The fight for our souls

All through our life there is a fight for our souls going on between God and the Devil. It started as soon as we were born, and it will end in victory for one side or the other when we die.  On the one hand is the all-good and all-holy God who made us and who loves us; and on the other is the Devil, the Spirit and Lord of Evil, who hates us.

In order to win, the Devil must get us to obey him.  By getting us to commit sin, that is, to do wrong in thought, word or act, he draws us away from God.  And every time we sin, we are taken farther away from God’s keeping.  People who die in God’s keeping belong to God for always.  People who die separated from God, who do not love him or want him and who are not sorry for their sins – these people go to Hell, that place of endless separation from God where God is unseen and unknown.

So the Devil tries to get the better of us by doing his utmost to make us turn against God or to ignore him.  He puts ideas into our heads to do wrong or to want to do wrong.  He gets others to tempt us.  He uses bad companions to do his work for him.  From one point of view it is quite easy for the Devil to draw us away from God because human beings are born with a bias towards doing wrong.  But, though the Devil is strong he is nothing like as strong as God, and he knows that.  The Devil matched his strength with the strength of God on Good Friday when, by means of the Crucifixion, he tried his hardest to get Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, to turn against his Father.  The Devil failed miserably.  And since only God is stronger than the Devil, only God can rescue us from the Devil.

So in the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to “deliver (rescue) us from evil”.  The Catechism explains this by saying “I pray unto God…that he will keep us from all sin and wickedness and from our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death”.  Our “ghostly enemy” is our spiritual enemy, the Devil.  “Everlasting death” is Hell, the opposite of eternal life which is life with God.

The way, therefore, by which we can be saved from the Devil is by being saved from the things the Devil wants us to do – “from all sin and wickedness”, as the Catechism puts it – and if we are saved from that here, we shall be saved from Hell hereafter.

Our weapons

God has given us four powerful weapons and by using them we can all be rescued from sin. 

Prayer

The first weapon is prayer.  When we pray we call on God’s grace and power to help us.  So we should be faithful in saying our morning and evening prayers.  And immediately a bad thought comes into our minds or we find ourselves tempted to do wrong, we should without a moment’s delay turn to God and send a prayer for him to help.  “Jesus, help me” is a good prayer to use, but remember that we should say it at once before the temptation gets too strong for us.

Confirmation

The second powerful weapon is the Sacrament of Confirmation in which we are given the full gift of God the Holy Spirit himself, and so we are fully armed as soldiers of Christ.

Confession and forgiveness of our sins

When we sin we should tell God we are sorry and make up our minds not to sin again.  So we turn away from sin and back to God and ask his forgiveness.  We do this in our private prayers and in church services. 

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance) we confess our particular sins privately in the presence of a priest and receive forgiveness of our sins, grace to resist temptation and individual advice and encouragement to help us keep on trying to be God’s faithful soldiers and servants.

Holy Communion

The fourth powerful weapon which God has given us is Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament of Our Lord’s glorified Body.  For when we make our Communion and receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, then we are united closely to him, so that he dwells in us and we in him.  Then we have, within our very souls, the same Jesus who on the Cross defeated the Devil and who can still defeat him today in us.

So if, throughout our life, we persevere in prayer, always turn firmly back to God when we have sinned, are faithful and regular in making our Communion, and never give up trying to love God and do good, then we shall be saved from all evil here and from all evil hereafter and we have nothing at all to fear.

The doxology

Deliver us from evil” is the last clause in the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus taught it to his disciples.  But by the time St Matthew’s Gospel was written Christians were used to adding to the Lord’s Prayer what is called the Doxology or the Giving of Praise – the words that are so familiar to us, “For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.  Amen”.

“Thine is the Kingdom” tells how God is King of Heaven and earth.  “Thine is the power” is a reminder that he is all powerful and can save us.  “Thine is the glory” ends the prayer by giving God praise, just as the words “Hallowed be thy Name” began the prayer by giving God adoration.  So the prayer begins and ends with the honour of God.  Amen, which at the end of the Creed meant “It is so”, here means “May it be so”.

SUMMARY

1. When we sin and obey the Devil, we are drawn away from God.  People who die separated from God, who do not love him or want him and who are not sorry for their sins – these people go to Hell.  People who die in God’s keeping go first to Purgatory and then to Heaven.

2. God is infinitely stronger than the Devil.  If we truly love God, persevere with our prayers, always turn straight back to God when we have sinned, and are faithful and regular in making our Communion, we have nothing to fear.