Today begins a triduum of days in which we are able to consider the Communion of Saints, and by the Communion of Saints I mean all three of its parts. Tomorrow we will celebrate the Church Triumphant in the Solemnity of All Saints. On Sunday we recall the Church Suffering within the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. Today, however, although the Liturgy doesn't call us to it, I feel we should consider the third part of the Communion of Saints, namely the Church Militant, i.e. us.
While it is true that the Liturgy does not expressly call for this celebration, it seems only appropriate to in a special way consider it, for we cannot conceive, in the present state of things, the Church without all three of Her parts. Nor should we, as we begin the month of November, in which the Liturgy will look towards the Last Things and the End of Time, neglect to consider that this is the goal to which the pilgrim Church on earth is moving towards, i.e. Her Last End. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:
"'When The Lord comes in glory, and all his angels with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating 'in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is (954).''"
There is a common misconception in some Christian sects to see the Church as only an earthly reality, but looking at it logically, this is nonsensical. Christ is the Head of the Church, which is His Body. Now, the Saints in Heaven are united with Christ, and the souls in purgatory are united with Him, albeit imperfectly, otherwise their definition would be the same as the souls in Hell, who are eternally separated from God. Therefore, we must hold that if they are united with the Head, they must remain part of the Body, which is the Church.
Throughout these three days, then, let us consider in a most profound and glorious way the three parts of the whole Church, and unite ourselves more perfectly to it.
We will today look at ourselves, the Church Militant. Another name, given to this part of the Church is the Pilgrim Church, which sounds much less provocative. Nevertheless both titles reflect beautifully the reality of the Church on earth, and we will thus consider both.
We will begin with the former title as it was the more traditionally used. We must not think of militant in the sense of earthly combat. While areas in which the Church existed through the ages, and various sects, have been overzealous towards the Faith and have taken up arms for Her "promotion," this is by no means part of the intrinsic essence of the Church. However, there is a great battle in which the members of the Church are engaged in. As St. Paul says:
"Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 12:11-12)."
This is the battle we are engaged in! The battle we fight is a spiritual one; the war for souls, both our own and all mankind.
Traditionally, there are recognized three sources of sin, although the sinner is always the one responsible for the sin through his free will, the source may incline him towards sin though. These three sources are the world, the flesh, and the devil or demons. If there are any enemies a Christian has, these are the three! When we say the world, we do not mean those people in the world, for that would include us, or even the children of the world, for they were created by God and He loves them and calls them to Himself. They remain our brothers and sisters by means of Adam. Instead, we mean the spirit of the world, which ignores God and seeks only the exaltation of self. The flesh is our enemy only insofar as it is no longer fully subject to reason due to the destruction of the original harmony brought about by Original Sin. And lastly, the demons are our enemies because they wish to bring about our eternal ruin, by tempting us to turn away from God through sin.
Temptations can come from any of these three sources, but the Church is infinitely stronger and offers us the means whereby we can overcome these things. As a loving mother, She watches over us and wishes only our eternal salvation, for as I said above, She has Christ as Her head. Therefore, what Christ wishes, She ultimately wishes.
And She wishes us to be equipped for the spiritual battle which we shall fight. The passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians continues:
"Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints (Ephesians 6:13-18)."
The images this battle speech inspires are, in my opinion, so wonderful. The key is not to go out and radically convert the world through the sword, as some religions and sects believe, but to convert the world by the spiritual battle. Once fully initiated into the Church, through the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist, this becomes a duty incumbent on all, as testified to in the Catechism:
"All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of their word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they have put on in Baptism and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at Confirmation (2472)."
To fulfill this, then, we must take to hear the words of St. Paul and take up, "the whole armor of God," meaning we must become holy. In ancient times, "to gird one's loins," meant to prepare for battle, for you couldn't fight with your tunic hampering your leg movement. But St. Paul adds, "with truth," to his instruction. He would seem to say here that we must be ready to give a defense of the Faith, and thus we must know the Faith. Adequate study and learning in the Faith is essential, for we cannot love a God we don't know, nor can we oppose the lies of the world if we don't know the difference between lies and truth.
