Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
(Ephesians 6:10-20; Luke 13:31-35)
Quite a number of years ago, a documentary movie featured a French
Protestant community during World War II.
The community conspired against Nazi occupants to save the lives of
thousands of Jews fleeing persecution.
The film’s title, “Weapons of the Spirit,” was taken from today’s reading
from the Letter to the Ephesians.
The letter speaks of a struggle “not with flesh and blood but with the principalities,
with the powers,
with the world rulers of this present darkness,
with the evil spirits in the heavens.” Modern people generally eschew
this type of language as being otherworld fantasy. Nevertheless there is a wide consensus that
the Nazi regime was indeed diabolical.
We should not fool ourselves.
The spiritual life is a struggle against inhuman forces. The human person is naturally inclined to
self-gratification. Using market advertising,
evil spirits turn preoccupation with self into a fulsome vice. More than a hearty education is needed to overcome
its threat. As Ephesians counsels, we
need to hold faith as a shield and Scripture as a sword to do what is right.
