Carravaggio, The Denial of St. Peter, 1610
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. What came to be through Him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5
Wow! What a circle last week. As we contemplated the reality of spiritual warfare, the battle of light and darkness, it became clearer to all of us that this stuff is pretty real. And the stakes are high: we are in a battle for our eternal lives, and those around us. The good news is we have a secret weapon that’s undefeated: Jesus the Lord, and his legions of angels. And each other. Here are my notes:
The Devil is Real
Throughout the evening, as we shared one story and reflection after another, all of us began to believe a little more firmly that the Devil is not some cartoon, but real. A fallen angel who defied God and continues to, he’s determined, it seems, to lure as many of the Lord’s beloved creations—us --- away from God, towards an eternity without God, toward Hell. Succeeding in spiritual warfare, first and foremost, requires an acknowledgement that this person we don’t want to talk about—the Devil—is quite real and very much after us and those we love. You can’t fight an enemy that you don’t acknowledge exists. And you can’t fight him without weapons.
“Prayer and the Sacraments are the ‘Armor of God.’(Eph 6:10) ”
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians went right at the antidote to Evil, which is the Good, or in the words of John, the Light. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus. So spiritual warfare often comes down to prayer and the sacraments themselves, with the devil trying to distract us from ever even getting on the armor of God. Compound this with our own human weaknesses, and with the everyday business of life, leaning into the Lord in prayer is sometimes difficult to do. But when we do so, when we find ourselves close to Him, with Him in the Upper Room, well, that’s pretty special. It really then feels like we’ve got the armor of God on!
Ways to Get to the Upper Room
As we worked our way through the icebreaker question on times we’ve felt close to God in prayer—in the Zone, in the Upper Room—a pattern developed centered around three ways we’ve gotten there, occasionally.
The first was when we were faced with a seemingly insurmountable crisis, either with our own health or with the health of those close to us. At times like this, when there seems to be no other solution, we often turn to God. And even when we haven’t been nourishing the relationship as well as we should have, amazingly He’s there for us, giving us comfort and helping us through it.
The second route to God seemed to be through gratitude for some great grace bestowed. Sometimes it might be a success in a venture or with a child, but often many of us grew closer after a big confession, when we dragged ourselves in despair before Him for something we’d done wrong, and rather than getting hammered, we were given His mercy. Gratitude for mercy is a wonderful way to find God, and regular confession helps with that road.
A third way is what some call “the Fifth Gospel”, taking a pilgrimage to a holy site, particularly one in the Holy Land which was the scene of a particularly poignant moment in the gospel story. One of us had that experience along the shores of Gallilee where Jesus reconciled Peter after his three denials; another experienced in the Upper Room itself. And if we can’t travel there, we can at least imagine ourselves there, put our selves in the scene. One of us likes to imagine himself with the Lord at the Garden of Olives, as He himself struggled to discern God’s will for Him and conform His will to God’s. What better way to get there than to go there?
Then There’s Communion
One of us brought up maybe the obvious but often overlooked way to grow closer to the Lord: receiving communion. After all, in that most special of sacraments, Jesus physically joins with us and becomes part of us, and in the process we all become part of each other. This is so mind boggling many of us try not to think about it when we receive communion, and in doing so can drift into a routine practice where our mind is often on something else. Have we spent time lately contemplating the mystery and seriousness of what Holy Communion is? Do we use this sacrament as intentionally as we should as way of arming ourselves with Christ himself so that we can engage more confidently in spiritual warfare?
Don’t Engage the Devil
Even as we fight to draw closer to Christ in prayer, another good piece of advice coming out of the evening is, on the other hand, avoid engaging at all with the Devil. Once we do, it’s hard to get back out of the swamp. One of us spoke about “lag time”, and striving always to reduce it. “Lag time” is the time it takes, once a distraction presents itself in prayer, to return to the dialogue with Jesus that you’re trying to have. And even outside of prayer, this lag time thing matters. As one of our spiritual coaches likes to say, “The first look is isn’t your fault; the second is.” What’s my lag time? Is it getting shorter or longer?
Resolution: We all resolved going forward to bless ourselves with the sign of the cross, whether in public or in private prayer, with greater reverence and deliberation, acknowledging with that sign just how serious a battle we are in and just how important the sign of the cross is to driving away the evil spirits that want us to be forever with them, not God.
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