact that those in darkness need to come into the Light of Truth.
One repeated theme on this blog has been that there is no middle ground. People are either with Christ or against Christ, and those who have aligned themselves against Christ want us to fail, to change, to accept their sins.
And who is behind the battle lines, now more and more clear, as those generals of satan, noted by Father Dan, have taken position in this land? Sadly, many priests who remain silent about this age-old enemy of the Church actually aid and abet the enemy by their silence.
This huge battle is what is missing...to the detriment of many souls of those who are so faithful as to come to daily Mass where they never hear about what is happening around them and in their own families. If one does not understand what is really happening, one will not be prepared to fight on one's own territory.