The Battlefield

Look up. Look down. Look to your left, and then to your right. You have just surveyed the battlefield. Every breath your draw is drawn on the battlefield. We are born into it, and into a state of constant warfare. We only leave it when we die.

To be sure, there are times of greater and lesser danger, but we are always in peril. We are susceptible to being wounded, or killed. We can never become complacent during times of relevant quiet; our enemy is out there, somewhere, waiting...aiming.

It's a rather grim picture, isn't it? Indeed...and it's our life.

Let's flesh out the scenario:

Battles are fought by armies. That's us - Brothers-in-Arms...Ecclesia Militans - vs. the World. Christ is our Commander-in-Chief, and Satan leads the World.

The battlefield is daily life. On this field, i.e., each day in our lives, we are assaulted by the enemy, and we need to battle back. Some days it's a minor skirmish...some day it's the equivalent of D-Day.

We are assaulted by the equivalent of artillery fire, landmines, grenades, rifle fire, etc. Don't look for a bullet hole in your wall or shrapnel in the front door. Our enemy's weapons are somewhat more subtle. They are temptations. The temptation to help yourself to a few dollars from the petty cash box, the tempation to think lustfully after a half-dressed woman walks past you in the street, the temptation to go to the mall instead of Mass on Sunday, the temptation to join in the gossip at the office watercooler, the temptation to use that condom with your wife, the temptation to cheat on your wife, the temptation to view pornography on the Internet, the temptation to masturbate because you're "riled-up" because of that Internet porn, the tempation to surf the web instead of giving that report at work your total attention, the temptation to buy that latte instead of giving the $4 in your pocket to the homeless man...and the list goes on and on, ad infinitum.

We are, as humans beings, prone to damage from the enemy's weapons. This weakness - this chink in our armor - is called concupiscence. Concupiscence is the proclivity to satisfy the "lower appetites" despite those appetites being contrary to reason. Couple concupiscence with free will and we have a recipe for grave damage.

We are injured when the enemy's weapons are successful, i.e., the shots find their mark. Those shots find their mark when we give into a temptation and sin. For example, a scantily clad woman walking down the street - a temptation - is the equivalent of a rifle round coming straight for us. If we think lustful thoughts - a sin ("But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28) - then that round has hit us. Each and every time we sin, the enemy's weapons have hit - and injured -us!

Sometimes we are only grazed. Sometimes we are genuinely injured, and at other times gravely wounded. Sometimes we are just plain killed...not physically mind you - but spiritually. That is what mortal sin is - we are dead spiritually, and cut off from God's grace. If we were to die in a state of mortal sin, it is probable that we would go to Hell.

Scary stuff! To know that every day of our lives we live under constant assault - assaulted by the valueless, corrupt hyper-liberal media, by those around us who acknowledge no god other than money, or ambition or their own vanities, by those who place little or no value on human life, etc.

But take heart. Remember: "stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God)" (Ephesians 6:14-17).

Christ is leading us...you and me and all the faithful. May we march forward, our faith lighting the way, singing joyously: "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war! With the cross of Jesus, going on before!"

In the next post, we learn how we can strengthen our armor...and HOW WE CAN FIGHT BACK.