Thrilla in Manila

Seeing the sacred and sinister sides in the spiritual struggle  

Revelation 1:1-4; 2:1-5  

          I heard the Lord saying to me: “To the angel of the Church in Ephesus, write this: “‘The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands says this: “I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves Apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors. Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

  

          I’m not a fan of Dan Brown novels. But last spring I drove to Seattle to give a retreat and listened to his audiobook called, Angels and Demons. Talk about a “thrilla in Manila” (what Ali called his fight with Frazier) – it will keep you on the edge of your seat because it is fast-paced and far-fetched. The motif of the book is an “ambigram.” Do you know what that is? It’s an artistic rendering of a word that’s written in such a way that it looks the same from different angles. For example, the words, “angels and demons” can be written so it reads the same right-side up and up-side down. It’s a fascinating form of art.   

          But I believe it also contains a spiritual lesson. We know that each of us has been assigned a guardian angel. Now, do you ever wonder what or whom that guardian angel is supposed to guard us from? After all, what good is a guardian angel if he’s not guarding?  It believe there is also an evil spirit, a demon, assigned to each of us, to exploit our weaknesses and make us turn away from God. That is the real “thrilla in Manila,” where our angel does battle with our demon in our hearts. You know, that spiritual fight makes the famous Ali-Frazier fight look like two toddlers playing patty-cake in a kiddie pool. Every guardian angel has his counter-part demon: the angel guards us, the demon torments us.

          In the first reading from Revelation John also draws our attention to this war between angels and demons. Now, John only explicitly mentions the angel of the church of Ephesus, and he does not directly name the demon. Nevertheless, he does indirectly mention the demon. He says: “Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen.” In other words, the evil spirit (demon) assigned to Ephesus had tempted the people to grow complacent, lazy and indifferent to their faith. By the way, do you know any young adult Catholics today who have grown complacent, lazy and indifferent to practicing their faith? Yeah, that demon is alive and well today. But John’s point is that this is not by accident. A spiritual force lurks behind their laziness, and in this round of the “thrilla in Manila,” Frazier has landed the decisive blow.   

          My friends, we thank God that he has assigned to each of us a guardian angel. But we should not forget that Satan has also assigned to us a tormenting demon. One is the counter-part of the other. And we should take a moment to learn how to cooperate with the angel and how to resist the demon. A great book in this regard is C. S. Lewis’ classic The Screwtape Letters, where he helps us get inside the devil’s head and see his sinister strategies. Another way to fight the demon is to figure out our own predominant fault. Each of us has a particular sin or vice that we are especially prone to: one of the capital sins, either envy, or greed, or gluttony, or sloth, or lust, or anger, or pride. Our demon knows what that weakness is and that’s exactly where he jabs at us. Do you know your own spiritual weaknesses and soft spots?

          You know, I don’t think I’ll read any more Dan Brown novels. Why? It’s not because I care what he says about the Catholic Church.  Rather, it’s because when I need something fast-paced and far-fetched, I can just look into my own heart, and see angels and demons fighting there.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!