The Struggle

Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Dn 3: 31, 29, 30, 43, 42 All that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done with true judgment, for we have sinned against you and not obeyed your commandments. But give glory to your name and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy.

Collect O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Job 42:1-3.5-6.12-16; Psalm 118; Luke 10:17-24

The seventy‑two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. He replied, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no-one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Luke 10:17-24)

The Struggle Let us notice how our Lord describes the arena of his disciples’ mission. He has sent out seventy-two of his disciples – we are not here referring to that altogether special band, the Twelve. They were to be the foundation stones of his Church. Their head, Simon, was in a special sense the rock on which it would be built. Perhaps we could regard the seventy-two as broadly representing the rest of Christ’s Church and sharing in his mission according to their calling. Be all that as it may, off they had gone and now they return telling the Lord of their experience. When united with Jesus by acting in his name, they were victorious over the demons. That is the experience which Christ deigned to give them. But the interest here is the terms in which our Lord goes on to describe the arena in which his mission is to be prosecuted. The arena is one of a battlefield, in which there is a powerful enemy to be faced. The disciples discovered with joy on this excursion that they easily overcame the demons. The seventy two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. That would not guarantee that the fight would be so easy in every instance and circumstance in the future. Their experience of success over the demons in this initial flush was surely, in part, an educational exercise. It encouraged them on and told them first-hand of the power of Jesus Christ and the result of operating in his name. The mission involved a fight, a battle, a locking of horns against a considerable opponent wholly bent on evil. This daunting fact is normally out of sight and can, in our secular age, be thought to be a phantom. I very clearly remember how, over forty years ago, the declaration of (Blessed) Paul VI that the “smoke of Satan” had appeared in the life of the Church was reported. The Pope was referring to the dissent that was becoming rampant. I vividly recall the newsreader on ABC TV news – he read his news text with a suppressed grin, as if the papal mention of the devil was a bit of a joke. The newsreader was, of course, reflecting the spiritual blindness of a secular society. But Jesus Christ makes it clear in our passage what are the issues. The issue is the confrontation between God and Satan. The Good News is that God (in the person of Christ) reveals that victory is a foregone conclusion. So we must join with him.

One of the great spiritual manuals of the Church’s history is the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. There is a very important Meditation in that manual called “The Two Standards”. The whole arena is dominated by two forces facing one another in battle array – each with its Standard. There is the Standard of Christ and there is the Standard of Satan. The one making the retreat is asked to contemplate this scene and to make a definitive decision to join Jesus Christ and to adopt his weapons. Victory will follow, and it is those – the little ones – who are docile to Jesus Christ who will win the field. The point is that we must be clear as to what is really going on. The Book of Revelation describes the situation in no uncertain terms. The first figure on the scene is that of the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child” (12:1-2). And what is the second figure? It is that of the Dragon – “a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman … that he might devour her child” (12:3-4). So we have one the one hand the Incarnate Son of God and the Woman (his mother and the Church), and on the other Satan and all the “stars” (the demons) he brought down with him. There is a titanic battle going on, and it is no pushover. We just have to think of God the Son made man dead on the cross to see what the struggle to atone for the sin of the world cost. But this was precisely the weapon God took up to defeat the Dragon. It is the weapon of the Cross, of obedient suffering, of humility and meekness, of witnessing to the truth. With this, the days of the Dragon are numbered. And so we read in the same chapter of Revelation that “war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (12: 7-9). Victory is assured for those who are with the Child and the Woman (Mary and the Church).

All this brings us to our Gospel today (Luke 10:17-24) and the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus replied, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. It is a victory open to the little ones. At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. Let us understand very clearly what life is all about. It is about the struggle between good and evil, holiness and sin, led by Christ our Lord and opposed by the Serpent. We can be assured of victory, victory forever, if we take our stand with Jesus and fight with him.

(E. J. Tyler)

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