Ephesians 6:1-20 / Luke 13:31-35
Adelaide Proctor’s poem “A Legend” tells about a monk whose preaching attracted crowds far and near. It moved people to tears and changed their lives. Every time he preached, an old man sat nearby praying his beads. One day the monk was thanking God for his power to move hearts when, suddenly, an angel appeared to him and said something to this effect: “My dear son, it is not your words that melts people’s hearts and renews their faith. It is the prayers of that faith-filled old man who sits nearby and tells his beads.”
That poem recalls Paul’s words in today’s reading: “Pray
that I may be bold in speaking about the gospel as I should.”
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Do we pray for priests and ministers that their words will
touch hearts? “More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of.” Alfred Lord
Tennyson
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We are promised a lifelong struggle. Not against
human beings but against Sovereignties and Powers, who originate the darkness
of this world, the spiritual army of evil (Verse 12). What this means we do not
know. It is the idea of that age, the spirit of that age. The spirit of the age
is powerful - think only of fashions and hairstyles - it has a firm hold on
everyone, especially the young, and much of it is evil. Every age has its own
form of enslaving man. As Paul speaks about the daily struggle, he realises
that he is chained to a soldier; half-jokingly he called himself an ambassador
in chains. But as he looked at the Praetorian guard's man, he made use of his
uniform and his weapons as an illustration for his lesson. Jesus did the same:
looking prayerfully at his surroundings he found material for his parables. St
Ignatius called this: Finding God in all things.
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St. Teresa of Avila was quoted as saying this: I do
not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him. What St. Teresa is
probably saying is that as much as Satan instigates and tempts others to sin,
his instruments and operatives can carry out his mission so ruthlessly that
they can almost give hell to us. And we in turn can succumb to the evil one's
tactics by confronting the ones who do evil to us and we fight fire with fire
with the result that all get consumed by the flames, with the evil one laughing
from afar. That is why the 1st reading tells us to put on God's armour so as to
resist the devil's tactics.
And that means to realise that it is not against human enemies that we have to
struggle with, but against the powers of darkness, the spiritual army of evil. That
is why we must rely on God's armour, or we will not be able to put up any
resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold our ground.
So against these human instruments and operatives of the evil one, we have to
pray all the time and asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance and help to see how
the evil one is manipulating those to do evil and to cause us to sin. In the
gospel, when some Pharisees seem to warn Jesus that Herod has the intention to
kill him, He knows who was instigating Herod to this evil intention. Jesus was
able to see the tactics of the devil behind Herod's intention.
May we pray always and ask the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate and guard us from
the evil one and not to fall into the trap of his evil tactics. Let us also
pray for those under the power of the evil one that they will be freed from his
power and turn away from evil and begin to do good.
Let us
Pray: Lord God, to have an aim, a purpose, a sure destiny to go
to, even at the cost of sacrifice and pain, is very reassuring in all its
uncertainty. Keep us going on our way in faith and trust, without fear or
hesitation, for we are sure that nothing can harm us and that no prison made by
human hands or minds can deprive us from the inner freedom which you have given
us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.