Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praise be Jesus Christ.
Praise be Jesus Christ.
What we're really talking about is the battle for souls, of course.
The battle for the salvation of souls against our principal enemies, that is, the evil spirits.
Now, this all has to deal with evangelization.
And in fact, in a recent address, Cardinal Dias, the prefect of the congregation for the evangelization of the peoples,
spoke exactly about this, spiritual warfare,
and how we have to see the church's work of evangelization and the missions in this context of spiritual warfare.
And if we lose that context, then Christ's salvation becomes meaningless,
and everything is reduced to simple social work, and everything is put on a horizontal level, so to speak.
He also points out how this spiritual warfare has its origins in the fall of our first parents
and has continued throughout the centuries, even to our own day.
So Cardinal Dias says,
The theme of evangelization must be considered in the wider context of the spiritual combat
which began in the Garden of Eden with the fall of our first parents,
in the wake of fierce hostilities between God and the rebel angels.
If this context is ignored, Christ's salvation will be conveniently dismissed as irrelevant.
That is, what does Christ's salvation mean?
What did our Lord save us from?
Our Lord, of course, saves us from sin, Satan, and eternal death.
And so, if you remove spiritual combat from the work of evangelization,
then, obviously, Christ's salvation becomes meaningless and irrelevant.
And I think it has for many people today.
The spiritual combat described in the books of Genesis and Revelation
has continued unabated down the ages.
St. Paul described it in vivid terms.
We are not contending against flesh and blood,
but against principalities and powers,
against the world rulers of this present darkness,
against the spiritual hosts of wickedness.
That's from Ephesians 6.
This combat rages fiercely even today,
aided and abetted by well-known secret sects.
You see here, Cardinal Dias pointed out, using St. Paul,
that,
our fight is principally against evil spirits.
But, then he goes to point out,
the evil spirits are aided and abetted
by well-known secret sects.
I believe here he's referring to the Masons,
first and foremost.
Satanic groups and New Age movements,
to mention but a few,
and reveals many ugly heads of the hideous anti-God monster.
Among them,
are notoriously secularism,
which seeks to build a godless society,
spiritual indifference,
that is, that forgetfulness of God
and life after death,
and relativism,
which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the gospel.
All of these seek to efface any reference to God
or to things supernatural,
and to supplant it with mundane values,
and behavior patterns.
And this, especially we see in practical atheism,
that is all of those people who claim to believe in God,
who claim to be Christians or Catholics,
and yet, practically speaking, from day to day,
they live as if God does not exist,
they never pray, they never go to Mass,
and they don't obey the commandments.
They live as if God does not exist,
doesn't exist, and as if there is no judgment or life after death. That is practical atheism.
Far from satisfying the deep yearnings of the human heart, which is what sin often promises,
instead they foster a culture of death, be it physical or moral, spiritual or psychological.
You see all of the connections here between sin, Satan, death, sadness, strife, confusion, division?
Examples of this culture are abortions on demand, or the slaughter of innocent unborn children,
divorces, which kill sacred marriage bonds blessed by God,
materialism and moral aberrations,
which suffocate the soul,
and the suffering of the soul.
Which suffocate the joy of living, and lead to profound, and often lead to profound psychic depression.
Economic, social, and political injustices, which crush human rights,
violence, suicides, murders, and the like,
all of which abound today, and militate against the mind of Christ,
who came that all may have life, and have it in abundance.
So we see that we have our work cut out for us in our present society.
So let us answer the call of Cardinal Diaz and resolve no longer to be the church passive,
or the church indifferent and asleep, or the church intimidated.
But we need to be the church militant and seek after the salvation of souls.
Seek them and find them.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.