The saints give us a wonderful example of learning the truth. So many of them have provided us with various writings, whether intellectual such as St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, or spiritual such as St. Francis de Sales Introduction to the Devout Life, or mystical like St. Teresa of Avila's The Interior Castle. Through these works we are able to maintain a communion with the saints through their teaching us the Faith even today.
The next instruction of St. Paul is to, "put on the breastplate of righteousness." What purpose does a breastplate serve? It serves to protect the chest, primarily the heart. Righteousness will serve the same purpose for us. By living according to the Commandments and Beatitudes, we will advance in all virtue, which is righteousness. By doing so, our flesh will be subdued, the world will lose its attraction for us, and the devil will be unable to gain access to our hearts, i.e. our wills. The will through all this is purified of evil inclinations, and will only desire those things that are good and pleasing to God.
The next part is the call to always go around with the Gospel of peace. Our lives must be a living witness of the Gospel. Wherever we are and in whatever we do or say, we should be recognized as Christians. The Catechism defines witness of the Gospel as, "a transmission of the faith in words and deeds (2472)." We will pass on the Faith by living the Gospel, for even if the people we encounter don't accept it and live it in their own lives, they will have seen it and know what it is. Through the lives of the saints, especially by the witness of the martyrs, the Faith spread and conquered the world, for, in the words of Tertullian, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church," and let us remember that all the saints were martyrs by the witness of their lives and sufferings, even if not unto bodily and bloody death.
The next reference is to, "the helmet of faith," which can prevent any, "flaming darts of the evil one," from reaching us. Besides providing a stunning image, the addition of "flaming" here seems significant to me. There was one reason to use a flaming arrow in olden times, and that was that it would cause more destruction upon the entire fortress, for if it hit straw or wood, it had the potential to set the entire structure aflame. Let us then remember that the Christian life is a fortress; the devil wishes to destroy the entire fortress, so his attacks will not be geared to only hurt us a little, but he has as his end goal our total fall from grace. However, if we keep faith in God, and have constant recourse to His Sacraments, the enemy will be completely unable to hurt us, for God's grace and love will protect us. "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to The Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." . . . You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day . . . . A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand fall at your right hand; but it will not come near you (Psalm 91:1-2, 5, 7)."
The final lines of the passage from Ephesians give us instruction for maintaining ourselves during the battle of this earthly life. It speaks of, "the helmet of salvation," and, "the sword of the Spirit," and names these as the word of God, which we know to ultimately be Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the eternal Word, God the Son, made visible to us. As the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation of the Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, states:
"Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind (6)."
We have been allowed to access God's most intimate nature, His understanding of Himself, and thus we are able to see that He is love, as St. John testifies, "God is love (1 John 4:8)." However, once we know God, we need to come to love Him further and to serve Him. This is what will require our perseverance and our unceasing prayers. This is what makes saints. They do not encounter Christ in a purely intellectual way, but in a profound and intimate way that engages their entire person and their very lives.
The spiritual battle which we are engaged in as part of the Church Militant is one in which we conquer through Love. This past Sunday, we heard in the Gospel Jesus give the two great Commandments, "You shall love The Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40)." Indeed, we may say that on these two commandments depend our salvation, for without following them, we cannot advance in supernatural virtue, nor can we oppose the spirit of this world, nor will be able to stand against the wiles of the demons.
I now wish to shift our attention to the other title of this state of the Church, which is the Pilgrim Church. This shift is really quite easy, for the two titles go together really. A war is not fought without a purpose, and the purpose of our war is to ultimately bring about the Kingdom of God, which is what we look towards. It is what we journey towards; it is what we are pilgrims going to. We are, therefore, the Pilgrim Church because we journey towards a spiritual goal!
During the pilgrimages to various shrines in the Middle Ages, they were a time of great penance and prayer. They were a means of subduing one's passions and separating from the world in order to draw closer to God. Sound familiar? It sounds like the spiritual warfare I just described, albeit in less warrior tones. Our pilgrimage to our heavenly homeland should always be accompanied by prayer and coming to know God closer.
Let us remember the old Baltimore Catechism answer for why God made us. "God made us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this life, so that we might be eternally happy with Him in the next." Let us fight the good fight in this life, let us keep our eyes fixed on the end goal, which is God. Let us live a life of prayer upon this earth, so that we may join our brothers and sisters in the Church Triumphant!
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