It must be so

By John Pearring

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121220.cfm
Zechariah 2:14-17
Luke 1:26-38

This Saturday’s readings from the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe present the conflict of two entities — the Church and Satan. We celebrate Mary on this feast day, certainly. We also celebrate her as the mother of Jesus and of the Church. Her place in the Church, however, signifies something significant in the conflict of Church and Satan which I bring up. She is untouchable by Satan, and has been since her inception. So, we don’t have a battle going on between Mary and Satan. Mary and the Communion of Saints reside in Heaven. We’re the ones given the duty of satanic battle now.

I apologize for any heretical sounding statements regarding the devil and Jesus, Mary, and the Church. I’m not being loose with my language, by any means. Refer to Church documents for the technical aspects on any charged topics I may bring up. I’m heading in the direction of what the scriptures are telling us about the still existing place of evil in our world. And, our role in standing up against it. I think we understand our roles better with visuals.

In a practical cage fight sense, Jesus is not wearing gloves and fighting Satan. Not in a direct way like we, the Church. Our plight in the trenches with Satan as a winged demon with his sweeping tail is taking place in space and time, right now, in minute by minute wailings and gnashing of teeth. Believers are not unarmed, though. The bulk of the world, however, is being hammered into submission, and twisted into doing things they don’t rationally agree with. We believers are empowered disciples. We may only gnaw at the edges of evil, but we are capable of waging this war with the Holy Spirit coursing through our veins. We’re not undone, either, even as we end up on our own cross. 

Now, for a more tender identification of our battling garb, most of us may merely be confined to a bed, rather than left for dead in the woods. Regardless of any number of end-of-life scenarios, we’re not done in by ravages of any sort. Not even death. 

We know Mary is not physically wielding a sword in this fight, but she’s quite the cheerleader for our souls. But why not Jesus? Isn’t he part of the Church? No, not in the sense of what he has called us to in our roles. Jesus has already beaten Satan. (I refrain from saying “defeated,” because that final mopping up exercise happens later.) He supplies us with his presence in the Holy Spirit, with blessings that shower us with grace daily, and miracles way too numerous to count. That's supposed to be more than enough for us.

Jesus has ripped the sails of evil from ever winning again. We have four cosmic instances where Jesus has routed evil. There are many more, going back to the beginning of time. I’m choosing to concentrate on just these four for now, because they deal with the Church’s formation and it’s ultimate place in the world right now. 

The four cosmic battles won decisively by Jesus were at his birth, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. His death, most importantly, absorbed everything that evil could muster. Evil accomplished all that, and more, in as heinous a manner as was possible. Only, though, as allowed by God. Before more horrific bodily attacks could begin, Jesus died of his own volition. His body could not be further ruined.

Jesus incarnation radically returned our time and space, the creation’s most obvious features, back under the public control of God. The process went like this. God secured his place with us by joining us. His death connected each of our lives to him. Jesus’ resurrection, then, shattered death’s power over creation’s ultimate destination. Meaning, evil’s final influence has ended. To further eliminate evil’s role, Jesus’ resurrection dramatically opened our way to heaven. Believers are continually conscious of our access to God’s realm. We get mirrors of it now, as the Kingdom is within the reach of our hands.

Jesus’ defeat of Satan is further suppressed by his changing the temple proper from a building in Jerusalem to our bodies. We are now the location, if we allow it, for the physical residence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus made that possible. This is not a simple institutional shift of bureaucracy. Like some work from home office sort of thing. Our housing of the divine Spirit changes creation’s position from some wildly unclear cosmic creatures into the burgeoning kings and queens of a new heavenly associated earth with a new set of likely populated stars above. 

That last part is my own fixation. I think our ultimate travel into the stars will be a mind-blowing aspect of new digs when the Saints arrive with Jesus, and the angels get to show off what they’ve been checking out since their inception. Think waterfalls, canyons, fields of wheat kind of places. Not essential to the discussion. Just saying.

The devil and his minions are flailing, now, and have been since Jesus’ birth. The battle is not one just between the devil and us. It is between the Church and evil. The Church now takes up the mantle of battle with the devil. Fortunately, we’ve been told emphatically that the Gates of Hell will not overcome the Church. For the continuing days of this age — the time until Jesus comes back with the angels and the saints — the hellish gates are still open. The Dragon has remained here.

That’s what we’ve got to deal with. We’ve got lots of personal demons and failures too. That’s enough for most of us, filling up the larger parts of every day we have. I’m pretty sure, though, that the larger Church part of our role involves putting up our own bricks in the walls against amoral pressures from beyond our personal space. We're not just fixed cogs. We're essential building blocks.

Most importantly, though, our personal space defines our ability to extend into further spaces. We can’t really do much for others if we’re a hot mess of mounting demon possessed failures. In conjunction with others, we’re pretty darn powerful, though. Singular beings we feel alone sometimes. We're not. We're a global, spiritual force. We’re the layers pieces inside the tip of miraculous shifts realigning the cosmos under God's reign.

I’m not sure this takes place all that often as we personally experience it. I’m quite sure, though, that our shared prayers at Masses, at meals, and in small groups extend without our knowing it. These small efforts at humble devotion grow into massive things like Rosary devotions, and amazing silent repentance casting like sunrises to wash over the newly viewed sins shown to us in media. You can feel the bowed hearts of the earth at times. It’s these moments when the demons skitter away from us into dark holes, covering their ears and shivering from unabashed exercises of brotherly love, and sisterly nurturing. Our simple, mumbled prayers combine into a cacophony of heralds out to the listening, harkened God.

This is how we must view our Church roles, I believe. The Holy Spirit is the conduit of love and promptings. He does this in careful syncopation, don’t you think? Aren’t we all being drawn together by God at every moment? Then, like members of a mountainous orchestra we play our concert to the full Trinity. 

When we drop to our knees, a large portion, surely in the millions, is doing the same. Think of any kind of reverence, and imagine large segments of people, even huge remnant of believers, worldwide performing the same act. If you could see and hear and feel what the Holy Spirit does, wouldn’t you see similar tearful pleading, joined hands, raised arms, and voices calling out? Just like your own?

I know it must be so. 

This is our battle with evil. The war has already been won by our brother and King. The devil and his demons can only rush about under an impending doom. We are in the skirmish to know what it means to exhibit the power of prayer and resilience and honor. To experience the loving presence of God as his graces flow over us all in a tsunami we don't realize includes our prayers.