Choosing sides in the spiritual battle
On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the
tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed
from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple
whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and
we don’t know where they put him.” Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she
bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the
head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to
her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
Behind
every physical battle there always rages a spiritual one; wars are fought not
only with clubs and canons but also with prayer and penance. Wise people always see this and point it
out. Do you remember how Abraham Lincoln
concluded his first Inaugural Address?
The country teetered on the verge of civil war, and he said: “We are not
enemies but friends. Though passion may
have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.” Then Lincoln waxes poetically: “The mystic
chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every
living heart and heartstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus
of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels
of our nature.” Did you catch that? This civil war is not only about North versus
South, or blue versus gray, but also about those evil angels versus our better
angels. Lincoln asked all Americans to
be aware of that bigger battle and chose the side of our better angels. Sometimes, people jokingly say, “The devil
made me do it!” in order to exonerate themselves of guilt. But they unknowingly stumble upon a sacred
truth: the spiritual battle always afoot.
Today is
the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, who was aware of this spiritual battle better
than most. Jesus had cast 7 demons out
of her and she had become a faithful disciple.
In the gospel she sees two angels, and they tell her about Jesus’
resurrection. You see, she had learned
to listen to better angels, instead of listening to demons. In other words, Mary realized that Jesus’
mission was about more than overthrowing the Roman Empire, and about more than
arguing with the scribes and Pharisees, and even about more than feeding the
poor and healing the sick. Jesus had
come to give us true freedom, freedom from spiritual slavery, to teach us how
to listen to our better angels. There is
always a spiritual battle behind every physical one.
Try to be
more attentive to this spiritual warfare inside you and in everyone else. When you face some temptation, can’t you
almost hear voices telling you to do one thing or the other? Should I eat one donut or 5 donuts!? Should I go to morning Mass or sleep in!?
Should I exercise or watch another episode of The Simpsons?! Listen to your better angels. The war that’s blazing in the Gaza Strip
involves more than political and even ethnic elements, but also a spiritual
one. That’s why Pope Francis is telling
us to pray, so that everyone might listen to their better angels. I read a great book by Dr. Gerald May called
“Addiction and Grace.” He argues that
all addiction – whether to coffee or alcohol, to gambling or video games, to
pornography or pot – is also a spiritual reality. He urged us to listen to our better angels.
Mary
Madgalene is not the only one who needs to have 7 demons expelled out of
her. We all have demons who torment and
tempt us. Sometimes, the devil does make
us do it. Or, we can listen to “the
mystic chords that are touched by the better angels of our nature.”
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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