Thursday 2nd week of Advent
"Mt 11:11-15"
"Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force."
Our Lord warned us that Christian life is a 'struggle'. It is a struggle to do your prayer, to say the Rosary, to go to Mass, to make good use of your time, to work hard and with perfection, to offer up sacrifices... It is a struggle because we have to "take it by force." Our struggle for holiness is a real battle against the enemy; he never gives up, but nor do we.
To win this war we need to know the enemy well. In a war, if you know your opponent's strategy, their best soldiers, weapons and moves, their weak and strong points... you can plan your strategy better. And our enemy in this war for holiness has very predictable moves and obvious weak points. Think about the times he has beaten you: it has always happened in the same 'ways'. For example, you start wasting time and temptation comes; you stop doing what you should be doing or you start thinking about yourself or criticising someone else interiorly and you find yourself in temptation. When you allow these things to happen, you've already opened the door to the enemy; you are fighting now behind the enemy lines.
On the contrary, if you fight against those things, the enemy always finds the door well shut. You are fighting on your own ground and the enemy has to comply and fight where you want, not where he wants. If we struggle to make good use of our time, if we stop thoughts of vanity or criticism of others, if we are doing what we should be doing all the time, if we are looking for new sacrifices to offer, new people to help, new good things to do... the enemy has no chance. It is like playing a football match in the opponent's half - they will never score and will let in goals one after another. Whilst the enemy has to defend himself, he can't attack. And he has to defend when we spend the whole day struggling to do what we have to do, pray as we have to pray, help whoever we should help and try all the time to become a saint.
