10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:10-20)
My fellow Christians, look around you. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you sense it? It saddens me to say that we as a Catholic Church – a Universal Church – are under attack on ALL fronts.
In our schools, in our workplaces, in our communities, and abroad. There are no safe places for the Church to turn to anymore. Our friends have become enemies and our enemies have been emboldened as government upon government – worldwide – use the mechanizations of the state to limit our right to exist as a people of faith and servants of God. Those who hate us take matters into their own hands and murder and torture us for what we believe in.
If we do not stand up and face this challenge we stand to lose the little that remains of our freedom to live as Christians. St. John Paul II himself foretold us, in prophetic fashion, what we should soon be expecting and how we should prepare to face our coming trials. You can find his statement here (credit: Les Femmes – The Truth Blog).
How do we prepare for such battles? Through the full and complete exercise of our faith. If we truly believe that we are Christians, then we must act as full Christians.
Ephesians 6:10-20 is very clear who the enemy is. The enemy is not of flesh and blood thus we must arm ourselves in armor not made of earthly matter but of Spiritual matter. Our armor consists of Truth, Righteousness, the Gospel, and Faith. Nor are our weapons made of earthly matter – the Word of God, Prayer and Petition, the Holy Rosary, all fueled by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. More importantly we as Christians are asked to and ought to stand up to the enemy at all costs – even martyrdom. If something is worth living for then it is worth sacrificing for! Christians, if you are not willing to lose everything for your faith…then we have already lost!
Jesus set the example for us. He calls us to the cross and we must follow that difficult path when we are called. That is why we call ourselves Christians. I have started to use the Rhema Scroll as my spiritual battle plan (found here). I share it with you in the hope that you too will follow its dictates based on biblical teaching.
Fellow brothers and sisters in the Christian faith, have we become complacent? Have we become comfortable in our Christianity? What will you do in the defense of your faith? As for me, I have already started suiting up my armor. Come join me!
Copyright 2014, Luciano Corbo
Luciano Corbo
Luciano Corbo holds a Master of Arts - Integrated Studies from Athabasca University. His major interests are Culture, Work, Organizations and Leadership, within a context of Catholic Social Teaching Principles. He writes from Canada.
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